Olympic wrestling medalist Kenny Monday and the Blackzilians have parted ways.

Yahoo! Sports' Cagewriter blog reported Wednesday that Monday, who has been with the South Florida-based crew which boasts the likes of Rashad Evans, Michael Johnson, and Eddie Alvarez, will no longer serve as the gym's wrestling coach.

Monday said he was blindsided by the news.

"It wasn't my decision, it was [Blackzilians manager] Glenn Robinson's decision," Monday told Cagewriter's Elias Cepeda. "I was blindsided by [the release]. I really don't know what his reason is. I don't know if they are struggling financially, or what it is. I'm not sure what's going on here. He wasn't man enough to come talk to me himself. Life goes on."

After the news broke, a prominent Blackzilians fighter gave his camp's side of the story. Talking to MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani, Evans seemed to confirm the idea that the gym's management decided to go in another direction.

"It's something that has been kind of brewing with things not working out with Kenny and the management," Evans said. "It reached its limit. It became hard to work with him."

Evans says when push comes to shove, he's standing by his team.

"I was Kenny's biggest backer. I did my best to be the mediator, but when you have strong personalities going head to head it doesn't make for a good resolution. We all consult about everything. When they came to me about it, I had no choice but to support my team about the decision that was being made."

Monday is a two-time Olympic freestyle wrestling medalist, winning gold in 1988 and silver in 1992.