[cheering]
[dramatic music]
>> Narrator: In just over 25 years of existence...
>> Joe: Oh! >> Mike: Anderson Silva!
>> Narrator: UFC's popularity...
>> Mike: Conor McGregor!
>> Narrator: Has soared.
>> Jon: Amanda Nunes!
>> Joe: Oh!
>> Narrator: But for many years MMA training methods
failed to evolve.
>> Forrest: We trained in a warehouse,
which you can imagine is pretty humid,
and then freezing in the winter.
>> Bruce: Forrest--
>> Forrest: I was injured a lot,
I overtrained a lot.
>> We didn't know what we were doing.
We were just killing each other, sparring each other,
but also breaking our body.
>> Lawrence: We were seeing athletes miss events.
Whether they were, you know,
missing because they couldn't make a weight cut,
or they hurt their knees or hurt their elbows
or weren't coming back from injuries
in a timely manner.
>> Duncan: A lot of those things
are potentially preventable things.
We always want to aspire to be leaders.
It's one of the pillars of the UFC is "Be First."
>> Lawrence: Let's provide a resource to the athletes
so they can have the latest and greatest facility,
the latest and greatest techniques.
>> Forrest: It's time for the sport of MMA
to take the next step in its evolution.
>> Narrator: In 2017, UFC launched a revolution
in athletic training, nutrition,
and rehabilitation
by opening the UFC Performance Institute,
a $14 million, 30,000 square foot facility,
accessible to all UFC fighters.
>> I was like, "Wow."
Every gadget you can think of is here.
>> Anything I need, really for free.
And I feel like I'm in Disneyland.
>> Forrest: The best in class in every service discipline.
>> Pull, pull, pull, pull! Go, go, go, go!
>> Under one roof.
>> Part of our mantra is the evolution of MMA.
♪♪
>> I'll try to explain a little bit
what everything does.
Today, I'm gonna give to Natan Levy
his first tour if the UFC performance Institute.
We're here.
>> Last week, I fought on two days notice
on Dana White's Contender Series.
>> Michael Bisping: This is bad news for Santana.
This is not where he wants to be.
>> Brendan: He's out! Natan Levy!
>> Hot tub, that one is 105 degrees.
Now the services are open to him.
And I'm super excited to see
how we can help him on his path.
So this is one of everybody's favorite places,
the nutrition station.
And that kind of makes shakes
based on your body weight.
Do you know what it does?
So our next stop, but it tells you
how many calories you burn in a day, exactly.
This is the full size 30 foot octagon
>> Natan: I'm very excited to be able to take
my athletic ability to a whole different level.
I think it's gonna be amazing.
>> Then swing it.
Good.
Good pause.
Good pause at the bottom.
Keep this out.
>> Duncan: Now our evolution has been pretty significant.
You know, it was quite funny.
When we open the doors on day one,
we didn't even know if anyone
was going to walk through the door.
♪♪
>> Narrator: The Performance Institute
was designed and built with a single principle.
Be the best.
>> Lawrence: We went on the road and did a lot of research.
We visited NFL facilities, Premier League facilities,
college, pro and Olympic sports.
And ultimately what we did is we sort of took
the best that we'd seen
and customize it for the sport of mixed martial arts.
>> Forrest: I started working for UFC in 2013
and I did community outreach.
And I heard rumors that they were gonna build
a Performance Institute.
I went to my supervisor and said,
"You're looking for the best way to train MMA fighters.
I've been trying to figure this puzzle out for 20 years.
Please let me do this."
>> Lawrence: The results have been incredible.
Less athletes are missing due to injury,
less athletes are missing events
due to weight issues.
>> Duncan: In the last four years,
we've seen a reduction in missed weights by 52%.
>> 159 and a half!
[yelling]
>> I think it brought the whole roster
closer together.
♪♪
>> Narrator: Today, over 85% of UFC's athletes
use the Performance Institute's services.
>> I'll be honest, I was one of those guys
when the PI first open,
I didn't take advantage of it.
You know, I've heard people say for years,
you got to train smarter, not harder.
Man, I've kind of been forced to do that here.
>> Jon: Check out the Motown Phenom!
>> Kevin: I'm a young kid from Detroit.
So I kind of got that pride about me.
I don't want nothing handed to me.
Before my fight in New York
against Gregor Gillespie,
I hurt my foot real bad.
And I saw Heather and she-- I mean,
just the amount of care that she put into it.
Like, she let me be able to walk again, for one
and then be able to knock them out with that foot.
>> Joe: Again, oh!
That's it!
>> Jon: Kevin Lee!
>> Heather: You do see people get injured
and not be able to do what they love.
And you get to break that down, fix them,
be a big part of that journey
and then get to see them do their sport again.
And it's just a really rewarding career.
>> That right top two!
>> Bruce: JoJo Calderwood!
>> Joanne: I was at the lowest of the low.
I spent a couple of years of struggling
to meet weight when I reached out
to the Performance Institute nutritionist,
and he helped me so much.
>> Clint: My background as a wrestler,
here, helping athletes with their nutrition
is really critical,
not only for training, recovery, fight preparation,
but also the entire process around making weight.
>> Joanna: So I packed up all my stuff
and moved here, and I didn't want to leave.
>> Jim: Emily "Spitfire" Whitmire!
>> Emily: When I got hurt, I right away knew
how valuable the PI was going to be.
And every time something came up
where I needed help, the PI was always there
to pick up those pieces.
>> I knew what I wanted since I was a little girl.
>> Jimmy: Gadelha is off to a fast start.
>> Joe: She is so strong.
>> Claudia: But my body was just broke.
You know, like I had a lot of injuries.
I couldn't move my neck.
If I'm looking for longevity,
I need to take care of my body.
And then I realized about the PI.
Moved here.
I love this place.
>> Natan: I grew up in Israel.
I always had a passion for martial arts.
At age 22, I left everything
to fly to the US just with a dream.
>> We collected your body weight already.
So go ahead and come on over here.
>> Whenever we have an athlete that comes in,
what we like to do is do a first assessment.
Really get that objective findings of, you know,
what we can fix.
If we're not really testing out,
we don't know if we're making a difference.
>> Bo: That's really kind of split in two.
One is more muscular.
Two, one, squeeze, go go go go go.
Crush, crush, crush, hard as you can. Keep going.
Mechanical components of what his body's capable of.
This kind of curve is what we're looking for.
So in our training and our programming,
this can be a valuable number for us to target.
I want this percentage to go up.
The other side of that will be more
of his energy systems.
Sprinting, long distance running.
>> Next stage.
>> What's the baseline for Natan right now?
>> Next stage.
Plus this comprehensive picture is very helpful
because we can build a proper solution.
Next stage, okay, yes.
>> Got to be able to hit each of the different intensities
in a very targeted way.
>> This information is very individual,
very customized for him.
He will take his individual
heart rate training zones.
And next stage.
1%.
Spending less energy,
but deliver more work, more higher outcome.
>> There is no cookie cutter program in here.
>> Okay.
Walk.
>> The question we always ask
when we shut the door on the octagon--
>> Please walk, good.
>> How close to 100% do you feel?
>> So we're splitting the staff?
>> Yeah.
>> Fight card only, non fight card.
You know, we have weekly meetings,
where we bring the whole staff together.
We really drill down to an athlete by athlete level.
>> Kevin Lee is back in for rehab today.
And we literally go case to case to case.
>> He has no fight on the schedule,
but he's saying that he feels really great.
>> He has been focusing on
getting more honest with himself
and I think he's doing well.
>> He's struggling a bit with his weight.
He's stuck at 280 again.
>> Athletes we've worked with last week,
athletes that are coming in--
>> I was wanting to get him in
on some energy system diagnostics.
>> And we literally pick apart and talk about
how we can improve
this athlete's performance in every way.
>> Let's all just keep on top of ourselves
and communication.
>> 3-2-1, go sprint, sprint, sprint,
hard, hard, hard, go, go, go.
>> Narrator: More than just technology,
the true strength of the Performance Institute
is its team.
>> Yeah, there you go.
>> Anything if I can press here?
<< No.
>> The church is not the building.
The church is the people.
For me, the affinity to a high performing team
within high performance...
Go, go, go, max, max!
... was as grand as working with the brand
and the label itself.
Now to the hand, hip up.
>> Bo really understands the fighters,
the way we move,
the movements we need to be strong in
>> Would you like to start from 11?
>> Yeah.
>> Joanna: We've got a sports scientist...
That speaks to my strength and conditioning guy,
who also speaks to my PT,
so I don't have to really worry about that thing.
I just turn up.
>> Keep working.
Good.
>> How was that?
>> Tough.
>> Tough? >> I think my arms are--
>> Fatigued? >> Yeah.
Like halfway through, I was dying.
>> Are you gonna be taking Saturday and Sunday off?
>> Probably. >> Okay.
You know, you've got the best of the best.
And these people want to see you do good
and they don't want anything in return.
Although they do help your opponents.
But I would rather my opponent here
getting the best treatment.
So she's the best fighter she can be.
[clicking]
>> Duncan: The PI is now an integral part of the UFC.
♪♪
I think the science, the data,
and the research gives us efficacy,
not only in the combat community,
but in the community
of Health and Human Performance.
[cheering]
>> Claudia: I thought I was gonna be gone by 30,
you know, and I'm gonna be 32 in a couple weeks,
and I feel like I can go so much more.
>> For me, I feel like I'm the best I've ever been
in 20 years of doing it.
They've helped me to understand my body.
I can take fights short notice.
Was never a case before the Performance Institute.
>> It's quality.
They're not just trying to overload you.
You get the workouts that you need.
You get the recovery that you need.
>> Kevin: I had to change my mindset and realize,
you have to really know yourself,
you have to truly be in tune with yourself.
>> Natan: To be honest, it exceeded my expectations.
All the coaches here have trained world champions.
I'm looking forward to working with them
and become a champion myself.
♪♪
>> Bo: For a 25 year old sport that's now saying
never been opportunities like this before.
>> Narrator: In just three years,
the Performance Institute has set the standard
and is on the cutting edge of the sports world.
>> Duncan: You know, this isn't just a phase.
This is technical athletes,
spending years and years developing skill sets
that are beyond any other sport.
And I think the Performance Institute
endorses that.
We're going down avenues
that have never been gone down before.
Hey, let's see what's at the end of it.
♪♪