Duke Roufus hits back at detractors: ‘There's two sides to every story’

After a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's investigation into the death of a 24-year-old kickboxer from Roufusport sparked outrage in the MMA community, several notable fighters began to air their grievances about the now-controversial coach Duke Roufus and his allegedly vicious coaching style.

Once the investigation was released, TUF 20 competitor Rose Namajunas and partner Pat Barry immediately spoke out against Roufus' coaching methods and allegedly inhuman treatment of fighters. Namajunas even began posting screenshots of the various grievances that former members of the team had opened up to her about.

However, Roufus did not shy away from the discussion at a media lunch on Monday. He referred to Namajunas as a case of the "pot calling the kettle black," since she had returned to the gym after Munson's death and allegedly pummelled someone during a training session.

"Her gloves came off and she was hitting the guy, cut his face," Roufus told MMAFighting.com. "No one told me this until after she had left after she visited our gym this spring for training. If there was such a problem with us, why did you stop by our gym to train?...In the past, I had to correct her to not hit other girls and other people at our gym. There's two sides to every story."

While he would later explain that there are a "few different Duke Roufus's" that appear in the various classes; some were harder than others. However, he preferred to limit his "mudslinging" with fighters he considered to be hypocritical.

"They have a voice," Roufus said of Namajunas, Barry and Schafer. "They have their fans. If people want to believe them, cool. You know what? I'm not here to make everyone happy. I'm only here to make the people who really love me happy. I'm not worried about enemies. I'm worried about supporters. And I'm sorry they feel that way."

Transcription taken from MMAFighitng.com