Grappling and Wrestling Development
Following his expulsion from the Rickson Gracie academy, Paulson found a new grappling home with the Machado brothers, embedding himself in the Southern California BJJ community. Rather than narrowing his focus, he used this period to construct one of the most comprehensive independent training regimens of his generation — simultaneously pursuing wrestling, boxing, Muay Thai, and grappling at a reported cost of around $650 per month.
His wrestling development came through work with Rico Chipperelli, who sharpened the takedown and top-pressure skills that would become hallmarks of his hybrid approach. Evening grappling sessions at the Machado school anchored his ground game, while sparring at Boxing Works — where he trained alongside Chad Stahelski, the stunt performer and filmmaker who would later direct the John Wick franchise — illustrated the remarkable overlap between elite combat sport training and Los Angeles's emerging action film world.
Striking and Cross-Disciplinary Training
On the striking side, Paulson trained with multiple boxing coaches — Nikolai Sonia, Charlie Gergen, Marvin Cook, and Battalia — drawing from different technical traditions rather than committing to a single school of thought. His Muay Thai education came through Rob and Lucy Aker and Ajarn Chai, with morning sessions at North Hollywood Muay Thai and the Inosanto Academy providing both striking depth and weapons context within a broader martial arts framework.
His daily rhythm reflected the intensity of this period: hard morning striking sessions gave way to evening grappling and sparring, each discipline reinforcing the others. During this same stretch, Paulson competed extensively in Japan, where the early MMA scene operated in a largely informal and fragmented way. Many bouts from this era went unrecorded or untelevised — a common reality for fighters navigating Japan's mixed martial arts circuit before the sport developed the infrastructure to document events systematically. Amid that active competitive life, he captured gold at the 1996 Pan Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship at blue belt, a result that validated his unorthodox, multi-discipline approach on a recognized competitive stage.