On NBS Central Radio, Jasper sat down with LEGENDARY UFC trainer John Hackleman for an exclusive interview… This is an interview you don’t want to miss
John Hackleman (born November 21, 1959) is an American martial artist and the head trainer at The Pit mixed martial arts gym. He is a UFC trainer for such MMA fighters like Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Court McGee, Jake Shields, and Glover Teixeira.
He is also the creator of The Pit. Founded in 1986 in Woodland Hills, California as a training gym that teaches the art of Kajukenbo, or Hawaiian Kempo as it is now known, John started the school as a means to teach a more straight forward, no-nonsense approach to martial arts. Initially, The Pit was intended to be a martial arts school for training serious fighters only, and employed a logo depicting a Grim Reaper-like fighter. Eventually Hackleman gave the school another name that would attract kids and families.
He also moved from Hawaii to California and renamed his martial arts style to Hawaiian Kempo. The Pit is the only Hawaiian Kempo school that uses the Ke-m-po spelling, instead of the more commonly used Ke-n-po. Hackleman describes his style as more hardcore than other Hawaiian Kenpo schools. He gave school the style name “KuZen,” a word derived from mix “Ku,” the Hawaiian god of war, and “Zen,” for Zen Buddhism.
Check out the show as he explains this and all of his thoughts of the state of the UFC in the interview below.
Interview with UFC Trainer John Hackleman
Main Photo
Main Photo Caption: Team Penn trainer John Hackleman sits in the locker room before his fighter Daniel Spohn faces Team Edgar fighter Todd Monaghan in their preliminary fight during filming of season nineteen of The Ultimate Fighter on October 29, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
October 29, 2013| Credit: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
