The last month and a half has been anything, but normal. With businesses being forced to close or operate at a limited capacity, work has become very difficult or foreign for many. 

The sports world is not exempt from this fact. Leagues all over the world have closed down with only a few beginning to kick back into gear. In addition, training facilities have closed leaving some athletes scrambling to keep their skills up. 

While nobody is claiming any of this was a positive experience, some UFC fighters are finding the silver lining in their new routines. Among them is Anthony Hernandez, who squares off with Kevin Holland on the UFC’s May 16th card. The amount of time he puts into his craft is unchanged, but the benefits he’s been getting out of it have multiplied. 

“Honestly, my f****** schedule has not changed one bit,”  Hernandez shared. “And everything has just been private training, which is f****** awesome. I love it.”

And he’s not the only one. Sarah Moras, who faces Sijara Eubanks on the rare Wednesday UFC card on the 13th, has also been getting individualized attention. She, her boyfriend and her head coach have all been self-isolating and only working with one another. As a result, she’s been getting de facto private lessons. 

“It's just the three of us - we’ll go in there and we'll work together,” Moras said. “And it's actually kind of nice having private one-on-one time every day.”

The empty gyms and closer attention isn’t the lone benefit. Both Moras and Hernandez have seen marked improvements in their games. For Hernandez, he sees the closing up of holes that were in his game prior. 

“You get a lot more focus on you, so I should be way cleaner this fight,” he said. “And I’ve been getting my training in with people and bodies still, so it really hasn’t changed for me at all.”

Moras on the other hand has seen changes in more specific places, and some of them aren’t even in the cage. 

“I feel like my striking has improved a lot. That’s really what I've been focusing on. I know my jiu jitsu has always been pretty good. I'm always trying to improve it,” she said. “I feel like my conditioning has improved. Surprisingly, with everyone having quarantine snacks, my weights actually improved.”

The idea that these fighters are improving more with less training partners builds off of an idea that was preached by former ATT coach Din Thomas. Thomas shared that he believed the future of MMA camps was fighter-built training camps rather than large scale teams. If Hernandez and Moras come out looking impressive in these fights, Thomas may just have some of his first and strongest case studies to point to.