Minnesota martial arts legend inspires with tale of survival
Greg Nelson's quest for knockout knowledge would take him around the world until a rare form of cancer nearly took him down for the count.
Learning to fight requires knowing how to give and receive pain. Greg Nelson is a master at both.
The New Hope native has been teaching mixed martial arts for 33 years, before mixing martial arts was a thing.
His school, The Academy Minnesota, has seven locations in the Upper Midwest, with three others in Europe and South America.
“I have an MMA book, and he's in it,” chuckles Charles Roberts, a longtime coach at The Academy Minnesota.
Greg's journey getting here has become legend.
“I started training martial arts probably around 7th grade,” said Greg.
He was an all-American gymnast at Armstrong High School. His talent on the other mat got him a scholarship to the University of Minnesota as a wrestler.
“After I got done with wrestling, I just continued with martial arts and never stopped. My primary instructor was Bruce Lee's training partner from 1964 to his death,” said Greg.
His quest for knockout knowledge would take him around the world.
In California, he learned Jun Fan and Jeet Kune Do martial arts. In Thailand, he studied Muay Thai, Filipino and Indonesian martial arts. In Brazil, he studied Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, receiving a fifth-degree black belt.
He returned home, opening the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy in 1992, teaching all the disciplines he'd learned together.
At the same time, MMA was growing too. Fights once held in bingo halls started selling out arenas under brands like Pride and UFC.
Greg was in the right place at the right time, but all the training in the world couldn't prepare him for his next fight.
Cancer
While training for the 2000 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Pan-Ams, Greg started to fatigue.
“We would be in the gym and he would take naps and stuff,” said Nat McIntyre, a longtime friend, student and coach for Greg. “That was the first red flag.”
Eventually, a CT scan would reveal Greg had Stage 4, non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“When someone tells you this is what you got, you go, ‘Ok, that’s my opponent. This is who I got to fight now,” said Greg. “They told my wife at the time, 'Get your affairs in order.’”
While he endured a barrage of chemotherapy, Greg's disciples fought to keep the business alive.
“We all banded together right away and we were going to continue to carry on the mission,” said Andy Grahn, another longtime student, coach and friend of Greg. “I was not prepared to witness someone slowly die from cancer.”
After six months of treatment, Greg was remarkably in remission. The opponent in front of him was defeated. So he thought. Months later, a new, vicious pain started in his legs, landing him at the Mayo Clinic.
“As we watched him, his pain got worse and worse and worse to the point where we had to put him in a unit sedated,” said Dr. Joe Colgan, a Hematologist at Mayo Clinic. “I don't know if we ever had to do that before.”
New imaging technology would reveal the cancer was not gone but had spread to the base of Greg's spine into his sciatic nerve.
Doctors told Greg's wife they'd only known of 33 cases of this type of cancer, none of whom survived.
“I just wanted to live to see my kids grow up, that was the biggest motivation at that point,” said Greg.
“They gave him his last rights on more than one occasion, because they didn’t know if he’d make it through the night,” said Sean Sherk, Greg’s former student and former UFC world champion.
The only treatment option was an experimental stem cell transplant. Surviving that, he said, was a coin flip.
The transplant was a success, and Greg defied the odds again. His transplant would give doctors a new treatment path for neurolymphomatosis.
UFC Championships
In 2006, Greg's longtime student, Sean Sherk, had a second shot at a world UFC title.
He'd lost his first attempt against Matt Hughes when Greg was ill.
“Going into that fight and not having your coach, it’s tough,” said Sherk. “Imagine the Vikings playing in a Super Bowl and their coach isn’t there.”
This time, Sherk was ready, and so was his coach.
In what's still considered one of the bloodiest fights in UFC history, Sherk went five rounds against Kenny Florian and won a unanimous decision.
“It gives me goosebumps thinking about it right now,” said Sherk. “Without Greg, I never would have won a world title. He had me believing I was a world champion before I even fought for a world title.”
The wheels were in motion.
In 2008, wrestling superstar and University of Minnesota alum Brock Lesnar decided to try mixed martial arts. He chose Greg to train him.
“He had a different level of fame than anybody else,” said Greg.
In just three professional fights, Lesnar had a shot at the heavyweight UFC belt.
He knocked out legend Randy Couture in round 2.
World Champion Number 2
Then in 2019, Greg's former student, Rose Namajunes, became the biggest name in women's MMA.
But after getting slammed on her head by Jessica Andrade in UFC 237, Namajunes lost her belt and her will to fight.
“I thought to myself, 'I need to reconnect with Greg,'” said Namajunes. “I need to go back to Minnesota.”
She spent months with Greg working on the basics and preparing for another title opportunity.
During UFC 261, Rose famously repeated the phrase ‘I am the best,’ as if reminding herself of something she struggled to believe.
“When she was walking out to the cage, you have all these doubts and things trying to claw their way in,” said Greg. “She would walk out into the cage saying ‘I'm the best.’ She's overwhelming those thoughts with a positive thought.”
That night, against the UFC strawweight title holder Zhang Weili, she was the best.
A little more than one minute into the fight, Rose surprised Weili with a head kick, knocking her unconscious.
She gives a lot of credit to her coach.
“The academy was always a really grounding place. I think it’s just the most authentic martial arts gym there is. I think if there were more Gregs in this world we'd be in a much better place,” said Rose.
What does a three-time UFC champion coach, two-time cancer survivor, father of two and all-around dangerous human have to say about advice on living your best life?
“Do what you love, love what you do. And enjoy life, enjoy the process. Enjoy the ups. Enjoy the downs. It's all part of the deal of this journey that we get.” – Greg Nelson
Watch an extended interview with Greg Nelson here: