Duane “Bang” Ludwig on Team Alpha Male

I had the chance to catch up with the new Team Alpha Male Muay Thai instructor Duane Ludwig via phone while he was in Bristol, TN doing a seminar. It was late in the evening and he was in his room watching fight footage, I also was watching fight footage from my couch. I wanted to talk with Duane about the recent success of Team Alpha Male since he made to move to Sacramento, CA to become their new Muay Thai coach.Recently Alpha Male fighters T.J. Dillashaw, Chad Mendes, and Joe Benavidez have all won by TKO, and Urijah Faber winning by submission; one thing can be agreed upon, their striking looked amazing. It seems as if Ludwig has been there for years working with these guys. Ludwig said, “I have worked with other athletes before, and they by far have picked up the fastest.” Ludwig does not feel as though he came in and changed anything necessarily, he just feels he has tightened up their technique and gives them an understanding on why they are doing what they are doing. As far as fighting goes for Ludwig who is out this whole year due to a knee injury, he’s not concerned about it.

Ludwig is fine with not fighting anymore and is very content with coaching. He has battled many injuries in the past, and has lost some of his old passion for fighting. “I’m not as excited as I used to be about fights.” Ludwig says, “I love coaching and feel I know too much not to share with others.” It was about this time we got way off subject for about twenty minutes and talked about doing a podcast and maybe getting a timeshare together, for your sake I will leave that out.

We then got back to the subject if he did choose to fight again, who would it be? He thinks one fight he would come back for is Dan Hardy; he likes and respects Hardy, but feels he wasn’t excited about that fight. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen; though he seems very fine with where he is now. He would prefer to eventually move back to his hometown of Denver and promised me I could live there rent free. Duane also feels that Muay Thai is the best stand up style for MMA, it just needs to be mixed together with MMA correctly which is what he seems to be doing a great job at.

The conversation then ended with me asking him why Urijah Faber was in Austin, TX. He responded, ‘Oh yeah, Boston, Boston Massachusetts?” I said, “No Austin, Texas.” He said, “Come on man, Road Trip the movie.”

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkilloTX

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