|
By Jim Genia Back when MMA was new, and the UFC was owned by Bob Meyrowitz and struggling to survive, the system was a called Tiger Schulmann’s Karate -- an offshoot of Kyokushin Karate meant for the realities of boxing and kickboxing matches. But TSK grappled, too, evolving as combat sports evolved, and while many bemoaned the organization’s commercialized nature and labeled their expanding legion of academies as "McDojos", TSK’s students were preparing. It’s called Tiger Schulmann’s MMA now, the result of years of hard training and even harder competition, and in promotions such as Asylum Fight League, Ring of Combat and Bellator Fighting Championships, their fighters are putting their stamp on opponents left and right. Blame Dave Tirelli for that.
A scrappy hard-charger who favored going toe-to-toe over anything else, Tirelli was the first Team Tiger Schulmann representative to test the waters of mixed martial arts competition. The year was 1999 and the event was Xtreme Combat Championships in Clearwater, Florida; the 35-year-old 175-pounder won via armbar. "I’ve always loved fighting," says Tirelli, who’s almost 46 years old now and a fifth-degree black belt in the TSMMA system. "It’s just my thing." Since that bout Tirelli fought once in West Virginia, and then stayed local for the duration of his career, capping his fight record off with a unanimous decision victory over Luke Cummo at a 2003 Ring of Combat. What prompted him to step into the ring? "Way back then, people used to say things about Tiger Schulmann’s," says Tirelli. "So I said, ‘Shihan, I’m just not too crazy about what people are saying about this style. I think this is the greatest style. I love it, and I think I want to go out there and compete. I want to prove them wrong. I want to start something here. I think we have something unique. I think we can compete with anyone.’ It kind of pissed me off that people would say things about us. People would make fun of us, and I think because of that, and what we did and what I did, we’ve moved to an unbelievable level. It’s one thing that I’m really proud of myself for. I knew what we had was really special and I wanted to step up to the plate. And I really enjoyed it anyway. I was just dying to fight. I started a little too late -- I wish [MMA] had been around when I was younger, because it would’ve been fantastic doing it now."
The Cummo fight marked the end of Tirelli’s days of standing and trading strikes in front of a large audience, and after the judges’ scorecards were read and his arm was raised, the ring announcer declared that the bout that had just transpired was the Tiger Schulmann fighter’s last. No one looked more surprised than Tirelli himself. "They pulled a fast one on me and said I wanted to retire, which was the last thing on my mind," he says. "I wanted to continue fighting. But everyone kept on saying I should do it, and I guess sometimes you have to listen to people. When I fight I like to really fight and bang, and I guess at my age fighting like that wasn’t going to be too good on my brain. And I think I’m a much better fighter than I ever was now. I really wish I could go back into the cage. But I guess there’s a time when you have to move on to the next thing in life -- and that’s coaching. That’s basically what I do. I work out at our headquarters." The TSMMA headquarters in New Jersey is where the organization’s 48 schools funnel their best. It’s where the vast majority of the fight team’s blood is spilled, and it’s produced the likes of Bellator champ Lyman Good and rising stars Nick Pace, Jimmie Rivera, Uriah Hall, Nissim Levy, Shennen Maceo -- the list goes on. "People from all our facilities come train with us [at the headquarters] and I oversee that," says Tirelli. "We have classes every single day, in the morning and in the evening. We have adults as well as kids. It’s a lot of fun, and I also do private classes. It’s a lot of work, but I have a lot of guys my age or younger who come to learn with me, and they end up rolling with me or I end up sparring with them, work on their kickboxing -- whatever it is."
"For me to find a fight, I had to go on the computer, I had to call all these people, and we used to call all around the country to find someone who would give me a fight. And when you get a fight, then it would be cancelled. It was really difficult to get a fight. These guys can get a fight every couple of months, which is unbelievable, and they’re so much more well-prepared. They’re training with other people who are fighting professional and amateur. I didn’t have so many great people to train with." He adds: "Our fighters are well-rounded and educated. They sitting there talking about all the books about MMA. ‘Have you watched this fight?’ That’s all they discuss. It’s their major passion. Meanwhile, back then I was the one who wanted to do this, I was basically by myself for a while. Now you’ve got a room packed with amazing fighters." How does a Tiger Schulmann student end up in the cage? "First of all, everyone wants to fight. Especially when you go to the fights, everyone comes up to you and they say they want to fight right away. So first we have them come down and we have them try out for a class. If they’re good, then we put them in a class and see how they hold out. I mean, everyone can talk, but you get hit by a Uriah Hall or by a Lyman Good... Nick Pace, Jimmie Rivera... if they can hold up, if they can hang in there, then we start to get them into grappling tournaments, boxing tournaments, smokers, kickboxing, Muay Thai kickboxing. And if they do well there, amateur MMA. And when they do well there and we think they’re ready to go, we put them into pro." Tirelli isn’t shy about extolling the virtues of his team. ("Lyman Good is the complete package." "Uriah Hall is one of the fastest human beings I’ve seen in my entire life." "Nick Pace, I think, pound-for-pound, is our best fighter." "Jimmie Rivera, that kid has unbelievable dedication.") He even lists up-and-comers to watch out for, like Adam Rosello and Craig Alexander, and tells a story of a teenage Louis Gaudinot displaying a willingness to do an eleventh-hour kickboxing match, a match which required Gaudinot to borrow someone’s used groin cup and sweaty gear. When it comes to his teenage son DJ, an MMA fighter in the making, Tirelli’s pride is evident -- "I sparred with him the other day and he almost broke my nose!" But to hear him tell it, it’s clear Tirelli feels his work is far from done. "I want to be so needed at Tiger Schulmann’s," he says. "That’s really my goal -- being someone who gets our fighters to another level. I really want to be so involved with our fighters and teach them things, and see them win with something I taught them. That’s really something, because I can’t be in that cage anymore." He adds: "I want to build up the headquarters teaching there, and I want to bring a lot more fighters in there. I want to really get a ton more fighters out there." The MMA veteran, whose 1999 debut forever entrenches his status as an "old schooler", goes on to sum up his goals in one sentence. "I want to be an essential and important part of Tiger Schulmann’s fight team," he says. But as the fighter who started them on their journey down the MMA path, Tirelli already is. |
| © All materials contained in the Full Contact Fighter web site are protected by copyright and to be used only for personal and noncommercial uses. Public display or copying for sale or public distribution of any of these materials is strictly prohibited. |