The Mass Migration to Elevation

Late last week, it was confirmed that UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw would be leaving Team Alpha Male, the Sacramento-based, Urijah Faber helmed gym that has served as his home for the duration of his MMA career thus far. The champ will be departing to what he believes are greener, if slightly colder pastures in Denver, Colorado's Elevation Fight Team, where he will prepare for a January bout with former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz.

What may surprise some fight fans, however, is that Elevation Fight Team is not the location of estranged Team Alpha Male striking coach Duane Ludwig—the man partially responsible for Dillashaw's evolution into one of the world's finest fighters. Though Ludwig is also based in Colorado, and will certainly be a major part of Dillashaw's continued training, his gym will not actually serve as the young champion's home base.

Instead, Dillashaw will train out of a newly renovated, MusclePharm-sponsored Elevation facility, the creation of which has united four, previously scattered Elevation outfits under one roof for a complete, cutting-edge MMA fight camp. And according to the camp's head coach Leister Bowling, who recently spoke with MMAFighting.com, Dillashaw isn't the only big name to take notice of Elevation's new digs.

Also entering the Elevation fold is UFC welterweight contender Matt Brown. Brown has spent a few of his recent training camps with the Colorado team, but is now expected to become a full-time member of the gym's roster. From this new location, he will prepare to take on Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC Fight Night 78 on November 21, and from there, continue his long unfolding climb to a UFC welterweight title shot.

UFC lightweight and featherweight veteran Clay Guida will also be setting up shop with the burgeoning Colorado camp, where he'll sharpen his tools for a November 7 scrap with Thiago Tavares. In recent years, Guida has ricocheted between two of MMA's finest camps in Team Alpha Male and Jackson's MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His decision to settle down at Elevation in place of these two gyms, then, is a testament to the quality of the new facility.

And of course, alongside the new additions of Dillashaw, Brown, and Guida, Elevation is already the home of welterweight contender Neil Magny, brick-fisted welterweight Brandon Thatch, and number-two ranked female bantamweight "Alpha" Cat Zingano. Yes, suddenly, the facility is home to a procession of battle-tested UFC fighters of all shapes and sizes, which is likely to attract even more top-level fighters in search of a fresh start.

Given this, the Bowling-led Colorado camp begins to look like it could emerge as major player in the fight game over the next few years. And while its reaching the mighty esteem of well established camps like Jackson's MMA, American Kickboxing Academy, American Top Team and TriStar is certainly a tall order, the precedent for such things is certainly there. It wasn't all that long ago, after all, that a little team called The Blackzilians, which was hastily clumped together by a few battle-hardened pros, began to make waves in MMA industry. Now, that camp is the crucible behind destructive forces like Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Michael Johnson, and Abel Trujillo, and resides among the game's very best.

Yes, despite its relative youth as an organization, Elevation is already home to wily veterans, hungry contenders, and now, a white-hot UFC champion. Given that, it would not be shocking to see the camp reach the mountainous heights that its name infers in the not to distant future. Who knows who else we might see move to Elevation in the not too distant future.