The role of a sports coach is above all to set an example, even more so when it comes to combat sports. We know how important this is for boxing, Muay Thai and MMA in difficult areas, and it’s especially true in Brazil where numerous gyms help kids from the slums get out of these environments. The video of a famous coach hitting one of his former students has blown up recently, to the point that even Anderson Silva had to respond.
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An unacceptable outburst
Diogenes Assahida ia a very respectable Muay Thai trainer in Brazil and owns a gym in Campina Grande do Sul, near Curitiba. An amateur video filmed on 7th April 2019 in front of his club shows him violently attacking Ullisses Teodoro, a former student. After the video was published by the MMA Fighting journalist, Guilherme Cruz who is based in Brazil, he explained himself.
‘I lost my head, but shit… we need to go back to the samurai era, you have to honor your master, your professor.’
His former student, who he used to think of as a son, decided on a whim to change gyms and then came to see him while wearing a T-shirt from his new club, and it seems Assahida just flipped. When confronted about this, the legendary Anderson Silva, who worked with this coach on the sidelines of his fight against Rich Franklin in 2006, spoke out on the subject.
‘I’m from a time where you respect your coach, the coach respected the student. […] It’s sad, because when you’re a titled master you have to set an example no matter if your student leaves the gym or not, if he continues or not. He has to follow his own path. The moment you open a gym, and you pass your knowledge forward, you can’t stop this student from creating his own path.’
