One career was forged under arena lights—in hard training camps, world-stage victories and lonely changing rooms after defeat. The other was built across laboratories, Olympic training centres and years spent studying one of combat sport's hardest problems: how to make weight without losing the ability to perform.

Those two careers now meet in Shanghai.

On Tuesday, 22 September, Drew Campbell will sit down live with Dr. Reid Reale and Mark Timms of the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai. This is a conversation about fighting and fuelling, but also about something larger: how two people from opposite sides of the world built credible, international careers in a sport that does not hand out easy routes.

Event Details

• Date: Tuesday, 22 September 2026
• Time: 7:30 p.m. China / 7:30 a.m. New York / 12:30 p.m. UK
• Platform: Live worldwide on Zoom
• Host: Drew Campbell
• Guests: Dr. Reid Reale and Mark Timms

Why This Conversation Is Different

This is not another webinar about how to 'break into sport' in five simple steps. Combat sport careers are rarely that tidy. They are built through risk, repetition, setbacks, relationships and the willingness to keep learning when nobody is watching.

Reid and Mark arrived at the UFC Performance Institute by very different routes. One combined formal sports nutrition, applied research and years of work with Olympic and professional athletes—while also spending a lifetime on the mats as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner. The otherlearned the sport through his own body: rounds fought, losses absorbed, countries crossed and coaches trusted.

Putting those perspectives in the same conversation matters. A fighter is never only a technical problem, and performance nutrition is never only a set of numbers. The best work happens when coaching, science and an understanding of the person all meet.

Dr. Reid Reale: When the Science Has to Survive Fight Week

Dr. Reid Reale has built his career around questions that become urgent in combat sport. How much weight can an athlete safely manipulate? What happens between the weigh-in and the opening bell? How do hydration, fuelling, body composition and recovery plans hold up when travel, nerves and individual habits enter the picture?

Before joining the UFC Performance Institute, Reid worked at the Australian Institute of Sport's Combat Centre with athletes in judo, boxing, wrestling and taekwondo, including preparations around the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. He later became a Senior Scientist at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute. His PhD research focused on weight management in combat sports, and his published work on acute weight loss and recovery is widely cited.

Yet Reid is not approaching the fight game only through data. He is also a third-degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. That combination—researcher, practitioner and martial artist—means he understands both what the evidence recommends and what an athlete may actually be willing or able to do under pressure.

Mark Timms: From Living Fight to Fight to Building Fighters

Mark Timms did not enter combat sport from a comfortable distance. A former professional kickboxer, he spent years living from fight to fight, moving between countries and measuring progress in rounds, opportunities and results. During his first stint in China, that path took him to a world championship and eventually a contract with GLORY Kickboxing.

Then the career changed shape. At City Kickboxing in New Zealand, Mark trained and competed alongside elite fighters while learning from the coaches around him. Across seven years, he was not simply adding techniques; he was being mentored into the coach he would later become.

Today, as Head Coach, MMA at the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai, his responsibility is no longer just to be ready when the cage door closes. It is to prepare other athletes for that moment. What does a former fighter see that others miss? How do you earn trust, deliver difficult feedback and develop athletes for a level of competition where small weaknesses become very visible?

China Is More Than the Backdrop

Both guests now work in Shanghai, but neither began his career in China. Mark has lived there twice: first as a fighter chasing the next bout, and now as a professional coach helping build the next generation. Reid moved from Australia to the United States and then to Shanghai, carrying research and high-performance experience into a different sporting and cultural environment.

Living abroad can widen a career, but it also strips away familiar shortcuts. You have to listen more carefully, understand how trust is built locally, communicate across cultures and adapt your expertise to the people in front of you. The webinar will explore what China has taught both guests—not as a travel story, but as a place where their professional identities have continued to change.

What Attendees Will Take Away

• What the transition from professional fighter to elite coach actually demands
• How research becomes practical decision-making during training camps and fight week
• Why making weight is a coaching, nutrition, recovery and communication challenge—not merely a number on the scale
• How multidisciplinary teams support fighters without losing sight of the individual athlete
• What it takes to earn trust and build a career in a country and culture different from your own
• Lessons for young coaches, nutritionists and practitioners who want experience beyond the classroom

Who Should Attend?

This conversation is especially relevant for sports nutritionists, dietitians, combat-sport coaches, strength and conditioning professionals, sport scientists, athletes and students who want a more honest picture of life inside high-performance sport. It will also speak to anyone considering an international career—and wondering what happens after the exciting decision to leave home.

Join the Live Conversation

The session will be recorded live on Zoom, with participants joining from multiple regions. Bring your questions and come ready for a conversation that moves beyond job titles and polished biographies.

Local time — Tuesday, 22 September 2026

• China / Singapore: 7:30 p.m. (UTC+8)
• New York: 7:30 a.m. EDT
• United Kingdom: 12:30 p.m. BST
• Central Europe: 1:30 p.m. CEST
• Perth: 7:30 p.m. AWST
• Adelaide: 9:00 p.m. ACST
• Sydney / Melbourne / Brisbane 9:30 p.m. AEST

Final Word

Careers in combat sport are not built from a safe distance. They are built in the rounds nobody sees, in the weight room and the laboratory, in unfamiliar cities, and in the decision to begin again after a win, a loss or a change of direction.

On 22 September, Mark Timms and Dr. Reid Reale will take us inside that journey—from the changing room to the research lab, from fighter to coach, and from home to a life built in China.

Join us live. The bell rings at 7:30 p.m. in Shanghai.

For registration, please contact us edu@thegpni.com