Trevor Wittman is the man who led Kamaru Usman and Rose Namajunas to world title glory and aims to d

Trevor Wittman might be the outright best coach in the UFC today.

The Colorado-based trainer is certainly one of the most successful with, among others, current reigning champions Kamaru Usman and Rose Namajunas in his stable of fighters. He also has Justin Gaethje vying for lightweight gold at UFC 274 this Saturday.

At UFC 268 last November, all three of Wittman’s fighters were on the card and they all came away with important victories. Gaethje defeated Michael Chandler in the Fight of the Year to secure his upcoming title shot while Namajunas and Usman both successfully defended their respective titles.

Wittman, 48, was training to become a professional boxer until he had to retire due to injuries that included three broken hands and a hyper-inflated lung. 

He then moved into coaching where he founded T’s K.O. Fight Club. That training centre was primarily for boxing, but once he expanded into MMA training, Wittman closes T’s K.O. Fight Club and opened the Grudge Training Center in 2009.

Names like Georges St-Pierre, Stipe Miocic, TJ Dillashaw, Donald Cerrone, Rashad Evans and even former WWE champion and Bellator fighter Bobby Lashley trained at that gym.

Formed in Wheat Ridge, the gym moved to Arvada in 2013 and in 2015 Wittman started developing his own MMA training gear after founding ONX Sports. The UFC are currently considering utilising his gloves.

Grudge officially closed in 2016 with Wittman wanting to spend more time with his family, but he decided he would keep training a select few, special athletes.

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Wittman was already training Gaethje and Namajunas, but his training was so select that he originally turned down the chance to coach Usman.

The now number one pound-for-pound star had to talk Wittman into coaching him and refused to take no for an answer.

"The way he asked me, it was hard for me to say no - he forced me into the relationship in a great way.

"He's a true leader," Wittman said. "He would be a champion without any coaches - I believe it."

Even with the reduced schedule, it hasn’t been easy for Wittman. 

Ahead of UFC 268 he was diagnosed Dupuytren's contracture, a condition that creates a thickening and tightening of tissue under the skin of the hand. 

It has progressed over the past few months, limiting mobility in his arms to the point you will normally see him with his arms folded because if they are left by his side, they will lock. 

He's also dealt with a case of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, which creates episodes of dizziness with certain head movements, which will naturally impact Wittman's work in the gym.

Some of those injuries are rooted back to when Wittman was fighting himself and that motivated Wittman to create ONX Sports, an equipment company known for its high-level MMA gear. 

"The biggest issue is people not wearing the correct gear and our goal is to create MMA gear that is functional for training," Wittman said.

Wittman’s process for training his fighters isn’t a set method, it’s very fluid. For instance, Gaethje and Usman are very different propositions and Namajunas is somewhere in between.

Coaches normally formulate game plans on how to beat their opponents, but Wittman wants to take away how others will try to beat his fighters.

"I'm not a big fan of trying to put the visual of the opponent in their head," he said. "Then they end up sleeping with their opponent, meaning their opponent is always in their vision. [I asked them] how would you beat yourself? I look at them and say, if I were to coach against my athlete this is how I would beat them.

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"Expecting a war and facing the best opponents that we can all face in that division - to me, that is the coolest part," Wittman says. 

"You get to go out there and we get to do it together as a family and support each other. Win, lose or draw, it's a good time to be present. And it's something that we'll all remember for the rest of our lives."

When Gaethje first arrived to work with Wittman, he simply wanted to have great fights. The lightweight has become known as ‘The Highlight’ because his fights are always so explosive. However, that’s not always conducive to success.

Gaethje told Wittman: "I want to be the most entertaining fighter. The blue-collar people who are paying for these tickets, there's not going to be one person that's ever going to leave my fight and say that wasn't the best fight of their life."

And Wittman recalls a man whose game plan was to cause chaos for his opponent.

But then, in a small camp where the other two are champions, Gaethje decided he too wanted to wear gold.

"When he said that, I told him we're switching a lot of things up," Wittman said. "We're going to be super fundamental, very dialled in and logical when it comes to striking."

When ESPN followed Wittman’s camp ahead of UFC 268, it was clear how important the bond is between coach and fighter. Wittman is especially close with Namajunas, Gaethje and Usman and as a result, all three of those fighters have become incredibly close, too.

In fact, they often ask to be on the same cards as each other and its mandatory during negotiations. The only reason Usman isn’t on UFC 274 is because he had hand surgery after his last fight.

But Wittman excels at becoming a part of his fighter. He helps them realise their confidence and they push to their limits for themselves and their trainer.

"This is all about the fighter, it's not about me," Wittman says. "You get so much out of life when you give to life, when you give to people and your environment.

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"To me winning is a part of life, it is not life. If we focus just on winning, we're missing the whole picture. Some of our losses have set us up for our greatest accomplishments, and this Saturday we're facing the best in the world."

Names like Mike Brown, John Kavanagh, Greg Jackson and Javier Mendez have all got special CVs, but Wittman may have three active champions in the UFC by the end of play this weekend, including the pound-for-pound best.

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