MMA Gym Near Me in Westchester: Freestyle Fighting Academy Across From FIU

Freestyle Fighting Academy has been in the same unit at 1423 SW 107th Ave, Miami, since October 2001, and it calls itself the first MMA gym to open in South Florida. It sits in the Publix shopping center directly across the avenue from FIU's main campus, it is staffed and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it runs more than 70 classes a week from 6am to 1:45am. If you typed mma gym near me anywhere between Westchester, Sweetwater and Kendall, this is the long-running answer.

You cannot just walk in and jump into a class. Your first visit is an appointment: you fill in a short form, and staff call back within 24 hours to book an instructor for you. That instructor gives you a one-to-one lesson covering the jab, cross, hook, roundhouse kick, closed guard, rear naked choke and armbar, then walks you around the gym.

The lesson opens a 30-day free trial that includes group classes, the daily open mats, a uniform you keep whether or not you join, and access to the gym's online video portal, FFAcoach.com. The offer is limited to South Florida residents. Prices are not posted anywhere online; the gym says it goes through them in person, and only once the 30 days are up.

The gym's own timeline starts in 1996, when brothers Marcos and David Avellan began training Jeet Kune Do. A year later they joined the Killian High School wrestling team under Tirso Valls, and by 1998 Marcos was training no-holds-barred fighting, the scrappy predecessor of modern MMA. Marcos started the Avellan Grappling club in 2000 and the brothers opened Freestyle Fighting Academy in 2001.

Both went on to the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships. Marcos won the 2004 ADCC US Trials and is listed as undefeated as a professional MMA fighter. David took ADCC bronze in 2009 and built the Kimura Trap System, a grappling course he released in 2012. Marcos still teaches on the regular adult roster; David is described as a founding member who visits to teach.

In 2005 the gym sent its first home-grown fighter, Charles McCarthy, into the UFC. In 2006 Jorge Masvidal fought for BodogFIGHT out of this room, and the coaching staff also worked with Kimbo Slice, Alex Caceres, Phil Davis, Michael Chandler and Brandon Vera. Jason Soares, nicknamed the Specimen, won the FILA 65 kg Grappling World Championship in 2011 and became the gym's first TitanFC champion in 2018.

Soares is now one of the black belts on the coaching list, alongside Chevenne Moreno and Edgard Plazaola. The gym is candid that competitors are a small minority: it estimates about 95 percent of the people training here are ordinary students, from a 48-year-old sales manager to an engineer who travels for work and families who train together.

Adult MMA is split in two. The Intro Program is the beginner track, built around fundamentals of striking, clinch and ground work, and it is where everyone with no background starts. The Combat Athlete Program is the advanced track with full-contact sparring and the ranking system, and you cannot buy your way in: coaches invite students up when they are ready.

Above that sits a Pro/Am fight team for amateur and professional competitors, entered by tryout and with extra invite-only sessions. Alongside MMA the schedule covers Muay Thai and Dutch-style kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu in gi and no-gi, and a women-only fitness bootcamp that Rima Avellan, the third owner and a 2005 ADCC competitor, founded in 2006 and still runs.

Children start younger here than at most fight gyms. Tiny Ninjas takes two- and three-year-olds, Little Ninjas covers four to seven, and Kids covers eight to twelve, so a five-year-old never shares a mat with a teenager. Teens MMA, for 13 to 17, is taught by a single coach, Emmanuel Lokolo, and the kids' side has its own advanced group called the Black Belt Club.

Every coach on staff has completed the gym's 12-week Instructor Program, a pass-or-fail course on how to teach, run a room and handle problems rather than on technique. Parents can bring a spouse or the children to the first appointment and have them take part.

Class times are deliberately kept off the website; staff go through the timetable with you at the first visit and help match it to your week. The 24-hour access is the real selling point for shift workers and FIU students: you can lift or drill at 3am, and the daily open mats give extra rounds without paying for privates.

Our honest take: skip turning up unannounced at a peak evening hour expecting a tour, because the trial is built around a booked instructor. If you only want a quick drop-in with posted prices, Ground Game Theory on SW 24th Street, about two miles southeast, sells a $30 day pass and publishes its schedule, though it is mainly a no-gi jiu-jitsu academy.

The address on the door matters less than the Publix. Drive down SW 107th Avenue, look for the supermarket opposite FIU's Modesto A. Maidique Campus, and the gym is in the row of units facing the parking lot under a blue sign. Parking is free with no meter, permit or validation.

A separate business, the Miami Shooters Club, also operates at this address. Marcos Avellan opened it in 2014 to teach firearms training and safety, and the gym is careful to point out that it is not one of FFA's classes, so do not be surprised by the second sign.

FIU's campus is a short walk across 107th. The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, at 10975 SW 17th Street on the campus, is a Smithsonian Affiliate with free admission, open Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 5pm and closed on Mondays. It is a calm hour before an evening class, and it has a café, Vicky Café, inside.

The Publix in the same plaza is the obvious stop for water, fruit and a post-training sandwich. If you are coming from Kendall or Doral, plan around SW 8th Street traffic at rush hour; the 24-hour schedule means a late-night session is often the quickest one.

Freestyle Fighting Academy, 1423 SW 107th Ave, Miami, FL 33174, in the Publix Shopping Center across from FIU. Open 24 hours, seven days a week, staffed. Over 70 classes a week, 6am to 1:45am, plus daily open mat. First visit by appointment: free private lesson, free uniform and 30 days of classes for South Florida residents. Prices discussed in person. Kids from age two. Free parking.