Disciplines

Ant will teach K1 rules kickboxing which allows low kicks and knees to be thrown with limited clinching and catching of kicks compared to the Thai Boxing style. This style of Kickboxing was developed to allow Thai Boxers and western kickboxing to compete together – made famous in Japan under the K1 organization. Ant’s class will emphasize ring craft & strategy.

Coach Ben has trained with Ali for many years, he has competing & cornered in our boxing shows aswell.

Mathilde first encountered and fell in love with the art of 8 limbs – Muay Thai – in 1999 and trained with Andy Young in Ross on Wye. After a long break away and three children later, she returned to train under Neville Grant in Gloucester, and has also benefited from attending many seminars with the UK’s Muay Thai experts. She is studying for a degree in Sport & Exercise Science, and is particularly interested in the issues surrounding childhood health and fitness.

Steve started his journey in Martial Arts in 2000, joining a Jeet Kune Do club (JKD) run by Pete Miller
in Weston-super- Mare. The training focused on different ranges of fighting, striking/ grappling and
weaponry. Emphasis was put on making what you learn functional, so when the first MMA show,
FightClub 1, hosted by Stuart Davis in Weston-super- Mare came up, Steve and other students from
his school jumped at the chance to compete. This started Steve with his teammates focusing their
training towards competing in MMA shows. After their instructor left to work in America and due to
having no quality coaches in the area, Steve took up the mantle of coach and travelled to fight gyms
in Exeter (SDCS) and a BJJ School in London, Brazilian Top Team (BTT) to bring back technical
knowledge to his teammates. Steve competed for SDCS and BTT as well as his own team
WestonMMA and at one point won ‘fighter of the night’ at FightClub 3, after coming back from a
loss and winning a hard fought rematch. Steve also won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in BJJ and
no-gi grappling at competitions such as ‘The London Open’ ‘The Gracie European Invitational’ and
‘Urban Gorillaz’. Steve was awarded his blue then purple belt by Professor Ze Marcello under BTT
but then in 2006 suffered ligament damage due to a training accident that saw him focus more on
his coaching rather than competing. Steve has coached people to champion level in the cage, on the
mats, and has witnessed people become champions in their lives through the discipline and
camaraderie of good teamwork in Martial Arts.
Steve has, this year, started back training and competing in BJJ, under the instruction and guidance
of Professor Antanas Jazbutis of CHECKMAT and is happy to be part of a competition team again. In
October of this year Steve competed in the Masters category of the IBJJF London Fall International
Open at Crystal Palace , which draws the best BJJ competitors from all around the world. Under the
coaching of Professor Antanas, Steve won his weight division and the open weight division at purple
belt, taking home double gold medals for his team.
Steve is a devoted family man and has older and younger children who he passes on his martial arts
knowledge to. He also loves the ‘Walking Dead’ and Vikings TV series!

Boxing for over 11 years Ali Christie is a young talent who is also a great coach, he takes the boxing classes at KO as well as personal training 1-1’s. Last year Ali signed as a Professional Boxer and is looking to have his next bout soon!

Fabio started training Kung Fu Shaolin at the age of 13 in Sao Paulo – Brazil.

At the age of 18 he joined a Kyokushin Karate academy under Francisco Filho who at the time was the current Karate and K1 World Champion.

In 1999 he had his first encounter with Brazilian Jiu through 2 childhood friends who at the time were both purple belts (coach level), one training under Ryan Gracie and the other under Fabio Gurgel and he instantly fell in love with the art.

In 2000 he came to the UK and started training at Budokai in London in the 1st Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) academy of the UK under the Anaconda Club.

In 2001 he won the European Tournament in his division (Copa Luiz Carlos Guedes) with an impressive semi-final victory in under a minute where his opponent was left unconscious from a choke hold.

After a few years gap for his University Studies he returned to his BJJ training in the beginning of 2009 and never stopped since, but this time also focusing on the self-defence aspect of the art.

In May 2016 he earned his Purple Belt from Braulio Estima and Ali Mason training under Matt Clarke.

Fabio had the privilege of attending numerous seminars or training (and will be very happy to share the knowledge with his students) with the highest level BJJ practitioners in the world which include:

Rickson Gracie, Braulio Estima, Victor Estima, Eddie Bravo, Ryron Gracie, Rorion Gracie, Mauricio Gomes, Nick Brooks, Sam Fernandez, Dave Birkett, Alex Ueda, Mark Walder, amongst others.

Fabio is a dedicated father of 2 naughty but wonderful little boys and his full time job is in automotive development engineering.

Fabio holds full First Aid qualification as well as Gym instructor in the UK.

At age 14 I began to learn pro wrestling I have over 12 years ring experiences. I travel to Swindon to do my training.

I have been taught by different people and tending training seminars with some of the top British guys and ex wwe stars and guys from Japan.

I was training in Swindon for over 10 years at wrestling school 4fw academy and performing on shows.

The last two years I’ve been a head coach trainer at Proev Gloucester.

In 2015 we did our first show in Stroud, my home town, at Strafford Park, a proud moment for me in front of friends and family.

March 12th 2016 was my biggest achievement winning middleweight belt at GL1 Leisure centre.

Connor’s first introduction to martial arts occurred while at primary school when his father enrolled him into taekwondo classes. He continued these classes for several years and completed several gradings before leaving the classes to pursue team sport after school clubs.

It wasn’t until 17 years old that he had his second encounter with martial arts in the form of MMA taught by UFC Veteran Mark Weir as an enrichment activity at Cirencester College. Connor was instantly hooked, largely on the grappling Mark demonstrated, and so after his first session researched the area to find grappling classes in Matt Clarke (a purple belt at the time) teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Stroud. He attended Matt’s class the following week and was humbled by how easy even the lower grades in the class could use BJJ to manipulate their combined position to effortless overcome any defence he thought he had. Hooked, Connor began to travel with Matt to Gloucester to train with Ali Mason (the BJJ coach at Mark Weir’s gym and a brown belt at the time) several times per week.

A few months into training, Mark launched an MMA recruitment training programme where athletes would be rewarded with seminars and unique training experiences in return for commitment and dedication to the programme. Connor jumped at the chance and after two years had finished was one of the remaining 4 final students.  During his time on the programme he competed in BJJ several times picking up a Bronze medal at Hereford.

In 2015, Connor was awarded his Blue Belt and started to increase his competition activity. In his first few competitions he picked up several bronze and silver medals before moving to lightweight in 2016 where he won Gold at Hereford. Since then he’s had success in various competitions both at lightweight and in the absolute divisions. After graduating from his studies in college, Connor began adding to his training by visiting Lucas Luz (a black belt under Roylker Gracie) at every opportunity. This greatly benefited his competence and lead to his most recent and perhaps grandest achievements that include winning both the over and under 82kg category of Delta Grappling Championships where he submitted all opponents in both brackets, most proudly a 107kg MMA fighter with a last second armbar in the final.

In 2017 Connor compete at the IBJJF European Championships as well as stepping out of his preferred style of GI BJJ to compete NOGI under brown belt rules at an MMA Show where he impressed the crowds with a toe hold and straight footlock in his first fight and went on to finish 2nd overall due to a 2 second faster escape from his opponent after a close final with several advanced submission attempts. A few weeks later, Connor received his purple belt from Braulio Estima. Connor is now a Brown Belt.

Connor has attended seminars and learned techniques from the likes of Marco Canha, Alain Pozo, Braulio Estima, AJ Agazarm, Saeed Esmali, Luke Costello, Bradley Hill and Norbet Nowak as well as training up to 3 times per day with Lucas Luz and Ali Mason.

Connor has experience coaching children in a vast variety of sport and had a broad knowledge of sport and exercise science as well as holding a Level 3 personal trainer qualification, level 2 gym instructor qualification and is safeguarding certified and DBS Checked.