During a recent episode of the Jaxxon Podcast, Urijah Faber shared an amusing story about UFC legend Demetrius Johnson training with his grappling robot at Team Alpha Male’s facility in Sacramento.
The conversation arose while discussing Faber’s upcoming combat jiu-jitsu match against Cisco Rivera on January 30th for A1 Combat. Faber revealed that Johnson had recently visited the gym to help with training camp preparations.
The machine in question is a specially designed grappling robot that Faber and his team have been developing and selling. According to Faber, the factory that produces these training devices is located just four minutes from his house and Team Alpha Male keeps several units at their facility.
“We’ve been selling them worldwide. The factory is like four minutes from my house. We have bunch in our gym.”
Faber went on to describe the robot’s features, noting its technology and realistic training capabilities.
“It’s like choke sensors. It’s got limbs you can dislocate. It’s got it holds position like a like a low-level purple belt. “
When asked about the cost, Faber disclosed that the robots retail for $4,800 with each unit hand-crafted by Sam, the inventor who works at their local factory.
The most entertaining part of the story came when Faber described Johnson’s interaction with the training device.
“Demetrius is the nicest guy. So he, he’s never, he won’t even go on like close to an ankle lock. He’s never done a heel hook or anything like that. So we got him on the robot and he was like, ‘Oh.’ I just pull ”
“Demetrius just like felt bad about popping the robot’s ankle.”
Despite spending years competing at the highest levels of mixed martial arts where submissions and joint attacks are standard practice, Johnson’s respectful nature apparently extends to robots.
