American Top Team

The founding

American Top Team (ATT) was founded in 2001 by Ricardo Liborio in Coconut Creek, Florida. Liborio, a Brazilian BJJ black belt under Mario Sperry, structured ATT around the Brazilian Top Team model he had been part of in Rio — a BJJ-first foundation supplemented by wrestling, Muay Thai, and complete-fighter integration.

The early ATT roster was Liborio's BJJ students plus a handful of South Florida wrestlers and strikers. By the late 2000s the gym had expanded to include the largest combat-sports training space in the United States, with a permanent staff of 20+ coaches across all MMA disciplines.

The roster

ATT's championship-level alumni is the deepest of any single MMA gym in history:

• Dustin Poirier — UFC interim lightweight champion, BMF champion
• Amanda Nunes — two-division UFC women's champion
• Jorge Masvidal — BMF champion, fastest UFC KO in history
• Tyron Woodley — UFC welterweight champion 2016-2019
• Robbie Lawler — UFC welterweight champion 2014-2016
• Gilbert Burns — UFC welterweight title challenger
• Joanna Jędrzejczyk — UFC women's strawweight champion (later left for solo training)
• Hector Lombard — Bellator middleweight champion
• Junior dos Santos (later moved to other camps)
• Multiple TUF winners and contracted UFC fighters

The training system

ATT's defining feature is roster depth as training advantage. With 50+ contracted professionals training at the gym at any time, athletes have access to sparring partners of every style, weight class, and stance — a luxury smaller gyms can't match.

The coaching structure:

• Ricardo Liborio: head coach and founder. Brazilian BJJ black belt; oversees the overall program.
• Conan Silveira: head coach (alongside Liborio) and BJJ specialist.
• Mike Brown: former WEC featherweight champion and now head coach for the male roster.
• Various striking coaches: rotation of Dutch kickboxing, boxing, and Muay Thai specialists.

The training schedule typically runs three sessions per day (morning skill, afternoon hard, evening conditioning) with sparring rounds 2-3 times per week.

The cultural identity

ATT's culture is distinct from the Brazilian-team model. Where Brazilian Top Team in Rio is hierarchical and BJJ-tradition-driven, ATT is collaborative and roster-democratic — the senior fighters (Poirier, Masvidal, Nunes when active) mentor incoming prospects, and the gym's training-partnership culture has produced some of the most-bonded fighter friendships in MMA (Poirier-Masvidal, Poirier-Burns).

The Florida tax advantages and South Florida combat sports infrastructure (lifestyle, climate, multiple top-tier strength-and-conditioning facilities in the area) have made Coconut Creek the most-attractive permanent training base for non-California, non-New York US MMA fighters.

The 2020s evolution

The post-2020 ATT roster has expanded internationally. Brazilian, European, and Asian prospects regularly do 6-12 week camps at ATT before returning to their home gyms — a model that's helped maintain ATT's competitive credibility as the founding generation (Liborio, Silveira) ages.

The Coconut Creek facility expansion in 2021 added a dedicated wrestling room and a strength-and-conditioning wing run by Phil Daru (now operating as Daru Strong, an affiliated but independent program).

The legacy

ATT is the dominant US gym of the 2010s and 2020s. The combined UFC-title-defense math of its roster (Poirier interim, Nunes 12+ defenses across two divisions, Woodley 3 defenses, Lawler 3 defenses, Jędrzejczyk 5 defenses, Masvidal BMF title) exceeds any other single training base in the same era.