SGPT Coach Brandon Richey Interviews MMA Fighter Mark San Pedro

Tell us about your background.

I’ve been training in MMA for about 7 years. Originally came into fight training just so I could learn to defend myself. I’m a purple belt in BJJ under Diego Saraiva and competed mainly in Jiu Jitsu tournaments but haven’t competed in since 2016 because I wanted to focus more on striking.

My striking coach is Kru Jeff Perry who I met while training under Brandon Richey.

When training, are you focused solely on fight performance, or training for life in general as well?

What I focus on all depends on if I’m getting ready for something or not. If I’m getting ready for a tournament or fight, then I’m putting it all towards that goal of fight performance. If there is no fight or anything on the schedule then I’ll still be training in an overall manner.

When looking at your strength and conditioning program did you feel you were able to fill certain gaps, or meet certain needs with a particular program?

Old coaches I had would be like “do it to be faster and stronger”, Coach Brandon was more about we do this movement to improve our hip movement and how that correlates to my goal at the time.

Left to Right: Dakota Perry, Mark San Pedro, Brandon Richey, Jeff Perry, Victoria Debroux

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being very little and 10 being the max what would you rate the influence of your strength and conditioning on your overall performance when competing?

I score the importance of strength and conditioning 10 in my opinion because to win a fight is to last longer than the other guy. If you’re too tired to keep your hands up or keep your body moving then you give your opponents more opening and opportunities to beat you.

How much emphasis do you place on strength and conditioning and building athleticism to be a better fighter, or to perform for you current life needs?

I put a lot of emphasis on S&C in everything from day to day activity to fight training. You never know when a situation will come up and having the athletic ability to perform what is needed will arise. I joke about I like to think “If a zombie apocalypse happened, could I survive?” But seriously If the s**t hit the fan, will you be capable.

Are you preparing for a fight now?

I’m not getting ready for a fight right now but I am always training to get better for who knows what.

Do you have any product recommendations (supplements, equipment, etc.) that you prefer to use to help with performance? Note: If you don’t have a recommendation I can auto-fill what my students use.

None really, I don’t really get to into that stuff like a bro lol.

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QUESTION: Coach, I’m doing alright with my arm strength for my pullups but my hands get really tired. Do you have any ways I could make them stronger?

ANSWER: While having good upper body strength is needed for pull-ups, your hand strength is almost more important because you can only go as long as they’ll let you. We’ve put together an article full of great tips about how you can improve your grip strength.

QUESTION: Hi Coach–I really want to be a Navy SEAL and someone told me about your site and I’ve been trying the workouts you post every day. But nobody even my family thinks I can make it. It’s getting hard to keep thinking I can. Do you have any tips to keep me going to that goal?

ANSWER: A lot of people didn’t think I could make it through BUDs either and I didn’t the first time I went through and they sure didn’t think I’d make it the second time but I did. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks you can do. It comes down to what you believe you can do.

Check out my article here that also has a link to an audio called Sharpening the Sword. Also check out this article, Navy SEAL BUDs PST Tips and how I made it through Hell Week twice. Always feel free to hit me up with any training questions you have.