Giving back to New Jersey and its’ youth are what UFC Fighter Mike Massenzio and Master Phil Ross had in mind when they joined forces.

         Mike Massenzio has his own well-established MMA training facility called Iron Horse. Mike has been training teams of MMA fighters. He is a current UFC Fighter, a NAGA World Champ- Expert Division (submission fighting), and a Ring Of Combat Title Holder (ROC). Mike comes from a great wrestling background where he holds both High School and College National Titles. His students respect him. It’s hard not respecting a teacher who will train right along with you and after long hours of training run sprints and suicides at 10:30 at night. The students are still running faster and training harder then most would be able to do normally, if you would consider this normal. Mike is a no nonsense coach that doesn’t expect any more then he is willing to do himself. After all, he’s been there so he knows what it takes. Whether it is wrestling, boxing, Brazilian Jujitsu, or ground skills Mike is equally skilled in all and possesses great ability in teaching them as well. You can view some of his fights at the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJy8gDkNaY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jsr80-WpM4&feature=fvw Master Phil Ross runs American Eagle, a MMA facility that has been in Bergen County since 1988 www.philross.com. Mike and Phil had been working together long before they decided to come together under one roof. Phil has an uncanny ability to be able to teach very young students for an hour and then he teach adults the next hour. He also trains along with the other fighters and they train very hard! He says he really enjoys being a teacher. He likes watching others succeed, especially when someone is towards the end of their fighting career. You can see it in his eyes his love of teaching and seeing his students’ succeed when he tells a story of one of his students. A 37-year-old woman successfully defended herself from an attacker. Who knows what she had in mind since she could have been seriously hurt, or worse killed. She put him in a chokehold!! His biggest piece of advice for an up and coming cage fighter is to “start with wrestling, get your positioning down, move onto ground skills, then onto Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA.”

Mike and Phil teamed up basically to give the fighters all their fighting skills under one roof, with at least six people on staff. Mike says that when he first started fighting he had to go to numerous places just to round out his skills as a fighter. For young fighters today it cuts down on traveling time, gas, and they can then concentrate more on training. There is only one problem in bringing together great teachers with a strong following, there is never enough space. They will be looking for a larger facility very soon. The current facility is very well equipped, for now, but with the growing popularity of the UFC and MMA they may expand soon. Either way American Eagle will be ready. What’s next for Mike Massenzio? He’s training hard and he will be ready for who ever comes next. The Master Of Disaster Mike Massenzio, watch for him in up coming UFC Fights.

iReporter- Michael Heslep

If you are interested in the next Phil Ross UCC promoted fight UCC2: STRIKEDOWN go to http://www.uccfights.com/

Personal note- In sports, MMA Fighters are considered to be some of the best-conditioned athletes in the world, who says the best can’t come from New Jersey?