Into the Lion's Den

When the history of MMA is written, the Lion’s Den will feature as an early instalment of dominant fight camps. Nowadays, we think of fight gyms like AKA (American kickboxing academy), Tristar Gym and Jackson/Wink MMA academy. But before these fight gyms captured the imagination of MMA fans and fighters alike, the Lion’ Den was the big kid on the block. How did they become so dominant?

The Lion’s Den was started out of necessity in the early 90’s. Ken Shamrock was a pro wrestler that wanted to have some real fights. Ken was fighting in Pancrase, which broadly falls into the category of MMA. The major difference being that you can’t punch to the head with a closed fist, so, alternatively, you have to strike with your palm. To train, Ken would go into kickboxing clubs and tell them to strike as normal and he would try to take them down. The usual reply he got was a resounding “hell no”. This forced Ken to try and find some like-minded individuals to train with. Since MMA could barely be considered a sport at that time, one can only imagine how hard it would’ve been to find willing training partners. The grapplers didn’t want to get punched (if you could even find any at that time) and the strikers did not want to get taken down and wrestle (not sure that has changed much now). Even with these obstacles, Ken managed to find dedicated training partners, and some even became big names in MMA/UFC. Now they just needed a name for their team. Watching TV, Ken saw and heard that lions hunted prey together, in a coordinated strike to achieve maximum results. And thus, the name was born. The comradery and fierceness represented by a pride of lions inspired the name the Lion’s Den. The team comradery often included matching tracksuits (and to be fair to them, this was acceptable in the 90’s).

The try outs to get into the Lion’s Den was a thing of legend. It included 500 squats, 200 push-ups, 200 sit ups, a 2.4km run, bear crawls and carrying barrels up a steep incline. Once that was completed, it was time for hard sparring over 40 minutes. There have been some questions regarding the truthfulness of the tests, but regardless, what is fact is that once you were in the team, Ken would cover all your training costs. The sparring sessions were typical of the era – just like the Chute Boxe gym in Brazil, they were full-on fights which saw a lot of blood and knockdowns. Their sparring was guided by the theory, “I am preparing my fighters for war”. Ken heard about a new competition with no rules, and despite thinking “this will never be allowed”, he put his name in for the competition. The event was UFC 1. Ken won his first match but was then beaten by the eventual winner, Royce Gracie, in his second fight. From there the Lion’s Den grew and became a real force boasting fighters like Frank Shamrock, Guy Mezger, Vernon ‘Tiger’ White, Jerry Bohlander, Tra Tellingham, Pete Williams and Mikey Burnett. At one point, fighters that had roots in the Lion’s Den had three of the four weight division titles in the UFC. It is safe to say they were a force to be reckoned with.

From my perspective, the Lion’s Den were ahead of their time in terms of their mentality and combining various styles. They were doing so well that many top fighters would attend their training sessions to see what their x factor was. Training as a pro MMA fighter was unheard of at the time and since it was not a recognised sport, there wasn’t much money. People were still learning how it all worked. Even though they were ahead of their time, they still had the mindset of killing each other in training. This mentality has changed over the years. A lot of top fighters go easier in sparring to prolong their career and, more importantly, their brains.

That being said, at the time, Ken was at the top of the food chain and even though he was submitted by Royce Gracie in UFC 1, he was the most well-rounded fighter in that tournament. Ken did state however, that his submission to Gracie “shows the power of BJJ”. Ken went on to win super fights/titles in the UFC and at one stage was a massive name in the sport. Ken had a big feud with Tito Ortiz which provided the UFC with its biggest PPV event at that time. One of the legendary moments in Lion’s Den History was when Guy Mezger won the lightweight tournament at UFC 13. In his first fight he broke his hand, and everyone thought he was going to pull out of the tournament. To everyone’s surprise (but not members of the Lion’s Den) he didn’t, and it was Guy Mezger v Tito Ortiz for the tournament decider. With his broken hand, Guy kept his distance and did what he could, then Tito went for a takedown and Guy locked up a guillotine choke and submitted him (this is what started the feud between Shamrock and Ortiz). This is the toughness that Lion’s Den was known for – the ability to win a fight with a broken hand.

The Lion’s Den was arguably the strongest club in MMA in the 90’s and by the early 2000’s they had people winning in the UFC, Pancrase, Pride and King of the Cage. They had a fearsome reputation and backed it up by winning titles and fights all over the world. They set the platform on how to train for MMA. Not bad considering it was all started by a guy doing pro wrestling. The sport eventually caught up with them and evolved, but in the early days the Lion’s Den set the bar and became legends of the sport on the way to making MMA what it is today.            

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor