From living fight to fight to leading the MMA programme at the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai, Mark Timms has built his career the hard way—one round, one country and one lesson at a time.

There is the version of combat sport the crowd sees: the walkout, the lights, the result. Then there is everything that happens after the arena empties.

Mark Timms knows both sides. He knows what it feels like to win on the world stage. He also remembers the lonely changing room after a loss, when the noise has gone and there is nowhere to hide from what just happened. Those moments—glamorous and otherwise—shaped the former professional kickboxer long before he became Head Coach, MMA at the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai.

On 22 September, Mark will join Drew Campbell and Dr. Reid Reale for a live GPNi webinar and podcast about combat sports, sports nutrition and building a life in China. His story offers something no five-step career guide can: an honest look at how experience inside the fight game becomes the foundation for leading others through it.

A Career Built Without a Map

Mark left the UK and spent the next 12 years competing, travelling, coaching and learning from some of the sport's leading athletes and coaches. There was no neat ladder to climb. For long stretches, the next fight was the plan.

His first life in China was that of a professional fighter. He lived from bout to bout, trying to earn the next opportunity and prove that he belonged. Over time, the work led to a world championship and eventually a contract with GLORY Kickboxing. Each result mattered, but so did everything around it: learning to prepare in unfamiliar environments, reading opponents, managing pressure and returning to training when a night did not go to plan.

That kind of education does not arrive as a certificate. It accumulates in small pieces—in a coach's correction, a difficult camp, a missed opportunity, a performance that finally comes together. Mark's career shows how much of professional growth happens before anyone gives it a formal title.

Seven Years That Changed the Direction

The next major chapter unfolded in New Zealand at City Kickboxing. Mark arrived as an experienced fighter, but the environment asked him to keep being a student. Over seven years, he trained and competed alongside elite athletes while being mentored by the coaches around him.

City Kickboxing is known for producing world-class fighters, yet the deeper lesson was not simply about collecting techniques. Mark was watching how good coaches think: how they organise a room, build trust, communicate under pressure and adjust a plan to the athlete rather than forcing every athlete into the same plan.

Slowly, the question changed. It was no longer only, 'How do I get better?' It became, 'How do I help someone else get better?' That shift—from owning your own performance to carrying responsibility for another person's development—is one of the hardest transitions in sport.

Returning to China on the Other Side of the Corner

Mark's second life in China looks very different from the first. He returned not as a fighter waiting for the next booking, but as a professional coach at the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai. Today, he guides academy athletes working toward the highest levels of MMA.

The job demands more than technical knowledge. A coach has to see what an athlete cannot yet see, decide when to push and when to hold back, and deliver feedback that remains useful when fatigue and emotion are high. The former fighter's advantage is not that he has every answer. It is that he understands the cost of the question.

He has felt the uncertainty before a bout, the consequences of a mistake and the silence after defeat. Those experiences do not automatically make someone a good coach—but examined honestly, they can become powerful tools for helping others.

What Mark's Story Can Teach the Next Generation

For aspiring fighters, coaches and young professionals, Mark's career challenges the idea that progress should always look tidy from the outside. Sometimes the most important period is the one that appears uncertain: moving abroad, entering a better room as a beginner again, or accepting that the next version of your career may require a different identity.

The webinar will explore what Mark learned from fighting across countries, how City Kickboxing influenced his approach, what changed when he became responsible for developing athletes, and what life in China has taught him the second time around.

Join Mark Live

Mark Timms will appear in Building a Global Career: Combat Sports, Sports Nutrition & Life in China, hosted by Drew Campbell with Dr. Reid Reale.

• Date: Tuesday, 22 September 2026
• Time: 7:30 p.m. China / 7:30 a.m. New York / 12:30 p.m. UK / 1:30 p.m. Central Europe
• Platform: Live worldwide on Zoom
• Registration: Please contact edu@thegpni.com

A fighter's record shows the wins and losses. It rarely shows the years spent becoming the person who can guide someone else through both. On 22 September, Mark will tell that part of the story.