Malcolm Wellmaker Left Home for ATT to Fix a Two-Fight Skid

Malcolm Wellmaker built his UFC start on violence — two fights, two knockouts, two Performance bonuses and a reputation as a finisher at 135 pounds. Then the momentum stalled. A decision loss to short-notice replacement Ethyn Ewing was followed in May by a second-round rear-naked choke from Juan Diaz, dropping "The Machine" to 10-2 and forcing a reckoning he didn't want to have.

The fix was drastic. Wellmaker left Augusta and Faglier's Mixed Martial Arts — the only gym he'd ever known — and moved to American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, where he's spent the last several months preparing for Otari Tanzilovi (10-2, 7 KO) at Saturday's UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Duncan in Las Vegas. For a fighter who used to make twice-weekly four-hour round trips to Atlanta just for boxing work, the appeal was simple: coaches in the room twice a day, every day.

Why He Left

Wellmaker is careful to say the knowledge at home wasn't the problem — availability was. His coaches back in Augusta worked full-time jobs with families to support, which meant limited looks and inconsistent sparring. At ATT, he says, everyone in the room treats training as the job. He's working under Steve Mocco, Pedro Munoz and Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, surrounded by partners he jokes he can't even list.

The decision cost him more than a commute. Wellmaker describes the Fagliers as family — he calls Jason Faglier Sr. "Pops" — and said telling them felt like informing your mother that someone could do her job better. He sat on his porch at night rehearsing the conversation. By his account, they gave him their full blessing.

What Changed

The Diaz loss hit hardest because Wellmaker felt genuinely outmatched. He admitted telling a coach afterward that maybe he wasn't as good as he thought. Relocating flipped that around fast. He says the first few weeks of sparring against ATT's "legends" were brutal — his words, he got beaten up for three or four weeks straight — but the footage of his early sessions versus his last ones is the proof he points to now.

There's a subtler tell, too. Wellmaker used to answer every "how will this play out" question the same way: find the chin, put the guy to sleep. Asked the same thing this week, his framing was different, more measured. That's the kind of shift a camp like ATT is supposed to produce — and he insists the gaps he's filled will show against Tanzilovi, who's coming off a decision loss to Shane Collins and looking to steady his own footing.