By Jody Kohn

When Amer Abdallah relocated to Las Vegas, he was fortunate enough to already have one of the best boxing trainers in the world waiting for him in Jeff Mayweather.  However, as we all know, in full contact kickboxing, your hands are only half of your weapons.  So clearly someone else would have to be added to the mix in order to make Abdallah into a fighter worthy of competing for, and winning a world title.

Enter Dewey Cooper.

A legend in the Muay Thai circuit, Dewey Cooper has been around combat arts his entire life.  Having competed in Muay Thai, boxing, and MMA, there is very little he is not well versed in.  Although he still competes himself, he is slowly making the transition to coaching, already having an extremely successful stable of young fighters learning his “Black Kobra Striking Systems.”  So even though it may seem like an odd pairing at first, in reality it makes perfect sense.

What makes the addition even better is that Jeff Mayweather is Cooper’s trainer when it comes to boxing.  This makes for an extremely cohesive unit, with little stepping on one another’s toes.  With that built in trust between coaches, it ensures the ultimate focus is on making Abdallah the best he can be when it comes time for him to compete for a world title.

We spent a few minutes with Amer to talk about working with both Cooper and Mayweather and to see how he feels it well help him improve.