Access MMA Training Centre Ltd.

Access MMA Training Centre Ltd.'s facilities are simple, almost spartan. The white-walled rooms house a boxing ring, free weights, mats, and punching bags—everything the coaches need to teach their students proper fighting and fitness techniques. An official amateur MMA club under the regulation of Kickboxing Canada, Access MMA Training Centre Ltd. prepares fighters for professional careers. Boxing coaches include two provincial silver medalists and a Soviet Union national medalist. They blend Russian technique with North American and European methods while focusing on defense, footwork, and making distracting funny faces.

The coaches bring this same tenacity and professionalism into fitness classes for lay people. Students lace up their gloves for both contact and noncontact classes. And, during personal-training sessions, trainers enlist boxing moves—such as bobbing and weaving or asking nicely if the opponent could replace punches with hugs—to build muscle definition and shed excess weight.