"I feel like my grappling has gotten a lot better" - James Nakashima shares training at Sean O' Malley's gym helped improve his ground game

James Nakashima suffered the first two losses of his career in his most recent outings in the cage. At just 33 years of age, there’s reason to believe that his best days are still ahead of him and he can still improve.

His latest setback, to Japanese MMA legend Shinya Aoki, helped Nakashima reflect on the areas of his game he needs to improve on. In an interview with ONE Championship, he shared that he has spent the last year doing just that at 12th-ranked UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley’s gym, The MMA Lab, in Arizona.

Nakashima said:

“I feel like my grappling has gotten a lot better. I've been going over to ‘Sugar’ Sean O'Malley's gym on Fridays. It's kind of where the best jiu-jitsu guys in Phoenix [state capital of Arizona] kind of meet up and we spar for an hour, just hard eight-minute rounds.”

James Nakashima shared that among those in attendance during the sessions were renowned Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Tanquinho Mendes and O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch.

The level of competition in these sparring sessions has helped take Nakashima's game to another level. The sessions allowed him to find weaknesses that he didn’t realize he had.

He added:

“The second half of the year starting October, I started doing a lot of jiu-jitsu competitions. I got 10 really high-level jiu-jitsu matches and I feel like that made my grappling better too. I feel a little bit quicker. I know specific positions that I want to get to. I just learned a lot about my grappling through those two things right there.”

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James Nakashima is honing his striking as well

James Nakashima understands that improving just one area of his overall game will not be enough if he wants to become a world champion.

As such, he has also been working on his striking. During the interview, he said:

“[For] my stand up, I'm working with the local Phoenix best kickboxer in Phoenix. His name is Nick Chasteen, he’s a Glory kickboxer. And I've been with him for a year and we're running our camp together. He's giving me great work, great preparation, game planning for this fight.”

He also credits John Crouch and The MMA Lab as his backbone and foundation as he prepares to return to action. He added:

“So I feel like this is the most professional camp I've ever had leading into a fight just with who I’m surrounding myself with.”

Nakashima will test his skills against Russia’s Saygid Izagakhmaev at ONE: Heavy Hitters on Friday, January 14.