LAS VEGAS -- Wins keep piling up for fighters fortunate enough to be guided by Dewey Cooper and his Black Kobra Striking System.
“If we live through that creed,” Cooper told Sherdog.com, “we’ll be more successful in a fight career and our lives.”
That approach has many of his disciples rising to the top of their respective sports. Cooper, who started muay Thai training in order to survive the streets of Southern California as a kid, has guided several students to impressive victories in 2017. Invicta Fighting Championships bantamweight contender Raquel Pa'aluhi submitted Pannie Kianzad with a rear-naked choke at Invicta 21 on Jan. 14, and surging Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight Kevin Lee did the same at UFC Fight Night 106, where he tapped Francisco Trinaldo with a rear-naked choke on March 11. Lee, a former college wrestler, set up the finish with a head kick.
Cooper can point to Noad Lahat as his latest success story. The 32-year-old judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt parted ways with the UFC in 2016 following a 2-2 stint with the organization. Lahat has since gone 2-0 in the Bellator MMA featherweight division, delivering back-to-back rear-naked choke submissions on Scott Cleve and Lloyd Carter.
Lee, Lahat and Pa’aluhi have all made marked improvements under Cooper’s direction. Pa’aluhi struggled to develop her striking skills early in her career, but after spending a year and a half with the “Black Kobra,” she has herself pointed in the right direction. Cooper liked what he saw in Pa’aluhi, who accepted a fight with Amanda Nunes on two weeks’ notice in 2012. The Hawaiian threatened Nunes with a choke before losing by submission in the first round. Nunes has gone on to become the top women’s bantamweight in the sport, defeating both Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey in decisive fashion.
Pa’aluhi credits Cooper for the strides she has made.
“Dewey has helped me to improve in more than just the striking aspect of my game,” she said. “Every day that I walk into the gym -- and it doesn’t matter if he’s busy training someone or what -- he’s yelling, ‘Beast Mode!’ It’s a nickname that he gave me, and I wear it with pride. Dewey always tells us we’re superheroes and that when we’re in fight mode we can handle anything. Maybe Raquel might not be able to, but ‘Beast Mode’ can, so that's the person I have to bring to train with him every day.
“He brings something out of me -- and everyone else -- that no one else can,” Pa’aluhi added. “His energy is always high and he always demands our absolute best. Some days I come in feeling worn down, but his energy is always so high and motivating that it’s impossible to not demand the best from yourself, as well.”
Cooper has also been instrumental in elevating Lee’s standup game. “The Motown Phenom” wrestled collegiately at Grand Valley State University, a Division II school in Allendale, Michigan, before transitioning to MMA. Since he linked arms with Cooper and Robert Follis at Xtreme Couture, Lee has quickly risen through the UFC lightweight rankings.
“Kevin was primarily a wrestler when I first got him,” Cooper said. “If you watch his last four to five fights, you see his striking has really evolved, and that is due to technical work we’ve done to master his striking techniques.”
Unlike boxing, MMA forces coaches from various disciplines to work together to implement a plan that works best for each particular fighter. Follis sang Cooper’s praises, particularly in regards to Lee’s development.
“We are very like-minded. It’s funny, the vast majority of the time we get together to talk about what Kevin needs to work on, we are already on the same page. We have a very similar vision,” Follis told Sherdog.com during a 2015 interview. “We communicate very well as a team and really drive Kevin to a style that fits Kevin. The progress he’s made since Dewey has been a part of the team is just ridiculous.”
Cooper admits to stark difference between training boxers and mixed martial artists.
“Boxing is a very simplified art, but it is very meticulous since you are only using your hands. You have to rely on your punching, head movement and footwork,” he said. “There are some things we do every day because we have so many little things to master. With my MMA guys, I only have three days a week with them because the other days they are working on their wrestling or jiu-jitsu. Boxing is more meticulous because the fewer weapons you can use in combat, the more of an expert you need to be. In MMA, you really have to focus on high-level striking. We work the boxing, kicks and elbows. Training is more crammed in one session than with boxers.”
Cooper’s coaching expertise was harvested from a lifetime of hard work and training. He has competed professionally as a boxer (19-3-3, 11 KOs), kickboxer (48-17-3, 28 KOs) and mixed martial artist (2-1). Cooper was a finalist in the K-1 World Grand Prix 2004 in Las Vegas I tournament and won the United States Muay Thai Federation championship, the Universal Kickboxing Council United States championship, the World Kickboxing Council heavyweight title and the World Kickboxing Federation cruiserweight title. He was inducted into the Muay Thai Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 2008.
A martial arts trainer since the early 1990s, Cooper has always found honing the skills of younger fighters rewarding. His extensive background and proven track record were driving forces behind Pa’aluhi’s decision to join forces with 42-year-old Los Angeles native.
“When I came to Dewey, I had been striking, mostly boxing with about a year of focusing more on kicking, but the last two years, he’s added speed, power and, most importantly, movement and understanding of striking to my game,” she said. “We started off slow. The first six to nine months, we were doing the same things over and over, but he helped me to perfect the basics of his system, and with that, I started to better understand everything else.”
Pa’aluhi, 26, has won four of her last five fights, a split decision loss to Colleen Schneider in January 2016 her only misstep. Against Kianzad, she put her skills to use.
“This last fight, I was able to show movement -- something I didn’t ever have -- and striking intelligence, even if it was for a short amount of time,” Pa’aluhi said. “I used to take so much damage in fights previously, so it’s something we’ve been working on together a lot: slipping, rolling, catching punches and moving left to right, cutting people off [and] not just chasing my opponents around the cage.”