How Poor Were George Zimmerman's MMA Skills? [VIDEO]
George Zimmerman's interest in mixed martial arts has received a disproportionate amount of scrutiny since a witness of the fatal confrontation characterized the aggressor's technique as "MMA-style, ground-and-pound."
It's no secret that Zimmerman attended classes at Kokopelli's Gym - but was he any good?
According to Adam Pollock, the owner of the gym, the answer is no. On Monday, he testified that Zimmerman was not only a lousy fighter, but "physically soft" and "non-athletic' in general.
The Daily Caller reports that Pollock, who began training Zimmerman in 2010, characterized his student as a beginner lacking competence in many of the fundamental tactics underpinning the combat sport, such as grappling and punching.
"He didn't know how to really effectively punch," he said, noting that Zimmerman never really progressed beyond shadowboxing.
In a somewhat harsh characterization, Pollock stated that Zimmerman's combat proficiency registered somewhere between a "one" and a "one-and-a-half" on a ten point scale. Although he was very diligent and "coachable," Zimmerman apparently lacked the strength and skill necessary to excel in the sport.
Instead, Zimmerman's training focused on weight loss, as he was morbidly obese at the start of his first session.
"That was the main focus of why he was there," Pollack said, adding "he was doing very well with that."
Pollack later came under fire from the prosecution when it was revealed that his gym had begun advertising the "George Zimmerman program" - a course purportedly modeled after the training he received.
"Are you now advertising the training on your website?" Judge Nelson asked.
"Absolutely not," Pollock replied.
Since the testimony, the Kokopelli Gym's website has buckled under the dramatic increase in traffic, and its Yelp page features a series of scathing, one-star reviews commenting on the marketing strategy.