We wondered aloud what exactly was in the water out there in Denver, Colorado.
“You know what’s in the water? Marc Montoya and his awesome team of coaches. Greatness is in the water, and I’m drinking from it,” answered Maurice Greene, another Factory X standout in the UFC.
“It’s the number one gym in the world.”
Greene is hardly alone in his reverence. In fact, it’s hard to think of another stable of fighters more effusive in praise for their coach, and their results in the Octagon speak to the success of the coach-athlete bond.
“We started real small; a little shoebox-type gym in a strip mall in 2008,” Montoya says with pride. “Now we occupy a 10,000 square foot facility, and have just been super-blessed with the growth from where we started to where we are now.”
With more and more athletes representing the gym on bigger and bigger stages, Montoya is forgiving of terms “breakout” or “upstart,” secure in the knowledge that what we’re witnessing is the fruits of a decade-plus grind.
“The rapper Xhibit said being underrated gave him time to create,” explains Montoya. “I think that’s a great line, because that coincides with what we’ve done here at Factory X. All of a sudden people are like “Oh crap! That’s a breakout year!” I appreciate that because that means we’re doing great things and we’ve got people’s attention. But it definitely didn’t happen overnight.”
We wanted to see if there was indeed anything in the water, and paid a visit to the man himself, who graciously sat down with us to give us a firsthand glimpse into his coaching ethos.