MMA Gym Near Me in Signal Hill: Brazilian Top Team's Carlson Gracie Lineage

Brazilian Top Team Long Beach teaches MMA twice a week, Wednesday at 6:30 pm and Saturday at 8 am, inside a jiu-jitsu academy that has trained in the area since 2002. The gym sits at 2680 Dawson Avenue, Signal Hill, CA 90755, just off Willow Street in the oil town Long Beach surrounds. Classes are open to anyone over 16, and the first one is free. For an mma gym near me search anywhere in central Long Beach, this is the team with the deepest Brazilian lineage.

Brazilian Top Team was founded in April 2000 by members of the Carlson Gracie team, among them Murilo Bustamante, the former UFC middleweight champion and Pride FC veteran who still leads it. Bustamante is a 7th-degree coral belt under Carlson Gracie and a CBJJ world champion, and he now teaches jiu-jitsu and MMA in seminars around the world. The Long Beach academy opened in 2002, one of the first branches of what became a single team with many locations.

The academy's website lays out the family tree: Mitsuyo Maeda, who brought judo to Brazil; Carlos Gracie, who founded Brazilian jiu-jitsu with his brothers in 1925; Carlson Gracie, the undefeated Vale Tudo fighter and 9th-degree red belt; then Bustamante. Marcelo Perdomo, a 4th-degree black belt under Bustamante, is head of the Long Beach academy, so a beginner here sits five generations from Maeda.

Perdomo is the name long-time members mention first. One Google reviewer says he has trained at BTT Long Beach for about 20 years and learned just about everything he knows about jiu-jitsu from Perdomo, and that he still drives a long way to train and coach after moving out of town. A parent of two kids in the youth program describes Perdomo as a senior coach who pushes every student to do their very best.

The same long-time member writes that Alex Vieira was brought in to run the team about three years ago and that learning modern techniques from him has been a highlight. Another member of more than a decade calls Vieira one of the most accomplished jiu-jitsu competitors of the last ten years. Students also say teammates trade knowledge freely across jiu-jitsu, boxing, Muay Thai and wrestling, and that the place feels like a team rather than a gym.

The MMA program is split into two classes with different emphases. MMA No Gi focuses on submission grappling, the no-gi side of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and suits people who want to learn to control and finish on the ground without the jacket. MMA Boxing focuses on stand-up striking. Both follow the same four-part structure: a warm-up, a technique lesson, partner training, and then sparring to pressure-test the material.

Both formats are open to all adults over the age of 16, and neither requires a fight record. The academy's women's self-defense page lists the MMA classes alongside jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai as co-ed friendly, pitched at gaining confidence, strength and the ability to handle a threatening situation. Private lessons in every program can be booked on request, depending on instructor availability, for anyone who wants extra hours on one skill.

The adult schedule posted as of July 17, 2026 gives MMA a Wednesday 6:30 pm slot and a Saturday 8 am slot. Saturday is the deepest training morning of the week: jiu-jitsu also starts at 8 am, Muay Thai follows at 9 am, and an open mat runs at 11 am, so a fighter can stack striking, grappling and free rolling before lunch. The building closes at 9 pm on weeknights.

Striking fills out the weeknights. Muay Thai runs Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30 pm, teaching combinations, defensive postures and counters for students over 16, while no-gi classes take Tuesday at 6:30 pm and a fundamentals no-gi session sits on Thursday at the same hour. Gi jiu-jitsu runs Monday through Thursday at 7:30 pm, with fundamentals at 6:30 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Friday ends with a 7:30 pm open mat.

Daytime workers are covered too. Jiu-jitsu or no-gi runs every weekday at 11 am, a 3 pm jiu-jitsu class runs Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and early risers get 6 am jiu-jitsu on Wednesday and Friday. Two unusual sessions stand out on the grid: a Friday 4:30 pm class reserved for tall guys, and ladies-only sessions on Friday at 5:30 pm and Sunday at noon.

The children's timetable runs Monday through Thursday afternoons and is split by age: little kids 3 to 5, kids jiu-jitsu for ages 6 to 9, and big kids 10 to 13. Kids Muay Thai for the 10 to 13 group runs Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30 pm, and Thursday turns the little and big kids classes into no-gi sessions, so a parent can drop a child at 5 pm and stay for the evening adult block.

The youth team travels. The competition tracker Jits.gg counts 49 fighters on the academy's current youth roster across 28 tournaments, with 88 medals tracked, including 19 golds. The website still leads with its 2019 Long Beach International Open championship banner, and parents in reviews mention kids who have already brought medals home from their first few tournaments.

Book the free trial class through the request form on the website, which also opts you into text and email updates from the gym. The trial is how many current members started; one reviewer joined in February 2023, called sign-up effortless, and says one free class was enough to hook him. Over-16 is the only age line for adult MMA, Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu, and beginners can start in the dedicated fundamentals classes.

For a first MMA class, Wednesday evening is the easier entry because the gym is in full weeknight swing and the fundamentals jiu-jitsu class runs at the same hour, so a friend can start too. Expect sparring at the end of either MMA format. Arrive early enough to meet the coach before the warm-up, and bring water, since a Saturday triple of MMA, Muay Thai and open mat stretches from 8 am into the late morning.

The gym is a few blocks south of the 405, with freeway access at Spring Street, which makes it a quick drive from Bixby Knolls, Lakewood or downtown Long Beach. Long Beach Transit routes 21, 22, 23 and 104 stop at Willow Street and Cherry Avenue, about two blocks away. Signal Hill earned its name when native people used the summit to signal tribes on Santa Catalina Island, 26 miles offshore.

Walk south on Dawson for about half a mile, uphill, to Hilltop Park at 2351 Dawson Avenue, where paved paths and picnic shelters look out to downtown LA and the San Gabriel Mountains. The 2-mile Panorama Trail links it to Discovery Well Park, where oil was first struck: Shell's Alamitos Well No. 1 gushed on June 23, 1921, and the field produced over a billion barrels by 1984. Black Dog Coffee Roasters, just over half a mile from the park, roasts beans from the owner's family farm in El Salvador.

Brazilian Top Team Long Beach, 2680 Dawson Avenue, Signal Hill, CA 90755. MMA: Wednesday 6:30 pm and Saturday 8 am, in No Gi and Boxing formats, adults over 16. Muay Thai Tuesday and Thursday 6:30 pm and Saturday 9 am; open mats Friday 7:30 pm and Saturday 11 am. Gym closes 9 pm. First class free. Private lessons on request, plus Friday 4:30 pm tall guys and Friday 5:30 pm and Sunday noon ladies sessions.