High level fighters and individuals follow a common set of principles to be successful on and off the mats. The training of Gracie Barra Brazilian Mixed Martial Arts gives people insight into these principles through an exciting process that combines instruction, observation, practice, appropriate feedback, live training and competition.

Students of Burton Mixed Martial Arts experience results that transcend gains in strength, flexibility, fitness or self-defense skills. By staying true to the lessons learned in practice and applying them off the mats, Gracie Barra practitioners develop an overall improvement on their focus, vitality and general health.

The Mixed Martial Arts Program here in Burton will give you these basic principles of effective fighting to any individual willing to learn. Its curriculum adapts an immense diversity of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu into core fundamental techniques designed to optimize your learning with intelligence and safety in mind.

Do you have what it takes to be champion?

Here you will be given all the tools you need to be successful in any path you decide to take. With the skills and mindset of a champion there is nothing that can stand in the way of your goals. All you have to do is make the decision to begin and take that first step!

MMA is an acronym for Mixed Martial Arts. There are many different MMA organizations that provide formats for competition with slight variations in rules, the UFC being the most popular. But today’s MMA is a much different than its origins in the United States. Aside from a few exceptions today’s mixed martial arts athletes train in 3 primary disciplines: wrestling, Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxing/Muay Thai.

This was not always the case, and this history is what gave rise to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as such a popular and fast growing martial art. It was brought to the United States when the first UFC was held in Denver in 1993. The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s inaugural event was created to pit different styles of fighting against each other and see who came out on top. In the early UFCs virtually evey imaginable style was represented with champions of their respective martial art: many forms of Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Boxing , Kickboxing, wrestling , etc. But the submission fighting of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu expert Royce Gracie dominated. He won every fight he had in the first four UFC tournaments. From that point on you can watch the slow evolution into what MMA is today.

Fighters started realizing that they had to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, regardless of whether they wanted to fight standing or on the ground. BJJ teaches more than just submissions but also how to stay safe in bad spots and how to escape from larger and stronger opponents. Wrestling also became very important because with wrestling you could choose where the fight took place, you could choose to take your opponent down or to defend the take down and stay standing. Muay Thai /Kickboxing has become the predominant striking styles as it is usually more effective in the cage. The early MMA fighters added these three styles to the arts they had already cultivated throughout their lives. Now though a generation shift happened as a new breed of fighter has emerged. This new generation started with the initial goal of fighting MMA and not competing in any one art made the choice to train in the disciplines they had observed being the most dominate as they grew up, giving us the sport we now call MMA.