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Mirosław Okniński commented on the uproar caused in recent days by Andrzej Kościelski’s remarks. The experienced coach not only defended the head coach of Ankos MMA Poznań, but also admitted that he himself has been struggling with the exact same problem for many years.
It all started with a high-profile interview that the head coach of Ankos MMA Poznań gave to the InTheCagePL website. Andrzej Kościelski, who rarely appears in the media, spoke openly about the departures of several fighters from his club and reminisced about his time working with one of the UFC’s current top lightweights. The interview caused quite a stir in the MMA community and sparked a lot of discussion.
Okniński sided with Kościelski
Mirosław Okniński, who was a guest on the Fansport TV show, responded to Ankos’s comments. The pioneer of Polish MMA immediately admitted that he fully understands his colleague’s frustration and believes that many coaches who have been working with fighters for years have had similar experiences.
– When it comes to the job of a coach, Andrzej Kościelski is going through what I go through all the time. I mean, you coach someone for 5, 8, or 10 years, and you tell them, ‘I’ll help you, I’ll support you so you can reach the highest level possible, because you have talent. You don’t have any money right now—I understand that.’ You coach them, and they’re constantly moonlighting because they’re poor, but as soon as they have money—they switch clubs. And when it comes to settling accounts… it’s tough,” he said.
Okniński pointed out that players often forget how much work coaches put into their development early in their careers. In his view, the successes achieved after switching clubs do not negate the years of collaboration with their previous coach.
– I completely understand Andrzej. A lot of coaches go through this—the fighters train with you for 5–10 years, or however long, you put your whole heart and energy into it, and this is the thanks you get: “Eh, I’m not going to learn anything new here anymore. Coaches are old and stupid anyway. But this new coach—I’ve been training with him for a month—it’s all thanks to him that I won everything.” But they don’t remember that they won 13 fights and had zero losses on their record, or that they trained for 8 years and were still struggling… Simply put, fighters take, but they have a problem giving back,” concluded Mirosław Okniński in an interview on the Fansport TV channel.
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