Ches Lamm, fighter from Team GAMMA, Greenville Academy Mixed Martial Arts, took on a 2-1 fighter in Raleigh NC at Next Level Fight Club promotions. Even though Chess Lamm has a record of 0-0 he went the distance against a more experienced fighter who trains at a legitimate team, Combat Club in Jacksonville NC. He won the fight. Watch him go against all odds to come out on top.
read more →
You asked for it, you got it. This Friday will be the first class of our new classes. With the over whelming response, and our boom in class attendance in our other classes on Monday and Wednesdays. We have listened to our students and have extended our classes to Friday nights. On Fridays at 6pm we will be having No-Gi Grappling MMA. Bring your small MMA gloves. And at 7pm we will be having our Thai Kickboxing Classes. Normally during the summer months when the college students go home, for the summer, our attendance will takes a hit. But Not this year as seen in the Pictures from yesterday.
Come out and enjoy Terrance Whitmore’s instruction.
read more →
Has been a long time since someone agreed and showed to meet Jay Speight in the Cage. Tomorrow night at the Greenville Convention Center he will have his 2nd Professional match in Mixed Martial Arts. If you want to see this dynamic fighter in person you can buy tickets online here.
http://nextlevelfightclub.com/tickets/
make sure you put Jay Speight in the place they ask for it.
If you can’t make the event in person you can watch it Live Streaming Online. Click Here!!
here is some of Jay’s previous matches you can watch.
read more →
One Month from today Jay Speight will be stepping in the cage again in Greenville NC. In preparation for his up coming fight, this week Jay has been in California training with Black House MMA with several top athletes like Lyoto Machida, Rener Gracie, Kevin Casey, Kenny Johnson, James Moontasri, among others. Everyone at the gym is looking forward to seeing what our instructor will be bringing back to Greenville North Carolina.
Oleksander Alex Humen at the Florida Grand Prix at March 2015 Greenville Academy Mixed Martial Arts, Eastern NC MMA, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
read more →Take a look at what chase is doing in a private lesson with Terrance, our Striking instructor. He has gotten really fast with his striking. Working both his stand up and his ground has really turned him into a beast. Just waiting to see what the future will hold for this young man.
Do You want to learn something Fast. Well the best way to learn fast is in private lessons. Both Jay and Terrance Teaches in Private lessons every week. Contact them to get what you want out of your training.
read more →
Jay Speight will be fighting with Next Level Fight Club promotion at the Greenville Convention Center February 28th 2015. This will be his second professional match in Mixed Martial Arts. Having 15 fights and 5 titles under his MMA career he is one of the more seasoned fighters on the card.
If you would like to see the fights there will be tickets at the All-American Martial Arts Academy at 427 Evans Street, Greenville NC.
Jay;’s Opponent will be Joel Caudle, a really tough MMA fighter from Raleigh NC, this should be a really good fight.
You can Purchase tickets online, use code w0rd “JAY” to get the discount.
http://nextlevelfightclub.com/fighter/jay-speight/
read more →
Like to share something today. From time to time I have new interesting people to train. About a year ago Tashi James walked in the door of my academy and asked me a question. He asked me in the best way he could. He wrote It down on paper. See Tashi is hearing impaired. He asked if I thought would he still be able to compete in Mixed Martial Arts?
And it touched me that he wouldn’t let anything get in his way of being a MMA fighter. But I treated him just like any other student. He had to put the work in.
Well I asked him what it was like to fight for the first time, this is what he wrote.
“My first fight was a big learning experience for me. I trained one year before I had my first fight. Gave myself exactly a year to be confident enough to win the fight. I wasn’t experienced in Jiu-itsu and Kickboxing. I have been wrestling for a longtime when I was a teenager. I grew up playing football baseball basketball (find more information here), and to played football at college and semi pro. My dad was an amateur boxer. I was a bit nervous I decided to try be an amateur Mixed Martial Arts fighter. I love the fighting. My goal is to become a professional Mixed Martial Arts Fighter someday. My coaches and students are good teaching me Jiu- jitsu and kickboxing. They really helped me a lot and taught me how to really go for the submission. I’m looking forward to my next Mixed Martial Arts event and match.”
Tashi James
And as the sport has evolved and more people are watching it, more and more people are getting ideas of what it is and what it isn’t. Well someone who has been around this sport for awhile I have seen the pendulum swing back and fourth. At first the grappling part of Mixed Martial Arts was really neglected to the point that just being a good grappler was enough to win Mixed Martial Arts matches.
Then everything swung the other way, then you have to be good at other styles of striking like kickboxing, and have a good base in a grappling style.
But now I am seeing a dangerous trend. There are so many Mixed Martial Arts matches to never get to the ground. Fighters are more content to keep things standing up and win by knock out, or by decision. And that is good, but when the new generation of fighters are inspired by what they are seeing in Mixed Martial Arts, they are getting maybe the wrong idea.
When Anderson “The Spider” Silva was knocking people out, a lot of people I was talking to about his style and ability didn’t know he had a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. And when I was with a group of people watching some of his fights, they were so excited when he was taken down, and I would say “just wait and see what happens.” We all know what happened.
Just because you don’t see the grappling moves and submissions don’t mean the fighter isn’t working on that part of his game. And don’t mean he is not proficient in that range of fighting.
I also think having a good Grappling game will help you in your stand up too. I have seen the stand up fighters be so scared of going to the ground that they couldn’t get that 3rd or 4th punch or kick off the finish the fight. They was always having to protect their hips and stay in longer ranges. Sometimes this is a good idea to win a judges decisions, but seldom allows you to finish the match.
Get on the mat, and let’s train.
Coach’s Corner
James Speight.
read more →
“Mixed Martial Arts is Dangerous!!”
You know how many times I have heard that?
Just because you have many many options when you are fighting MMA it does’t make it more dangerous. I would like to say I think that it makes it less dangerous. To the average fighter or person who practices it.
In any other single style sports what ever it is boxing, kickboxing, karate, TKD or anything. When you compete, or train and when you realized that you are over matched in something with your competitor. For the most part due to the rules they are forced to accept the situation you are in. Have a look at how jake paul fights and how much he earns as a professional boxer.
You have to face your attacker and get served up like the main course meal.
And I know yes “if you have heart!!” you can fight back and win, if you “use your mind” you can surprise your opponent. And yes that is great, but that can be used in MMA too. What I am talking about is options to be able to take your opponent out of their comfort zone. If the rules of your sport close the focus then you can just work on smaller parts of the combat. If your rules of your sport open the focus then you have to be open to work on larger parts of your combat. Less rules gives you more options.
Let me ask you this. If you had a choice to fight multiple attackers on the street but you get to choose. To fight them in an ally way in the city. Or a field in the county. Yes you would pick the field in the country. Why because it would give you options you wouldn’t get in the ally way. Mixed Martial Arts is the same way. It gives you options you wouldn’t have in other sports. If you are losing the stand up you can take it to the ground, if you are losing the ground game you can escape and stand it up.
Keep a open mind
And lets train
James Speight
read more →
