Calvin Kattar pulls back the curtain on the New England Cartel

Calvin Kattar credits much of his success in the octagon to keeping his circle small. 

Some of his peers at the top of the sport like Israel Adesanya, Conor McGregor and Francis Ngannou come from MMA super-gyms City Kickboxing, SBG Ireland and Xtreme Couture where fighters flock from all corners of the globe to train with the elite teams there. 

But not Kattar - that's just not his style. He prefers the quiet life.   

Hailing from Methuen, Massachusetts, the UFC featherweight joined forces with Rob Font in 2019 to create the 'New England Cartel' under the guidance of head coach Tyson Chartier, who also doubles up as his manager over at TopGame Management. 

According to Kattar, too much can be a bad thing, as the biggest MMA gyms in the world 'simply don't give a s---' about every person who walks through their doors. 

"For us, our coaching staff, our teammates, everyone cares," he tells GIVEMESPORT.com.

"There's only four of us in the gym so they're emotionally invested in us. That's why when Rob is fighting I'm sweating all the time because I care about him. He's my teammate.

"All these top teams simply don't give a s---, it's just the job, but that's like a huge difference.

"It sounds so bare minimum but it's not the case in a lot of these f------ gyms.  

"I've been trying to find this for 15 years because in New England there's a lot of places with dojos but not one gym that has everything so you've kind of got to piece it together.

"You've also got to find coaches that are okay with you going to box with this guy or wrestle with this guy.

"I've been trying to put that together over the course of 15 years like I didn't have that from day one. 

"So yeah, it took a long time to set that up, to develop the team around