Brad Daddis Practices What He Preaches. Photo by: Paul Miles.

Brad Daddis is the owner & head trainer at Daddis Fight Camps (Philadelphia & Cherry Hill gyms), and is also a previous interviewee. He and I got together this week via Facebook to catch up and talk about some of the guys on his fight team. In the course of our chat, Brad reveals who Wilson Reis and Matt Makowski’s first round opponents will be in the Bellator season 2 tournament.

Q: The last time we talked was just prior to Jeff Cressman’s Locked in the Cage 2 fight. Let’s catch up with him. I was really impressed with his fight, he looked relaxed on his back and threw some awesome up kicks, a move I think some inexperienced fighters can be trigger shy with. How did he look to you?

BD: Jeff looked good, but he is still a better fighter than what was displayed. He’s got some tricks up his sleeve that he’s yet to show in the cage. I’m sure he will in his next fight on April 10th’s Locked in the Cage. Regarding up kicks… they are legit! I’ve never understood why more fighters don’t train them. They seem simple and they are, but if you don’t drill them in training, the muscle memory isn’t there and you won’t do it in the fight.

Q: I don’t think I was the only guy Jeff impressed, his was the first name I heard attached to the next Locked in the Cage. Does he have an opponent yet?

BD: That’s great to hear. He continues to get better and better and I think he will continue to put on entertaining fights. He is dynamic on the ground and on the feet which is why I think promoters will enjoy having him on their cards. His opponent on April 10th is a tough kid from Tennessee. An explosive fighter….but Jeff’s technique is on another level. I don’t see Jeff having too hard a time. Of course, we never underestimate anyone so he is training just as hard as ever. The fact that Jeff is well rounded makes it easy for us to come up with a game plan which is simply this….take the fight where his opponent is least comfortable. Simple as that. [this is the first time I've managed to get a gameplan out of Brad before a fight. -ed]

Q: At that last interview we also confirmed that Wilson Reis will join Matt Makowski representing Daddis in Bellator season 2. Have they given you Wilson or Matt’s first round opponents yet?
BD: Yes sir. Wilson is fighting Shad Lierley. He’s a tough opponent. This season’s featherweight tourney has some guys that some may have not heard of yet, but trust me…they are all beasts! A much higher level of competition than last season. So, Wilson is training harder than ever and was actually just out in San Diego as a sparring partner for Dominic Cruz. Wilson is never not training hard and should do very well. Matt just won a tough fight vs. LeVon Maynard at the Matrix Fights in Philadelphia. He managed to tweak his knee pretty bad so we won’t know until Thursday (when he sees the doc) whether or not he will be able to keep his fight against Matt Lee for Bellator. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping the injury isn’t too bad.

Q: We’ve talked briefly about Wilson, and you’ve told me he’s been training 100% for the most part since I guess December when he started working with Jeff for his last fight. How does he balance training against working on his own skills? And with him being training that hard for that long, is there any concern with him burning out his motor before this first fight?

BD: Funny you should mention that… any other fighter I’ve met would burn out if they did half of what Wilson does. But, the kid has endless energy! He’ll train 3 times a day and could do more if it were possible. He simply doesn’t get burnt out. It was a concern for me in the beginning, but it’s never effected him so he is fine with going all out all of the time. Fighters are not all created equal and some just don’t need the down time.

Q: With two guys in Bellator which is a season long tournament, how closely are Matt and Wilson working together, and how is training for that sort of schedule different than training for two fights in a two or three month stretch?

BD: Matt and Wilson work together all of the time, except for this period while Wilson’s been in San Diego. Regarding their fight schedules. Each fighter has their own training schedule with periodization involved, so one fighters training may be ramped up more than another’s at times, but we work it out so that it works seamlessly.

Q: Matt’s last fight main eventing Matrix 1 almost gave me a heart attack. There were a few points where I thought he was in trouble. A lot of fighters – and managers – would protect their win streak going into Bellator, were there any concerns booking a strong striker like Levon Maynard as Matt’s opponent?

BD: Yes, Matt almost gave us a heart attack in that 3rd round, especially after dominating the first 2 rounds. He’d fought Levon before and we were pretty confident we’d have the same outcome again. Levon came out tougher and much more improved so it wasn’t an easy fight, that’s for sure. But, it was good to get Matt back in there after a long lay off due to a back injury. So, if anything, it was good to get some ring rust off before a potential Bellator fight. It was a little risky accepting the fight, but worth it.

Q: I was talking to Jackson Galka, who for point of trivia, won the first fight I sat cageside for. His back is still a couple weeks away from allowing him to train hard. How is he coming along? And when do you think we’ll see him back in the cage?

BD: Oh, pretty cool about him fighting in the first fight you saw cageside. He’s coming along good. He’s in intensive physical therapy with chiropractic and decompression therapy [link for explanation of decompression therapy, because I didn't know what it was either. -ed] almost every day of the week. So, he will heal quicker than the average person. We are hoping to have him fight on Matrix 2 in June. The timing would be perfect.

Q: Your Muay Thai instructor, Kru Rigel Balsamico, has put together a pretty fearsome kickboxing team with Cool Hearts Muay Thai. We’re still waiting for professional Muay Thai bouts to come to Pennsylvania, but your fighters are always going up to New York. Catch us up on your MT team, and what they’ve been doing.

BD: We are very proud of the Muay Thai team. The fighters have been very busy, with some of them fighting every month! It’s a grueling schedule but they love it. It would be ideal to have a good Muay Thai promoter here in Philly, but we are still waiting for that to happen. Rigel does a fantastic job and is a passionate coach. His credentials are far superior to Muay Thai instructor in the region, if not in the country. Cool Hearts Muay Thai is actually the style of Muay Thai that we teach. It is a misconception that it is our team name. We are Daddis Fight Camps and represent the art of Cool Hearts Muay Thai. Rigel and I couldn’t be more proud of the fighters, especially guys like Justin Greskiewicz (one of the top guys in his division in the country) and Kyle Hillman. Our females are always representing as well and we are super proud of them also.

Q: Your amateur fighters like Danny Matalla, Bryan VanArtsdale and Joe DiFranco have come highly touted into their amateur bouts. How does having guys in your gym like Matt Makowski and Wilson Reis affect their development? And how does running an event like Matrix with 4 or 5 guys on the card and coming home with only 1 loss affect the gym’s morale?

BD: Well, they all train together. So, while some of the ammys may be beat up dummies to guys like Wilson and Matt at first, the learning curve for them sky rockets and gets them up to speed. In return, it is good for guys like Matt and Wilson to have as many sparring partners as possible with different styles so it’s a win/win for all. Regarding Morale and how our fighters perform…we boast an 80% win ratio in competition and our proud of that. I am unhappy if we have 5 guys on a card and 2 lose. Unacceptable to me. We (me and the other coaches) have high standards for the guys and will not be happy unless our fighters win more than 80% of the time. It’s what separates us from the rest. We are the winningest MMA team in the area. One of the reasons is because we don’t just put one guy on a card. We try to shoot for 5 or 6. Often, promoters can’t accomodate that and we end up with 4 guys on a card which is fine too. But, we expect to win a minimum 3 out of 4 of those fights and if we don’t win all 4, I’m not thrilled. At the end of the day, all we can ask is for our fighters to go out their and give it their all. And, usually when they do, they win.

Q: Besides the fight team, you have two gyms (Philly & Cherry Hill), and you put instructional videos up on MuayThaiTips.com. Are you planning on expanding in the near future? Or are you happy at where the empire is right now?

BD: Ya know we toss the idea around now and again, but the last thing we want to do is spread ourselves to thin. 2 gyms is a handful in and of itself and what tends to happen to gym owners who open more schools is that the quality of instruction goes downhill. That is the last thing we want. There are teams out there who will have a bunch of “affiliate” schools, but it’s very difficult to maintain the quality that we desire. We could have 20 affiliates, but would they produce champions? Not sure about that. The affiliates tend to never be as good as the original gyms.

Regarding www.muaythaitips.com… That is a website we put together to help people who don’t train with us learn good Muay Thai. There is no shortage of BJJ instructional videos out there, but not a whole lot on Muay Thai…especially Muay Thai for MMA which is what we focus on in the videos we send our subscribers each week. We like to contribute. Making a “Tip Of The WeeK” video is simple to do for us, but helps many tremendously. I get e-mails from guys in Australia or in areas of Europe where they don’t have access to anything but a heavy bag. They are extremely appreciative that we send them a video each week for free. Feels good to do it. If any of your readers would like to subscribe, they can simply visit the website at www.muaythaitips.com and they will get instant instructional videos sent to them with all of our coaches showing different tactics and techniques that aren’t often addressed.

We also have a couple of videos that we have available for members of our list. One is called “How To Throw Devestating Leg Kicks”. Our fighters finish fights with leg kicks! When they are thrown right, they do tremendous damage. We see so many garbage leg kicks in MMA, so we felt there was a need for this video. We have guys like Matt Makowski who literally TKO’d Nick Serra at Elite XC with leg kicks. If you can’t walk, you can’t fight. The other video we have available now is “How To Wrap And Tape Hands For MMA Competition”. I can’t tell you how often we go to events and watch a clueless coach try to wrap his fighters hands. As we saw the other night in Brian Bowles, broken hands are common in this sport and a fighter can’t fight with one. We had the pleasure of having “Stitch” from the UFC at our academy who gave us even more tips on wrapping hands. The video is solid and a must for coaches who don’t know how to wrap hands. I’m starting to sound like I am just plugging products, so I’ll stop talking now.

The 80% win rate is no joke, of the events I’ve been to where DaddisFC is represented on the fight card, the team usually goes 4-1 or 5-1. The other thing that I think is worth mentioning is the attitude at Daddis. I almost feel like I’m part of the team because everyone who represents Brad Daddis and his gym are incredibly kind people. There is no one on that team with a Cobra Kai mentality. And that is something that’s true of a lot of the top gyms in Philly, but since we’re talking to and about Brad, I wanted to point out that everyone associated with his gym are good people. And one of my mantras here at MAMMA-Online is that I’m about “good people helping good people.” That tangent aside, Brad mentioned that Wilson Reis will fight Shad Lierely and if Matt Makwoski’s knee is given the green light from doctors, he will fight Matt Lee in round one of the Bellator tournament. Those fights, I believe, should be sometime in May. When I see the names pop up on bout sheets, I’ll be sure to let you guys know.

If your in Philly and want to get your work out on with some of the best strikers in town, DaddisFC is up off of Washington St near the Italian Market. I haven’t got a clue where the Cherry Hill gym is. But its in Jersey, so its off exit 9, or something. You’ll find it.