Monday
5:30pm Boxing
6:30pm Submission Grappling [FUNDAMENTALS]
7:30pm Submission Grappling

Tuesday
5:30pm Private Training [INVITE ONLY]
6:30pm MMA Striking
7:30pm MMA Mixed Martial Arts

Wednesday
5:30pm Boxing
6:30pm Submission Grappling
7:30pm Submission Grappling [ADVANCED]

Thursday
5:30pm Submission Grappling
6:30pm MMA Striking [FUNDAMENTALS]
7:30pm Fitness Circuit

Friday
6:00pm Wrestling
7:00pm Submission Grappling

Saturday
11:00am M.M.A. Mixed Martial Arts
12:00pm Submission Grappling

• Classes on timetable marked [Fundamentals] are introduction classes suitable for complete beginners and contain no sparring.
• Classes marked [Advanced] are for experienced students and competitors only.
• All other classes are mixed ability and a basic knowledge is assumed, these classes contain technique training, light contact and technical sparring drills.

Charity

One the most exciting things about having a group of people together at the gym is the power to do good, not only in helping each other achieve our personal goals but harnessing the strength of numbers to help those less fortunate.

Movember Charity Leicester Shootfighters Team 2011

We had three charity events this year. First was the ‘Grapple for LOROS’ day for a local hospice which combined a seminar by Nick Osipczak and a sponsored sparring session, following that was the Race For Life run and we ended the year with a Movember team that raised more than £2600! Special mention must go to Matt Steady who put in phenomenal effort raising over £1000.

This year Leicester Shootfighters raised a total of over £4300 for charity. We are so proud of everyone who made this possible and would like to thank all who got involved and donated.

Seminars

2011 was our best year yet for seminars, hosting twelve throughout the year on a wide range of subjects. These included

• Two grappling seminars with ADCC world submission grappling champion and UFC veteran Dean “The Bogeyman” Lister.

• Two striking for MMA seminars with Paul “Semtex” Daley, the world’s most devastating striker in the welterweight division

• Three seminars by MMA’s most sought after wrestling coach Kenny Johnson.

• Billy Robinson‘s return to the UK to teach Catch Wrestling.

• Boxing’s John Tandy running a course to qualify as a cutman and hand wrapper.

• Top 5 world ranked female MMA fighter Rosi Sexton women’s seminar.

• UFC fighter Nick Osipczak‘s charity MMA seminar.

• BJJ black belt and highly sought after coach Ryan Hall‘s epic no-gi jiu jitsu seminar.

Paul Daley coaching at Leicester MMA Academy

It has been a huge boost to our development getting the chance to train with other world class coaches and we will continue to bring in the best instructors possible throughout 2012.

MMA

There was a strong focus on MMA competition this year for the team, especially at the amateur level.

Liam Corrigan and Team at Fight UK

Local MMA promotion Fight UK made the move in the city center which provided us with a great opportunity to showcase our fighters in our hometown resulting in 20 bouts for the Leicester Shootfighters Team on Fight UK shows in 2011! We lost a few close decisions but amassed 13 wins with an almost even number of TKO/KOs, submissions and decisions. In addition, we were awarded 2 Submission of the Night and 1 Fight of the Night bonus honours as well as the Fight UK Lightweight Amateur MMA Title.

Fighters representing LSF at Fight UK included Liam Corrigan, Ranjeet Baria, JD Hylton, Chris Miles, Jamie Molyneaux, Subaig Singh, Karsten Lenjoint, Mahmood Besherate, Dan Swan, Oprea Blaga Caius, Nayan Patel, Ed Pang and Courtney Rawle.

Birmingham’s K-Star Thaiboxing academy continued their regular interclub MMA tournaments and we had 5 fighters make successful debuts on their events too: Chris Hughes, Daniel Disarra, Jay Jones, Steve Hixon and Stuart Gore.

Several fighters had individual successes on events, most notably Jake Constantinou winning an ISKA title, Subaig‘s first round stoppage at Urban Knights and Mahmood‘s submission victory at Kayo MMA.

Most bittersweet was Karsten‘s near success in the trials for reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter 14, making it through rounds in New York and Vegas down to the last 32 from the over 4000 applicants then narrowly missing out on getting in the house when he lost the elimination phase fight during the Season Premiere episode.

Grappling

With our focus on training, seminars and competition in MMA this year we didn’t get to as many grappling events as usual yet still managed to pick up a heap of medals at events such as Ground Control, GoToTheGround, UMA British Open and even as far afield as the BJJAT No-Gi Festival in Thailand.

Medal winners for Leicester Shootfighters included: Jake Constantinou, Nathan Matts, Kieron Kiffin, JD Hylton, Johnny, Guy Lewis, Liam Corrigan, LJ Adams and James Norcliffe.

We also ran two very successful club competitions in 2011 for our students to test themselves and put their training in to practice, the Spring Ground Fighting Club Competition in April and Summer Slam event in July.

2012

We have an exciting new year ahead…

• Release of documentary featuring Leicester Shootfighters.
• New timetable with more boxing, MMA Striking and Submission Grappling classes.
• New Wrestling class and introduction of BOLT Wrestling syllabus.
• Launch of Leverage Submission Grappling syllabus and gradings.
• More club competitions, starting with January Submission Grappling event.
• Inter-club competitions.
• Big name MMA and grappling seminars.
• And much, much more…..

Classes start back Tuesday January 3rd, see you all there!

Leicester Shootfighter of the Year: JD Hylton

This year’s Shootfighter of the Year is our very popular boxing coach and physio JD Hylton. For his enthusiasm and positive attitude that uplift those around him and his dedication to helping others we say thank you for being part of the gym and it’s an honour to have you on the team. In 2012 JD will be teaching more boxing classes and continuing his competition success which this year saw him win by TKO in the first round of an MMA fight [video] and win medals in 3 grappling events, ending the year with a gold at the UMA IV British Open Grappling Championships [video].

MMA Competitor of the Year 2011: Liam Corrigan

Two time winner of the Grappling Competitor award Liam “Bermuda” Corrigan focused on training for MMA in 2011 and it paid off, topping a fantastic year with yet another competitor award to go with his title belt. Early in the year Liam defeated  Kieron Rolfe [video] by first round TKO and Paul Jones [video] by unanimous decision to earn an MMA title shot. In September he fought for and won the Fight UK Lightweight Amateur MMA title by submission in the second round [video] completing a hat trick of wins and maintaining his undefeated record.

Grappling Competitor of the Year: Nathan Matts

There were a lot of close contenders for this award, both on competitive performance and embodying what it means to be a good competitor. The person who combined both those aspects best for us was perennial bridesmaid Nathan Matts. He has placed 2nd at three tournaments this year and previously had some of the worst luck always facing the division winner in the first round. But, with limited training time available Nathan is a dedicated student who continually gets back on the mat to try and correct his mistakes through hard work and has repeatedly tested his progress in open competition. For this attitude to training and progress made he is our Grappling Competitor of the Year.

Most Improved Student: James Norcliffe

Another difficult call this year with so many young guys putting in the mat time and making a lot of progress in a very short space of time. However, James stood out to us as one of the next generation who is most dedicated to his own training and making gains all the time yet has learned also how to be a good training partner and work well with others. A quiet student who when he does speaks ask intelligent questions and isn’t afraid of hard work. It’s been a pleasure to coach him.

Honourable Mentions:

• Mark Crofts – While some students are quick to find excuses to not train and loud in announcing their achievements Mark has come back from very serious health problems to put other students half his age to shame on the fitness classes with zero complaint or attention grabbing. He is an inspiration to us as coaches. In addition, we greatly appreciate the support he gives our fighters by coming to all the shows.

• Tim Wurr & Louisa Edwards – Many students walk through the door wanting to be MMA fighters. A few come in with a passion for learning the art form of grappling. Teaching both types is rewarding but as we also have a passion for grappling it’s wonderful to have students such as Tim and Louisa who share it. As important as their genuine interest in what we teach is the dedication they’ve shown to supporting the gym through attending seminars, coming to watch the team compete and participation in charity fund raising etc. The kind of students coaches wish for!

• Paremveer Bassi – Pav has only been with us a short time but is often the first on the mat and has worked very hard this year, making consistent improvement in both his striking and groundwork. One of the students we very much look forward to seeing grow and compete in the years to come.

Classes start back Tuesday 3rd January 2012.

Enjoy the enforced off season and recovery period, look after yourselves and we’ll see you all for an exciting 2012.

Coming in 2012:

• Expanded timetable
• Wrestling program
• Submission Grappling gradings
• Club competitions
• Big name seminars
• and much, much, more…

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the Leicester MMA Academy team.

JD Hylton won GOLD in the -95kg intermediate/advanced division, defeating our friend and Carlson Gracie purple belt Josh Palmer, by anaconda choke just 1:40 in to the final.

James Norcliffe‘s dedicated pre-class drilling paid off with a SILVER medal in the -65kg beginners division showing excellent technique throughout and losing in the final to a much more experienced competitor.

Nathan Matts took his third SILVER medal of the year in the tough -75kg intermediate/advanced division, losing by just a couple of points in the final. Always the bridesmaid!

Jake Constantinou made the step up to the +5 years advanced division despite still being eligible for intermediate and walked away with hard earned SILVER at -75kg, losing in the final to excellent competitor Marc Morrell.

Stefan Biddles went 2-2 in his competitive debut and had a fantastic first ever match (see video below) winning by submission in 20 seconds despite some unusual preparation :/

Patrick Clarke won 2 fights and lost one in his first competition and due to a mix up by the organisers missed out on fighting for a bronze medal.

Subaig Singh went 2-2 in his first grappling competition outside of MMA. Jamie Molyneaux also competed but had to move up a division after missing weight.

Four Leicester Shootfighters amateur MMA warriors headed over to the interclub tournament at K-Star Thaiboxing in Birmingham on December 10th 2011 for some winter beatdown fun.

Up first was Jay Jones in his debut. After a brief back and forth in the clinch Jay got the fight to the floor in mount position and rained down ground and pound for a quick referee stoppage win. In the second fight of the day was Steve Hixon went the distance but pummelled his opponent’s body throughout with punches, kicks and knees. Both their opponents retired after the first fight unwilling to continue.

Stuart Gore‘s first bout went the distance, most of which was spent getting tied up by his opponent and unable to work his game but in the 2nd fight he was able to let rip with vicious kicks in one of the most exciting matches of the day.

Daniel Disarra fought a very one-sided bout easily taking down his opponent and spending most of the time in mount position. Although a stoppage was imminent early on we encouraged Dan to instead work his submissions but was unable to finish within the time.

Well done to all the lads who fought and a big thanks to everyone who came along to support and help out.

Looking forward to seeing these LSF fighters and more from the next generation fighting in 2012!

The line up included: Matt Steady, Iain Ward, Ed Brown, Rob Hannis, Tim Wurr, Nathan Leverton, Ed Pang, Ian Lindsay, Nathan Matts, Chris Hughes, JD Hylton, Chris Miles, Dan Disarra, Christian Schaefer and Karsten Lenjoint.

Star of the team was Matt Steady who raised over £1000!

A huge thank to all who donated, a well done to all the team members and a sorry to the wives and girlfriends who had to put up with it.

From Movember website:

The funds raised in the UK support the number one and two male specific cancers – prostate and testicular cancer. The funds raised are directed to programmes run directly by Movember and our men’s health partners, The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research.

Local fight promotion Fight UK made the move to a new venue for it’s last show of 2011, holding a night of MMA fights in the cage at the stylish Athena building in the city’s cultural quarter.

The fight card saw the return to the cage of Leicester MMA Academy coach Ranjeet “Suave” Baria, who dispatched his opponent at just 1min 44sec of the first round.

After a feeling out process on the feet Ranj easily took his opponent to the ground and landed many strikes from the mount position, forcing his opponent to turn and give up the back mount position where it was only a matter of time until he secured the choke for a submission win.

Ranj’s win also took Submission of the Night honours from YourMMA.tv

Congratulations to Ranj from everyone at the gym.

Date: 6th November, 2011
Time: 11am-2pm
Location: Leicester MMA Academy
Price: £10 for Leicester MMA Academy Members (£25 non-members)

Newly crowned ‘Fight UK Amateur Lightweight Champion’ Liam Corrigan will be hosting a Triangle Choke Workshop at Leicester MMA Academy where he will be sharing the techniques, drills, tips and tricks that have lead him to more than 20 victories in open competition using this submission.

Liam’s in depth knowledge of this submission has been a major factor in amassing a perfect 9-0 amateur MMA record and winning many national grappling titles including Ground Control, GrappleMania UK, U.M.A. Grappling Championship and Combat Academy Groundfighting Championship advanced divisions.

The Triangle Workshop will include triangle choke basics, setups, theories, defences and more for only ten pounds!