Mike's gym, ARJ and SB gym are familiar names to most martial arts fans. The big Dutch gyms symbolize the dominant grip the Netherlands has on international kickboxing. But a counter sound is developing in the Belgian capital of Brussels. With talents like Berjan Peposhi and Sarah Moussaddak, Valon Team is paving a path to Glory and ... the UFC for many Belgian and French fighters. Warrior Code spoke with the man behind the success formula, head trainer Valon Basha. About the rise of Valon Team, the role former coach Dennis Krauweel played in his career and his ambitions as a trainer.

Before we start, let’s go all the way back to the start. When did you encounter Martial Arts?

“The story for me starts like 30/32 years ago. When I arrived in Belgium, I was around 13 years old and there I started to be a little bit problematic. I really was lost when I came here. You know, in Albania, I practiced karate and judo. There was nothing else. Because of political problems there, we had to leave everything behind in just 48 hours including all my friends. So of course, when I arrived, I was totally lost and got myself in some trouble. But then my big brother, like in the movies, came to me and said, ‘You have to stop this stuff’, he grabbed me and sent me to a kickboxing gym.

So, I started kickboxing and at first, I trained twice a week. Soon it became four times a week and then I trained every day. After 3 months I fought my first fight. It was a feeling like “wow”. Honestly this saved me. If my big brother hadn’t done that my life might have turned out very differently. But from the first day I stepped into that gym till the end of my career I have stayed there, in the same gym: Friends Gym Brussel.”

Oh that’s interesting that you say this. I did a little research and read somewhere that Dennis Krauweel (trainer Rico Verhoeven) used to be your trainer. When did he come into the picture?

“Dennis Krauweel, you could say he was the brains of my career. I didn’t move gyms, but I went there (to Krauweel’s gym SuperPro) because they had a high level. I trained with Dennis twice, sometimes three times a week. He taught me all the professional stuff, the details, you know. Dennis accepted me with his boys, and I was like “wow I am lucky to be there”. It was very exciting for me to go there, since they had good fighters at the time like Albert Kraus, Chico Swerts and Alivar Lima.”

Nowadays you take your own fighters often to Dennis’ SuperPro to spar. Is Dennis Krauweel still teaching you new stuff even as a coach? Just like he did when you were fighting.

“For sure! Dennis Krauweel is a smart guy, he points out so many details and he makes you think about it. You keep thinking about it for two weeks, you start to look at it from every perspective. But in the end? He’s right. When we spar there (at SuperPro), sometimes I notice some things during sparring and I point it out to Dennis, I am still a very proud student when I am right.”

Before you became a coach you had a successful career as a pro fighter yourself, right?

“Well, I did both kickboxing and some Muay Thai. I think I did great for being a coach next to it. I became world champion at WFCA, at that time a big governing body. I fought a Thai guy Wannai Pongpila. In 2008 I was again World Champion when I won the WAKO PRO title.

But to be honest with you, sometimes, honestly, I forgot myself you know. I truly love my coaching job, and I forgot I was a fighter. I stopped at 29. Yeah, it's young but honestly, I have never regretted my decision.”

So, you started your coaching career already as a fighter, how did that start?

“So when I was 24 years old, I started my own gym also in Brussels. I loved to teach and it went well! A lot of people started to come to my classes. A training partner of mine, his name is Alka Matewa, said to me ‘maybe I can make a logo for you?’. I said ‘Really? But i don't even have a name?’ and he told me ‘We call it Valon Team, why not?’. Now, 20 years later, we still have the same name and logo.”

“I started in a gym named Queensbury, then I went to another place. When that closed, I came to the places we have now. We train from 2 places, one is called Emergence XL, but most of the training is done at Da Vinci Fighting. In the beginning I was still fighting myself. I started to see my fighters becoming B-class and A-class fighters and that made me think. What do I have to achieve right now? So that made me decide to stop in 2008 and focus on training others.”

In recent years a lot of big names have joined the gym, like Oki Bolaji (UFC Lightweight), Berjan Peposhi and Sarah Moussaddak. What caused this trend?

“When I started, it wasn’t a joke for me. I was very involved. Every coach will tell you that. But I gave my life to it. I think, and I speak my own opinion now, I try to do things in a smart way, with smart training and I try to be there at all times. I’m there in the morning, in the evening, at every training. A fighter will go to two or three gyms before they come here. And they see a smart guy, who doesn’t want to be on the front row. A coach who’s always there for them. And of course, they are looking for success.”

So to be a coach is as much about people managing, as it is about technical stuff?

“Haha, yeah, you could say that. But listen, this success is not only because of hard work. That’s a lie, man. Sometimes people around me think I have a magic thing. But no, haha, I don’t have a magic thing. You have to be a smart coach. I learned this a lot from Dennis Krauweel, how to make a strategy, make decisions on how to train. Fighters only want to work hard, but just hard work, that was 30 years ago. We are moving on. We have moved far past IPhone 2 or 3, we are on IPhone 15 right now. The level goes up everywhere. I don’t know everything. I’m far away from being the best. So I need to learn every day!

What I do as head coach, I must take responsibility. If we win, okay, we win. No problem. But when we lose, I have to take on my side in what I did wrong. I have to study everything, to not make the same mistakes again. It’s easy for a coach to tell his fighter “It's your fault, you didn’t do good”. But the fighter was there twice a day, six times a week. You can’t tell a guy who was there all the time “It’s your fault”. You have to take a 50/50 for the blame. Maybe even 70/30 towards my side, you know. Cause I sent him out there with this strategy. Maybe I should have worked on something with this fighter?”

It's funny because I spoke with some of your fighters before this interview and they all said you are a perfectionist, and it shows haha. I noticed you are also active as a cutman at various events. Did this also originate from that drive to develop yourself?

“Haha I love this question. Listen, what happened is I learned from my mistakes you know. Us coaches think we know everything. We have this pride, you know. We don’t want to accept criticism sometimes.

One day, I had a fighter, who broke his hand during a fight. I started to think “what did I do wrong?” The kid hit right, he knocked the guy out, but still he broke his hand. That’s when I started learning. I started asking myself “who taught me to do it this way?”. It was my fault he broke his hand and not for 50%, I think it’s 70% my fault you know. This was all more than 10 years ago.

So at first I started to learn with videos, like everybody, but I was invested for the full 100% to learn. I learned the basics and after I started to ask, “who is the best?”. And in that search, I came across Joe Clifford, he’s from Ireland, one of the best cutmen in the world, he’s good you know. So, I started learning. I did one session with him, then another and then we became friends. During COVID, I started teaching myself. There was nothing to do. So I called 10 gym owners that were close to me and we started training. Now they are professionals. We started to go to events and that’s how it started. It’s a passion, I can speak for an hour just about this. How are you going to stop the bleeding of a deep cut? With Vaseline? It doesn’t work man. It is a craft.”

Like mentioned earlier, you also have some MMA fighters in the gym. I can imagine that Mixed Martial Arts is also triggering this hunger for new knowledge?

“Yeah, you can say that, haha. I started training MMA fighters in 2015 when UFC fighter Tarec Saffiedine asked me to train his stand up with him. But I also wanted to know more about the rest of the sport, cause only then I can help him. So, I bought a gi and started practicing. MMA and kickboxing are completely different. You have to adjust everything. You really need to understand wrestling and all the facets that come with it. Like the distance control is different, the mindset, all of it you have to approach it differently. 

Nowadays I am a purple belt. But since then I had some connections and helped out some fighters with their striking. In 2020 I started our own professional MMA team, Gaetano Pirrello (ex-UFC bantamweight) was training with us then. Now we have 7 professional MMA fighters, I have wrestling and BJJ coaches. Honestly this is my new baby you know haha. Within 2 years, we have become the biggest professional gym in Belgium and it is still a story to be continued.”

Speaking of ambitions. With the recent signing of Abdallah Oussaid, who will make his debut at Glory 94 you will now have 7 fighters signed with Glory. Apart from Oussaid, Sarah Moussaddak, Berjan Peposhi, Asdren Gashi, Majid Amarouche, Arman Hambaryan and Luigj Gashi (who’s debut is yet to be announced) are all fighting under the Glory banner. Those are numbers that we only see at the big gyms in the Netherlands like Mike’s gym, SB gym and ARJ Trainingen. Is that where Valon Team is also aiming towards?

“I’m very happy you make that comparison. These big gyms you named, they are good, very good. They have big names and good coaches for sure. Maybe even the best coaches. I think I’m on the right path. If we continue like this, we can become bigger and bigger. But listen, it’s complicated right now, because I have 25 professional fighters. In boxing, in kickboxing and in MMA, you see where I’m going? I live in my gym, I’m happy to be there. Even when I’m not there I’m busy with the equipment and what else. But I must be careful because if the gym becomes bigger and bigger, how am I going to do all my stuff perfectly? I want to be able to keep working on the quality of my fighters.

Right now, I am in a position where I can refuse people. Sometimes I really would like to work with someone, a fighter in GLORY or some other organization, but how can I if I can’t be fully focused on them?  This year I’m not going on holiday because I must work. I have my family, my kids, but I told them “This year we stay in Belgium”. It’s these things that make the success you know. You need to have a big brain to manage a big gym like this, it’s not easy, honestly. All these fighters are trusting me with their career, some of them travel 200, 250 kilometers every day just to train with me! I’m proud, man! I’m proud! I couldn’t have imagined this.”