MMA Gym Near Me in Parkchester: Jungle Gym's Two Decades on Unionport

Jungle Gym Martial Arts has been teaching on Unionport Road for more than twenty years and calls itself the Bronx's first mixed martial arts academy. It sits at 1526 Unionport Rd, Bronx, NY 10462, a short walk from the Parkchester station on the 6 train, and the whole adult menu is open to beginners from day one: gi jiu-jitsu, no-gi grappling, MMA and open mat. The opening offer is a Free Power Week, a full week of unlimited training with no contract and no credit card. If you are searching mma gym near me anywhere in the east Bronx, this is the room to visit first.

Founder Justin Garcia, known on the mats as Master Chim, grew up in the Bronx and started training young. He earned his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Rob Kahn, himself a black belt under Royce Gracie, and the gym says he trained alongside Royce Gracie, Glover Teixeira and Kenny Florian. He also holds a judo black belt and a Jungle Gym black belt in the academy's own system.

Along the way he competed at the Abu Dhabi Championships and was featured in Full Contact Fighter and Grappling magazines. The about page carries photos with dates: hosting Marcelo Garcia in 2005 for one of his first New York seminars, a 2005 competition shot with Joe Rogan and Eddie Bravo, a 2006 Sportfighting event, and Garcia's black belt day with Kahn in January 2007.

The academy has since trained more than 3,000 students and opened a second school at 714 North Avenue in New Rochelle. Garcia has also written two books drawn from his coaching years, Tribalnomics and Strong Mom, Strong Son, and hosts the Pressure Master podcast.

The adults program starts at age 13 and lists six disciplines: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts, submission grappling, judo and wrestling for takedowns, self-defense, and fitness and conditioning. On the schedule these break into four class types. Gi BJJ is traditional kimono training, no-gi grappling is fast submission wrestling that carries straight over to MMA, MMA puts striking, wrestling and ground fighting together, and open mat is free practice with partners.

None of the four has a prerequisite. The gym's five-step outline for a first visit is plain: walk in or call ahead for a tour, borrow a gi or wear comfortable clothes, warm up with the class at your own level, learn techniques with a partner who knows it is your first day, and leave having done something real. The head instructor at HQ is Coach Anthony, a black belt under Garcia and his student for almost twenty years, who has competed in both grappling and MMA.

For your first class, wear athletic shorts and a T-shirt with no zippers or buttons. Gi classes have loaner gis; for MMA and no-gi, a rash guard and board shorts work best. Bring a water bottle and a towel. The FAQ is blunt about fitness: you do not get in shape to start martial arts, you start martial arts to get in shape, and the gym points to a student, Elliot Pacheco, who lost more than 100 pounds training there.

Beginners are advised to train two or three times a week and build from there. Women train in every class alongside everyone else, and students who started in their thirties, forties and fifties are part of the regular mix. If you have an injury, tell the coach before the warm-up starts.

Much of the daytime traffic is children. The kids program runs for ages 5 to 13 and uses a curriculum the gym calls The Big 7, with a life-skills block called Samurai Sessions built into every class: focus, respect, goal setting, anti-bullying and leadership. Kids wear protective gear during striking drills, and sparring is closely supervised.

There is also an after-school program that picks students up from local Bronx schools, serves a snack and runs a full class, plus break camps; the summer page advertised Summer Camp 2026 enrollment. If you train in the evening, expect to share the lobby with parents collecting their children.

Signing up is simple: walk in during class hours, call, or fill in the form on the free trial page, and the gym says it will start you the same day when it can. Use the week to sample all four class types rather than repeating one, because the MMA class draws on both the grappling and the striking you see in the other rooms.

Competition is optional. The gym has a team with national-level experience that students grow into when they are ready. Its motto, repeated across the website, is Better than yesterday, never as good as tomorrow, and Kenny Florian's line on the reviews page sums up the pitch: you will not find a more passionate instructor.

Unionport Road is one of the main streets through Parkchester, the planned community that the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company built in the east Bronx. MetLife showed a scale model of the development at the 1939 World's Fair, and the 171 red-brown brick buildings, eight or thirteen stories tall, are still connected by broad tree-lined walkways.

Look up at the entrances and corners. The complex carries about 500 terra cotta statuettes and 600 plaques, including bullfighters, mermaids, puffins and kangaroos, made by sculptors such as Joseph Kiselewski and Raymond Granville Barger. At the center, the two-acre Aileen B. Ryan Oval, formerly Metropolitan Oval, holds Barger's Fantasia fountain, installed in 1941. A slow lap of the oval takes about fifteen minutes and is a calm way to settle nerves before a first class.

Jungle Gym Martial Arts, 1526 Unionport Road, Bronx, NY 10462, near Parkchester, Castle Hill and Soundview. Hours Monday to Friday 10am to 9pm, Saturday 9:45am to 1pm, Sunday open mat by appointment. Free Power Week for new students, no contract or card. The gym does not publish membership prices; it offers individual, family and kids-only plans by phone. Nearest subway: Parkchester on the 6. The New Rochelle school is at 714 North Avenue.