BIG READ: The old church spreading a new fighting gospel

He dealt with enough of that in a working life spent largely on pub and nightclub doors. Encountered more than enough in his forays into boxing training and promotion too.

Even his first attempt at taking a share in what is now the Freestyle MMA gym on Windang Road was shrouded in acrimony and ended before it even began.

When the same building, that was formerly an old church came up for sale not long after that, he went all-in on what he saw as a semi-retirement plan.

"I'd stopped training martial arts and I started training dogs because I'd had enough of people," Lopez recalls.

"I've lived in Windang all my life and I wanted to semi-retire from the security industry. I was running all the pubs and nightclubs in town and I was doing all right for myself.

"Time went on and the building came up for sale and I thought 'right, this is my lifestyle change'. I bought [the gym] and started renovating it a bit.

"It was more of a hobby for me. That was the lifestyle I wanted, with the security stuff as a side business."

Some play golf, some go fishing, some start putting mini ships in those really big bottles. Lopez, well, he decided to put a fighting cage in what was once a house of worship.

In many ways it still is, the man they affectionately call "Master Splinter" providing the spiritual guidance in the modern phenomenon that is Mixed Martial Arts.

Back when he started though, the UFC wasn't what it is today.

To watch the events you had to rent VHS tapes from Blockbuster, and they were typically buried in the dark corners among even more questionable titles.

It changed with the arrival of The Ultimate Fighter reality TV series. Lopez opened Freestyle amid the third season of the show coached by UFC Hall of Famers Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz.

It saw Freestyle get in on the ground floor of an upswing at a time whensimply putting a cage in a gym was a story on its own.

"I was still involved in boxing and just before I bought [Freestyle] I had a couple of boxers, but it was just so corrupt and full of bullshit," Lopez said.

"The UFC was up and running but it was still very underground. I was the first guy to put a cage in a gym in the Illawarra and the [Illawarra] Mercury even came down and did a story on it.

"When I bought it I remember (renowned boxing trainer) Billy Corbett came up and asked me 'why are you buying this?' I said 'I want to get someone to the UFC'. That was my only goal.

"It wasn't really until The Ultimate Fighter 3 was on Fuel TV [that it took off]. It'd be on TV and I'd be getting phone calls from people asking 'mate do you do that kind of training?' I'd say yes and they'd say 'I'll be there tomorrow'.

"It wasn't too long after that that Alex (Volkanovski) came along. I guess the rest is history."

And it's illustrious. That chunky Warilla Gorillas front-rower that wandered in to do some off-season training would become arguably the best featherweight to ever do it in the UFC.

It's the type of thing that many thought would lure him away from Freestyle's spartan surrounds. Countless have suggested he must, even as he wears UFC gold.

Volkanovski hasn't left and swears he never will. He won't need to given the fact that, these days, the country's best are coming to him

The likes of Jamie Mullarkey and Brad Ridell have regualrly rolled on the Freestyle mats.

Heavyweight slugger Tai Tuivasa has stopped by, as has Jimmy Crute, while returning light-heavyweight Tyson Pedro earlier this month used it as springboard for his looming UFC comeback.

Bellator featherweight Arlene 'Angerfist' Blencowe signs in as 'Joe's favourite' in regualr trips to Windang Road ahead of her second bout with Brazilian legend Chris Cyborg on April 23.

For what started as a hobby, it's still a bit difficult to fathom.

"It's been a bit surreal to be honest," Lopez said.

"Everyone's coming down here to train with us now and it's pretty funny that an old church turned into a gym down here in Windang has become a go-to place for people to come and train."

It was only a fortnight ago that contingent of fighters - including rising welterwight star Blood Diamond - from famed Auckland trainer Eugene Bareman's City Kickboxing stable made it a week-long training base.

It's part of a rare bond the two gyms share - one that was formed in unusual circumstances.

"A lot of the guys that were at City Kickboxing were at Tiger Muay Thai (in Thailand) where Alex used to train as well," Lopez said.

"Kai Kara-France was one, Brad Riddell was another, Dan Hooker. They all went back to New Zealand and started training at City Kickboxing.

"The first time I met them was in Auckland when Alex went to fight there (in June 2017). We went to Eugene's gym to train and get ready for it.

"At UFC Sydney when Alex fought, he couldn't get an opponent and we made a few calls and we ended up getting Shane Young from City Kickboxing.

"It was funny because when we fought him, Brad (Riddell) was in our corner, but he was training with Eugene. It was probabaly after that fight that we became good friends. It became our own little club."

It's not hard to see why Lopez and Bareman have so readily hit it off - their journeys share certain parallels.

From humble beginnings, both have trained two of the most dominant UFC champions of their era, Bareman having guided Israel Adesanya to middleweight gold.

Bareman's now also a regular in Volkanovski's corner. It's a relationship that requires a distinct lack of ego from all parties, but it's where the two quiet captains are so alike.

"Eugene's a lot like me in that he doesn't like the spotlight," Lopez said.

"He's been thrust into it more than I have. I'm not a jealous person at all, so it's never really bothered me. It might bother some people but I hate being in the spotlight.

"When Alex first got into the UFC they used to say he fought out of 'Tiger Muay Thai' then it was 'City Kickboxing'. Our gym has never got the recognition it deserves, but it doesn't faze me.

"I love the training part, I love the camaraderie, as far as being in the limelight, I've never been comfortable with it. I'm getting used to it, but I don't think I'll ever like it."

It's part of what makes the set-up something neither coach or fighter want to part with. While seemingly everything else has changed, the labratory remains the same.

"We haven't changed one little bit," Lopez said.

"Alex and I are both like that, so when people make a big deal about us it's funny in a way. No matter where we are, people will interrupt you and say 'we want a photo'.

"People want me in the photo [with Alex] now too, which is a bit of a blowout. I find it weird because I don't feel like I'm anything special."

Both Lopez and Volkanovski live a stone's throw from the gym that's more than done the job so far but, if people keep flocking to that old church to train, you do wonder if the Freestyle brand will outgrow its humble surrounds.

It's a reality growing ever-more present but, having built it from scratch, it'll take some prodding to drag them away from Windang Road.

"Alex and I actually bought a big place and we were going to turn it into a big gym but I ummed and aahed over it," Lopez said.

"We've ended up renting it out. Sometimes you wish we had a bit of a bigger space, I'm always in a rush to clean the mats between classes and that sort of thing.

"We have to really put limits on our sparring [numbers] these days. If we don't limit it we'd be there until night time because there'd be that many people.

"I guess I'm really old school. It's my way or no way. If you don't do what I say, you're doing push-ups, if you're late you're cleaning the floors.

"I'm old school in that way and, in a big commercial place, I'm not going to have that control that I have over this little place. I wouldn't rule it out, but I wouldn't ever want to lose what what we've got."

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