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Shawn Tompkins talks to Cagewriter’s Steve Cofield about training Mark Coleman to fight his former boss and student, Randy Couture.

List of notable fighters following Shawn Tompkins to TapouT:

This would be cool to attend if you’re going to be in Chicago for the Strikeforce “Fedor vs. Rogers” event.

Shawn Tompkins talks to Fox Fight Game about his new team at the TapouT Gym in Las Vegas.

Shawn Tompkins has left Xtreme Couture to start his own team at TapouT’s new mixed martial arts facility in Las Vegas. Rumors of the split surfaced yesterday. Today, Tompkins confirmed it with RawVegas.tv and spoke at length about his decision to leave. The short answer is he felt it was time to step out of Randy’s shadow. At this point, no word on which fighters, if any, will leave Xtreme Couture and follow Tompkins to TapouT.

It seemed like Junie Browning was headed down the right path following his controversial stint on season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter. Apparently not.

“[Gina] was done. We’re not gonna contest that. The ref pulled her off, she wasn’t answering, she wasn’t going anymore…I don’t want to take anything from Cyborg. She’s a great fighter, a dominant force in that division…She relayed to us that she felt so much pressure with the fight and everything surrounding it that it got to her. We know Gina very well. We train with her every day; we’ve known her for years; she’s a good friend, like a sister to us all, and that wasn’t Gina Carano in the cage tonight…I think everybody at home knows that, too.”

—Xtreme Couture’s Shawn Tompkins talks to the Las Vegas Sun about Gina Carano’s performance against Cris Cyborg

As Steve Cofield points out, we still have yet to hear from Gina herself on the loss. We don’t know what was going through her head during and after the fight, and if the pressure actually did get to her. One thing was clear though, we’re used to seeing Gina deliver the beatings, not take them, and Cyborg definitely gave her one. Whether that was because Cyborg was just better or because Gina wasn’t herself, I don’t know, probably both, but this doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing for her career. Instead of stepping into an even bigger spotlight with more distractions, this loss will allow here to take a small step out of it for the time being and focus on improving herself as a fighter both physically and mentally which she’ll certainly need when the rematch happens. I wouldn’t count Gina out just yet.

Image via Showtime Sports

He wasn’t injured. He’s an emotional guy and he just didn’t feel like sticking around. He’s done that before. After the Jardine fight, they kind of surrounded him a little bit, but he said a couple of things into the mic and left the cage pretty quickly. Just the emotions of…here is a guy who is very confident that he could win this fight and he just never had a chance to get off. He’s an emotional creature, so he left the cage. It wasn’t really a big deal. I think people are making a bigger deal about it then it really is. It wasn’t anything left to see anyway. Anderson had beaten him and it wasn’t like it was going to a decision. We already knew what happened, so he decided to go into the back and get his tape off and get changed and everything else. I think he was kind of comforting us more than anything else because we were all down and bothered and you know, that’s that…He’s okay. You know, obviously he’s upset by the loss and the way that it happened because it was in a way that he feels embarrassed by. It’s weighing on him a little bit, but he will be fine. He’ll come back. Sometimes his biggest asset is his heart and it can be his biggest downfall…

—Xtreme Couture boxing trainer Ron Frazier talking to Fighthype (via MMA Mania) about Forrest’s quick exit after losing to Anderson Silva

I’m pretty indifferent to Forrest Griffin, so honestly when I saw him exit stage left last Saturday night, I didn’t really think it that big of a deal either, but judging by the reaction on this site and countless others across the net, I’m apparently in the minority.

When I saw it live, I thought he was just knocked out cold. I didn’t notice him waving off the ref to call it, so I can kinda see now why everyone is so upset about it. If he could have kept going, yeah, he should have, but I’m not going to crucify him for it. As Frazier said later in the interview, we’re not the ones that had to be in there with Anderson Silva. I can’t even imagine how it must have felt to fight someone you couldn’t even touch. For an experienced and elite level mixed martial artist that must have been devastating, especially with millions of people watching.

It will be interesting to see though what type of reaction Forrest gets in his next fight. Will there be boos sprinkled in with all the usual cheers?

Image via UFC

Vitor Belfort’s camp is gung-ho on him fighting Fedor. His trainer, Shawn Tompkins says it’s no-lose situation for Vitor, and he has the boxing and speed to take Fedor out.

I do my best to avoid anything Kit Cope related. This interview is pretty much why. First, he insinuates he has a sex tape of his ex, Gina Carano, who he says pales in comparison to other girls he has “smashed” (there’s a site dedicated to guys like this). Then, he goes on to say Gina’s going to lose if she keeps training at the “overrated” Xtreme Couture gym with trainers like Shawn Tompkins who only know how to work someone out, not teach technique. Instead, she should come back to train with him. Spare me.

Obviously, this didn’t sit well with Shawn Tompkins. He’s issued his response and lets just say he didn’t pull any punches. That interview after the jump.

HT: CageWriter & RawVegas.tv

Update: Kit Cope says he was joking about the sex tape, and only said Gina should come back to train with Master Chan, her former Muay Thai coach. Also says he complimented the Xtreme Couture fighters and has no problem with them. He does however have a problem with Shawn Tompkins response.

“The only beef that I have now is that Shawn’s being a douchebag,” Cope said. “Shawn’s being a [expletive] about all of this. All I said was that I didn’t believe in your skills. Neither did Wanderlei. It’s OK.

…

“Hopefully I can work them out with Shawn, too,” Cope said. “Not in a gentlemanly way.”