There’s perhaps no fighter who reps the city of St.Louis harder than Sean Woodson - he does have the city skyline tattooed across his abdomen. He was born there, he grew up there, and he trains there - at Wolves’ Den Training Center (which is technically just outside of St. Louis). 

However, after earning his UFC contract on the Contender Series, Woodson decided it was time to take a trip outside of his comfort zone. He hopped in his car and  travelled nearly 4 hours west to Lee’s Summit, just outside of Kansas City, to make good on an invitation from James Krause to work at Glory MMA and Fitness. The change in his training camp, says Woodson, has made all the difference in the world. 

“I still get some training in back home with my original team, but the moment I got this call I packed up and headed out to Glory, and I’ve been out there ever since. The level of training out there is definitely a level above,” Woodson notes. “They got Grant Dawson and Megan [Anderson] out there and those are just the names people are familiar with, but they got a bunch of other killers out there that people just don’t know about.”

And while the training partners with experience at the highest level have certainly been a huge asset to him, it’s Krause who he lauds as world class. 

“James Krause is probably the best coach in the game, man. He’s so underrated as a coach and a fighter - it’s unbelievable,” he said. 

Although some of that is growth comes from the knowledge that Krause brings to the game, Woodson is a lot more impressed with his approach. The way that Krause allows Woodson to be his own unique self and even helps him improve those unique aspects, it taking Woodson to a whole new level. 

“I won’t sit here and say for a second that I have the best striking in the world. My striking is just so different. Somebody’s coming into the gym on their first day and you wouldn’t teach them what I do,” Woodosn admits. “But I’ve been with some coaches before who kind of tried to change my style, or in their eyes clean it up, but James Krause appreciates what I do. He understands what I’m doing. He knows that as weird and as awkward as my style is, I’m really defensively sound even though it may not look like it.”

The pairing could not be more perfect for Woodson. And while he’s not ready to move out of St.Louis permanently, he is sure that he’ll never have another head coach. 

“It definitely [is] a permanent [move] as far as James Krause being my head coach - I love it,” he said. “He just embraces my style and adds new stuff to it and we just mesh well. We really mesh well together.”