MMA Gym Near Me in North Hollywood: Hayastan's Judo Roots on Atoll Avenue

Hayastan MMA Academy is the North Hollywood school where Ronda Rousey, Karo Parisyan and Manny Gamburyan learned to throw people, and its adult MMA class still runs every Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm. The gym sits at 7229 Atoll Ave, North Hollywood, CA 91605, just north of Sherman Way. The MMA plan costs $225 a month for eight classes, and a free trial class can be booked online. Searching mma gym near me in the Valley? Few rooms have a deeper grappling pedigree.

Gokor Chivichyan was born in Yerevan in 1963 and won junior titles in judo, sambo and wrestling in Soviet Armenia before moving to Los Angeles at 17. There he trained in catch wrestling and judo under "Judo" Gene LeBell, a grappler who had learned from Lou Thesz and Ed "Strangler" Lewis. Chivichyan opened the Hayastan Academy in 1991 and retired from professional competition, coming back once in 1997 to win an MMA bout by armbar in 50 seconds.

LeBell stayed at Chivichyan's side for decades, teaching his own grappling classes at Hayastan until his death on Aug. 9, 2022, at 89. Together the two men built what became known as the Hayastan Grappling System, a blend of judo, sambo, catch wrestling, Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling. Black Belt Magazine named Chivichyan its Judo Instructor of the Year in 1997, and he holds a 7th-degree judo black belt and a 2nd-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

The fighter list is long. Manny Gamburyan arrived from Armenia in May 1991 and began judo at Hayastan almost immediately, later finishing as lightweight runner-up on The Ultimate Fighter 5. Karo Parisyan started judo there at nine and fought in the UFC. Ronda Rousey trained at Hayastan as a judoka, described its judo as a more brawling style than the technical Japanese approach, and decided after the 2008 Olympics to start MMA through Team Hayastan.

Adult MMA meets Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm, an hour after the 5pm Teens MMA class on the same days. Because the school grew out of judo and sambo, the MMA class sits inside a timetable dominated by throws, pins and submissions, and its own sign-up plan bundles the 5pm and 6pm Tuesday and Thursday sessions together. Many of the people on the mat in the 6pm hour also train judo or grappling later the same night, which is why judokas and wrestlers keep walking in the door here.

Striking has its own slots on the same timetable. Muay Thai runs Monday and Wednesday at 6:30pm for ages 12 and up, boxing for ages 10 and up is at 8pm on Wednesday and Friday, and adult kickboxing is sold in two- and three-day plans. Pairing Tuesday and Thursday MMA with Monday and Wednesday Muay Thai gives a four-night week that covers both halves of the sport without repeating a class.

Grapplers can add Adult Grappling, a no-gi class Monday and Wednesday at 8pm, or the gi class billed as Adult Judo/Sambo/Jiujitsu on Tuesday and Thursday at 8pm, which follows MMA by two hours on the same nights. There is also a Competition Judo session at 7pm on Tuesday and Thursday, and a noon-hour adult grappling class on Tuesday at 11am for people who work evenings.

Hayastan sells most programs as two-classes-a-week plans of eight classes a month, and the adult MMA plan, covering the Tuesday and Thursday sessions, is $225. Adult no-gi grappling and the gi Judo/Sambo/Jiujitsu class are also $225 for eight classes, while the single Tuesday 11am grappling class is $150 for four classes a month. Three-day kickboxing and boxing plans are $275 for twelve classes.

If you want to train across the whole timetable, the Silver package is $350 for 24 classes a month and the Golden package is $400 for unlimited classes. Judo Unlimited, covering the weekday 5pm, 6pm, 7pm and 8pm judo slots, is $300. All of these are listed on the academy's Zen Planner sign-up page, which also handles the free trial.

The free trial is booked through the academy's Zen Planner page, where each upcoming session is listed by date and time and marked available, so you pick the exact class you want to try. Choose a Tuesday or Thursday 6pm MMA slot for the real thing. The front desk keeps short hours, Monday to Friday from 4pm to 10pm plus Tuesday at 11am, and the gym is closed on Saturday and Sunday.

Dress for the class you booked. The 8pm Tuesday and Thursday Judo/Sambo/Jiujitsu class is a gi class, so you need a judo or jiu-jitsu gi, while MMA and the Monday and Wednesday 8pm grappling class are no-gi, so a rash guard and shorts work. Bring a mouthguard for any striking work, and plan to arrive a few minutes early to fill in your details before stepping onto the mats.

Atoll Avenue is a short residential street in the 91605 part of North Hollywood, and the gym sits just north of Sherman Way between Fulton Avenue and Ethel Avenue. Metro Bus 162 runs the length of Sherman Way and stops at Sherman/Fulton and Sherman/Ethel, both a short walk away. Eastbound, the 162 ends at North Hollywood Station, about a quarter hour from Sherman Way and Laurel Canyon, where you can transfer to the B Line and G Line.

Driving from the 170 Hollywood Freeway, take the Sherman Way exit west for about a mile and a half and turn north onto Atoll. From the 405 the same Sherman Way exit puts you about three miles west. Evening classes start at 5pm and run until 10pm, so the 6pm MMA class lands right in the Sherman Way rush hour. Leave a few extra minutes on weeknights.

Sherman Way around the gym is a working commercial strip of small family businesses, which suits a school whose name, Hayastan, is the Armenian word for Armenia. The name says plainly where the school came from.

For a warm-up jog or a post-class cool-down, Whitsett Fields Park at 6952 Whitsett Ave is about a mile east. The city park has unlighted baseball and softball diamonds, soccer fields, a lighted children's play area, picnic tables and restrooms, and it is open from dawn to dusk every day. Strathern Park North, farther up Whitsett at 8041 Whitsett Ave, is another city-run green space within a short drive.

Hayastan MMA Academy, 7229 Atoll Ave, North Hollywood, CA 91605. Hours Monday to Friday 4pm to 10pm, plus Tuesday 11am; closed Saturday and Sunday. Adult MMA Tuesday and Thursday 6pm; teens MMA 5pm. MMA plan $225 a month for eight classes; Golden package $400 unlimited. Free trial class bookable online. Hayastan also runs Santa Clarita, Northridge and Pasadena locations.