DellaGrotte is restoked
His revival, Sityodtong’s correspond
The first Boston-area gym to become a destination for MMA fighters was Somerville’s Sityodtong — an affiliate of a noted Thailand academy — founded in 1996 by Mark DellaGrotte.
The gym’s profile faded, though, as fighters drifted away or fell out, and DellaGrotte took a demanding job with the UFC’s television production team.
But in recent years, a new wave of Sityodtong talent, most notably Rob
Font and Calvin Kattar, have put the team back in the conversation with impressive UFC wins.
DellaGrotte chalks it up to refocusing on his gym’s developing talent, instead of catering to stars. Eyebrows raised when “Kru” Mark — the Thai term for master Muay Thai teacher — started teaching introductory classes again.
“I was neglecting the up-and-comers,” DellaGrotte told the Herald. “As the years went by, I got back to working with regular students, regular guys, guys that were hungry, guys that wanted my attention — not necessarily divas that demanded my attention.”
Throughout the mid-2000s, top fighters from New England and beyond represented the gym in the UFC, including Kenny Florian, Patrick Cote, Marcus Davis and Jorge Rivera. Former UFC blow-by-blow announcer Mike Goldberg even got some pad work in at “Sit,” and would shout it out on air.
But the wave had crested when DellaGrotte took a job seven years ago as the UFC’s technical adviser for television broadcasts, guiding announcers from the production truck on techniques to point out.
“I said, ‘ This is a good opportunity for me to switch gears, to pursue something else within the sport,’ ” DellaGrotte said. “There was just almost a saturation of fighters that I had, and it was taking a lot of my time.”
When several of his top fighters up and left for other camps — one even accused him of colluding and sharing intel with an opponent — DellaGrotte put down the pads.
“It left a bad taste in my mouth,” he said.
Quietly honing his craft during the upheaval was Font, who’d sought out Sityodtong when he relocated from Florida to live with a girlfriend from Massachusetts he’d met when she was attending college in the Sunshine State.
An Army brat who was born in Leominster but moved away as an infant, Font was delivering pizzas in Florida when he came upon a garage where some guys were practicing jiu-jitsu. He inquired, got information on a nearby gym, and took up what he later found was very elementary training.
“When I went to Mark, it was night and day, it was like going from middle school to college,” said Font, 30. “The level of Muay Thai and striking was so high. I was addicted instantly.”
Font had heard of Sityodtong on the television show “Tapout,” which highlighted a fighter who trained there. Font resolved to seek the gym out when he relocated to the Bay State in 2010.
Now living in Woburn, Font has amassed a campaign to be reckoned with in the UFC’s bantamweight division, and showed remarkable poise. He’s gone 4-1 since his 2014 UFC debut, his only loss to No. 5 ranked John Lineker.
Font’s commanding win over Douglas Silva de Andrade last month won him a performance bonus and more buzz. He said he now wants No. 12 ranked Pedro Munhoz at the UFC’s Oct. 7 pay-per-view, and sees himself contending for a title within two years.
Kattar also impressed recently, upsetting experienced UFC featherweight Andre Fili on July 29 despite having only two weeks to prepare as a late injury replacement.
“You train your whole career, trying to take good, smart fights, trying not to take them on short notice, but when you get that call, you throw away all your conventional thinking for that opportunity,” Kattar, 29, said. “It was a crazy experience. Now that we’ve made it to the show, it’s going to take twice as much effort to stay there.”
A fixture of the New England MMA scene who owns the local Combat Zone promotion, Kattar now stands at 17-2 in his MMA career. He linked up with Sityodtong after things went south at his prior gym.
“We always talked about working together in the future, it just so happens that our paths crossed when it did,” Kattar said. “I feel like this is the right time.”
Kattar, who also trains out of Carlos Neto BJJ in Somerville, continues to grind it out as a promoter as well, arranging a Sept. 29 card in Manchester, N.H., as soon as he returned from his UFC premiere. He purchased the Combat Zone promotion four years ago from a friend.
“It’s a big passion of mine,” said Kattar, who was raised in Methuen and lives in Medford. “I enjoy, on the local level, providing a stage for these guys to compete, so hopefully one day they’ll get a shot like I did.”
Sityodtong is home to other standouts. Greg Rebello recently got a shot on the UFC’s new “Tuesday Night Contenders” series. He lost via second-round KO, but DellaGrotte said Rebello, a heavyweight, is “another fight away from getting the call.”
There’s also Rico DiSciullo — an allaction bantamweight who’s picked up wins in Bellator — and Tateki
Matsuda, who has been competing in Japan after a go in the UFC.
DellaGrotte said he’s going to be more mindful of balancing out his time on this run, and pay closer attention to the talent developing under his nose.
“I was losing the passion for the martial arts, I was losing what I got into it for,” he said. “I found myself getting back into that, and being excited about training fighters that were excited to train with me.”