Alex Garcia credits Tri Star gym for recent success

[The Great Cochrane]

Alex Garcia packed up his belongings and headed north to Canada to train out of Tristar to work with UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. A few years have passed since then, as Garcia continues to grind it out in hopes of a UFC contract.

The welterweight sits at 8-1, with that lone defeat coming from the UFC's Seth Baczynski.

"I think it's one of the best things that happened to me, that loss," said Garcia to MMA Junkie. "I learned exactly what I needed to do in my fighting game and other things I needed to work on – my striking, controlling the pace. It's not a streetfight. It's professional fighting."

The number of submission and knockout wins is evenly divided at four a piece. Only once has Garcia needed more than round one to land the win.

Last year, Garcia was out following knee surgery. He looks to land a UFC spot soon with a win over Ryan Dickson.

They fight for Challenge MMA 1 out of Canada.

I have to admit, Tri Star is one hell of a gym. I've never trained there personally but I've met some guys who have and it's a three level building. It's insane what goes on inside there.