Mike Winkeljohn Record, Net Worth, Weight, Age & More!
Posted by Benjamin Strusnik on
Who is Mike Winkeljohn?
Simply put, Mike Winkeljohn is one of the greatest striking coaches of all time. After finishing high school in 1980, he began his professional career as a kickboxer and went on to compile a strong winning record. In addition, he is a multiple time champion both in Muay Thai and in Sport Karate. Winkeljohn is an impressive 5th degree black belt in Kempo Karate, and has proven that his knowledge of the sport goes way past the hypothetical.
Who is Mike Winkeljohn?
Simply put, Mike Winkeljohn is one of the greatest striking coaches of all time. After finishing high school in 1980, he began his professional career as a kickboxer and went on to compile a strong winning record. In addition, he is a multiple time champion both in Muay Thai and in Sport Karate. Winkeljohn is an impressive 5th degree black belt in Kempo Karate, and has proven that his knowledge of the sport goes way past the hypothetical.
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Not all great combat sports athletes go on to become great coaches;Mike Winkeljohn is an exception. It’s rare that someone gifted with athletic talent is also skilled enough to teach at a high level. It’s even more rare for a world champion athlete to adapt to teaching so well that their students become champions too. Yet Winkeljohn, along with business partner and fellow combat sports genius Greg Jackson, have been able to create something special at JacksonWink MMA. Headquartered in Winkeljohn’s hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, their gym is home to some of the highest quality training available for combat sports athletes today.
If his competition career was iconic, then his status as a coach is legendary. He can proudly boast that many of his students have been able to achieve superstardom in the fight world, particularly in the mixed martial arts community. Top world-level talent like Jon Jones, Holly Holm, and Donald Cerrone have called Albuquerque home at one time or another, thanks in no small part to the striking prowess and reputation of Mike Winkeljohn.
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How Old is Mike Winkeljohn?
At the time of writing, Mike Winkeljohn is 59 years old. He was born in the city he still calls home, Albuquerque, on November 13, 1962. Winkeljohn began running his first gym when he was only 22 years old, meaning that he has spent over 35 years in the professional fight game.
Mike Winkeljohn Family
Mike Winkeljohn was born to Mary Anne and Alan Winkeljohn in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1962. He is married to his wife Heather and the couple has three children: Autumn, Teagan, &Michelle.
How Much is Mike Winkeljohn Worth?
Mike Winkeljohn has owned a gym for over thirty years, since the age of twenty-two, and operated his incredibly successful JacksonWink MMA since merging his boxing gym with Greg Jackson’s operation in 2007. His coaching prowess draws athletes from around the world and because of that, Winkeljohn is worth an estimated 4.5 million dollars in 2021.
How Tall is Mike Winkeljohn?
Mike Winkeljohn is listed as 5’9”, making him an average size person for a welterweight fighter.
How Much Does Mike Winkeljohn Weigh?
Mike Winkeljohn no longer competes, but his fighting weight was generally 69 kg, or 152 lbs, making him a welterweight by most standards.
Mike Winkeljohn Fight List
The Majority of Mike Winkeljohn’s fights happened in the 1980s and 90s, and many have been lost to the sands of time. While his overall record of 25-7-2 as a kick boxer is well known, a list of his opponents is hard to find. The internet has preserved a record of his last four bouts as a kickboxer, however, taking place from 1996 to 1998. Interestingly, two of the fights are his only two boxing matches;both are wins. The two losses shown below came on the tail end of Winkeljohn’s career and were under a Chinese variation of MMA, Sanda. Sanda is a combination of kick boxing and catch wrestling that incorporates many of the same techniques as modern mixed martial arts
- March 22nd, 1998 - Dmitriy Tyukalov - Loss
- October 13th, 1997 - Dmitriy Tyukalov - Loss
- April 9th, 1997 - Laverne Clark - Win
- February 27th, 1996 - Ray Ruiz - Win
Mike Winkeljohn's Best Fight of All Time
In an interview, Winkeljohn mentioned a Muay Thai bout with Thai legend Coban Lookchaomaesaitong, known simply as “Coban”, as one of his career highlights. The legendary Thai fighter had a hard style and he and Winkeljohn engaged in a drawn out and violent clash. In the end, Winkeljohn won with sheer toughness. While he values the victory, he values the lessons that he learned in the bout even more.
However, like all great coaches, Winkeljohn is quicker to praise his prodigies than he is himself. When asked about his greatest moment in an interview, he gave a surprising response: Holly Holm’s knockout of Ronda Rousey. This was meaningful to him for many reasons, beginning with the fact that Holly Holm first walked into his gym at just 16 years old. Just over 16 years later, at age 33 Holly took down one of the most feared legends in all of women’s combat sports history in Ronda Rousey. In the intervening time, Holm &Winkeljohn worked together to bring home 18 world titles in boxing before ever turning to MMA. The road to this UFC championship victory represented over half of Holly’s life, and one of Winkeljohn’s most cherished and long standing coaching relationships.
Who Did Mike Winkeljohn Lose To?
Winkeljohn competed in a variety of combat sports, sometimes daring to take on new rulesets as a challenge. Two of his last fights ended in losses to the same person, Dmitriy Tyukalov, in the Chinese combat sport of Sanda, which is close to mixed martial arts.
Mike Winkeljohn Record
Winkeljohn’s official record from his 17 years as a professional kickboxer is 25 wins, 7 losses, and only 2 draws (25-7-2). He competed as a professional boxer as well, amassing two wins quickly (2-0) before hanging up the gloves. But with a coach like Winkeljohn, his own personal fights are just one side of the story.
Perhaps even more telling are the numbers from some of his top competitors. Holly Holm has a strong record in boxing (33-2-3) and in MMA (14-5), and was the UFC’s Women Bantamweight Champion. Donald Cerrone fought to 36 wins and 16 losses in the octagon. Finally, Jon Jones, considered by many to be the GOAT in MMA, sports a record of 26-1-0 with a single ‘no contest’ result. While these fighters worked with a host of professionals, they were undoubtedly helped along by the common denominator in their striking: Mike Winkeljohn.
Mike Winkeljohn Injuries
Mike Winkeljohn made it through his competition career without any major time off from injuries. Sadly, he did suffer a devastating freak accident after he retired while working as a coach. In september of 2009, he was holding pads for a kickboxing student who was practicing high kicks. As a strike came in, Winkeljohn felt something scrape his eye and immediately knew it was an issue;but he didn't know just how big of a problem it would reveal itself to be.
As he felt around his eye for damage, he asked the student if it was a cut. Unfortunately, the student replied “It’s your eye”. The students' toenail had not only scraped the surface of Winkeljohn’s eye, but sliced it apart. The state of his eye after the injury was similar to a “deflated grape” This accident cost Winkeljohn the sight in his eye and earned him the fitting and affectionate nickname, Coach Wink. He continues to teach with impaired vision in one eye.
Is Mike Winkeljohn Retired?
Mike Winkeljohn is retired from competition, but not from coaching professional athletes. He continues to work closely with coach Greg Jackson to produce world-level competitors in kickboxing and MMA at their academy, JacksonWink MMA. It’s their mission to create a place where fighters from all over can come to hone their skills and find a professional community. In service of this mission, fighters can actually rent a bunk in hostel-style living quarters from which to live and train.
In addition to his coaching career, Mike Winkeljohn has begun to develop a series of instructionals on striking with Dynamic Striking and BJJ Fanatics, which are available on both sites. They’re categorized by type of strike: Power Punching, Effective Elbow Strikes for MMA, and Unpredictable Kicks: Mastering the Bait &Switch. In each of these well thought out products, you’ll pick up tips that are tailored to Winkeljohn’s personal style and learn to strike with more power and efficiency.
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