American Top Team (ATT) is the home of some of the greatest fighters in professional MMA history.
Trash talking has apparently become a huge issue at the gym, which is why Dan Lambert is enacted a zero tolerance policy for trash talking going forward.
”It’s gotten personal, and I think I was wrong,” Lambert told MMA Fighting. “I think I made a mistake. I think I should have nipped it in the bud, and it’s gotten to the point where it’s trickled down where it affects coaches, it affects training partners, it affects vibes at the gym, and as a result, we’ve adjusted and come up with a new policy. Unless you have a bout agreement to fight someone, in which case there obviously needs to be some promotion, there’s a gag order on talking about people at the gym. If that’s something a fighter chooses they need to do, then they have to go train somewhere else.”
Lambert admits that he made the rule after the issues between teammates Dustin Poirier and Colby Covington, which has since been resolved.
The ATT owner admits that he was also a part of the problem when it came to trash talking.
”I don’t know if it was this last round of talk where Colby came out and kind of violated a truce I had between him and Poirier, or some of the talk between him and Joanna (Jedrzejczyk). It may be just the big scheme of things, dealing with some of the other problems that affect our sport and everybody’s lives; I see how petty some of this sh*t is, and why the f*ck am I dealing with it and (have) allowed it to become an attraction? I think part of it just might be that I’m such a pro wrestling nerd; I kind of like the promotional side of it and the trash talk. It’s on me. I f*cked that part up. I should never have let it get to that point. It’s my job to stop sh*t like that from happening and causing distractions in the gym. I think I made a mistake on that one, so live and learn,” says Lambert.
There has been no comment at this time from any member of ATT as to the new policy put in place by Lambert.
