George Castro trains Filipino-American fighter and ONE Championship heavyweight champion Brandon Vera and is looking to do the same for deserving talent in the Philippines come January. (Photo : ONE Championship Promotional Image/Courtney Henderson)
George Castro is a former mixed martial artist who now focuses his time on training other fighters after he formally retired from competing in the sport. Perhaps one of his most well known fighters, if not the most well known is former UFC talent and current ONE heavyweight champion, Brandon "The Truth" Vera.
Vera had been around in the mixed martial arts scene for quite some time now, as he first made waves in the sport back in 2005, when he won the WEC Heavy Weight Grand Prix Championship. Vera had worked with Castro at the Alliance MMA gym when he needed to improve his strength and conditioning.
Castro and Vera's working relationship has now stretched for over four years and counting. With Vera being of Filipino descent, he has always wanted to train with fellow Filipino MMA practitioners. However, since most MMA fighters in the Philippines focus on their striking, Castro and his team are looking to improve their wrestling and grappling skills as well when they visit, Business World reported.
While Vera had had a mixed record in the UFC, he is currently domination in the ONE Championship promotion, which is one of the fastest growing MMA organizations in the entire planet. Castro's training has played a large part in his inaugural win in ONE Championship, a fight he won in just under four minutes of the very first round, as well as Vera becoming the first heavyweight champion in the organization.
Vera won the championship unscathed by knocking out Paul Cheng in just 26 seconds, proving just how effective his training camp was in preparing him for the matchup. Vera yet again won in the first round when he successfully defended his championship against Hideki Sekine earlier this month, making people take notice of how much Vera's strength and conditioning have improved under Castro and Alliance MMA.
Vera's last three fights have been in front of a home crowd in the Philippines. Now, the Filipino-American Vera is to make good on his promise of bringing Alliance MMA to the Philippines, as Castro and his team will once again arrive on Philippine shores this January 2017, according to ABS-CBN News.
See what a George Castro training session is like in the video below:
