MMA Gym Near Me in the Mission: Skrap Pack on South Van Ness

Skrap Pack Mission sits at 672 South Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco's Mission District, and its MMA class meets twice a week: Wednesday at 7pm and Friday at 6:30pm. Adult membership is $265 a month with no cancellation fee, after a one-time $150 initiation that includes one Muay Thai and one jiu-jitsu lesson. Owner Mike Peltzer holds his black belt under Gilbert Melendez, the two-time Strikeforce lightweight champion who is involved in the MMA program. For a mma gym near me search inside city limits, this is the room that carries the old Skrap Pack name.

The original Skrap Pack was the Bay Area crew built around Gilbert Melendez, Nick and Nate Diaz and the Cesar Gracie team, fighters known for a hard, technical style. Melendez, nicknamed El Niño, held the Strikeforce lightweight title twice, defended it four times against opponents including Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri and Jorge Masvidal, held the WEC belt, and finished with a 22-8 professional record.

Mike Peltzer has been part of that family since 2013. Besides his black belt under Melendez, he trained in Rio de Janeiro under Dennis Asche and Roberto Gordo Correa and with Mario Sperry. The gym's coaches page is blunt about who runs things: if you take a class here, you will train with Mike, who is on the mat every day. Melendez's own gym from his fighting years, El Niño Training Center, still exists but now trains out of 1 South Linden Avenue in South San Francisco, outside the city; Skrap Pack Mission is where his lineage teaches inside city limits.

The MMA class is coached by Coach Luis and described as a full curriculum that ties striking and grappling together with cage work and scrambles. It is the class where the separate disciplines meet, so it works best once you have a few weeks of the component classes behind you. Wednesday's 7pm session follows a 5:30pm no-gi class, which makes a natural double session.

One member review on the site comes from a blue belt who arrived with almost no wrestling and says that a steady diet of MMA, wrestling and no-gi classes improved his takedowns dramatically. Another calls it a fun MMA room that is beginner friendly but has a strong core of regulars.

The weekday pattern is simple. Monday has fundamentals jiu-jitsu at 5:30pm and Muay Thai with Kartel Caballero at 6:30pm. Tuesday and Thursday open with Rob Tran's boxing at 5:30pm, then no-gi at 6:30pm, and Thursday adds freestyle wrestling at 7:30pm. Friday is Muay Thai at 5:30pm and MMA at 6:30pm. Saturday runs no-gi at 10:30am and Muay Thai at 11:30am, and Sunday is off.

Wrestling is led by Ron Griffin, head coach at Galileo High School, and covers takedowns, top control, cage work and mat returns for MMA and jiu-jitsu cross-trainers. Rob Tran is a San Francisco native whose boxing classes focus on footwork, fundamentals and intelligent sparring.

The pricing is posted in full, which is rarer than it should be. The $150 initiation fee is required regardless of experience. Adult membership is $265 a month and youth membership $250, both covering every class. The gym's own pitch is that boutique fitness in the city costs $30 to $40 per class, so unlimited access to five disciplines works out cheaper for anyone training three times a week.

Read the exit rules before signing. Membership renews monthly and needs written notice at least 21 days before the next billing date, by email or in person; miss it and the next month is charged. Non-medical freezes must be requested 30 days ahead and run by calendar month. Our honest take: if you only want an occasional MMA class, the monthly plan is overkill, so ask about open mat day passes instead.

Fill in the form on the website or come by during class hours and talk to Mike directly. Most people who join have never trained before, according to the gym, and the fundamentals jiu-jitsu and boxing classes are designed for beginners. For grappling and wrestling, wear board shorts or compression shorts with a rash guard or T-shirt; for boxing and Muay Thai, any athletic clothes work.

There is loaner gear, but the gym encourages members to buy their own gloves, shin guards and mouthguard. Bring water, and a towel for the walk back to the car. Reviews also single out coaches Ron and Krissa by name, and one student who says she has had about 20 jiu-jitsu coaches calls Mike's habit of explaining the anatomy behind each technique the clearest she has met. Kids train too: one parent on the review wall says her children take wrestling and striking while she trains jiu-jitsu.

South Van Ness is a busy one-way corridor, and the gym says parking is directly across the street. Without a car, 16th Street Mission BART is a short walk away, and Muni's 14 and 49 lines run along Mission Street one block west.

Classes cluster after 5:30pm on weekdays, so arrive early enough to change; the 6:30pm block fills with people coming straight from work downtown.

Mission Dolores Park is a few blocks west, a good place for a slow walk and some sun before a Saturday class, with its view across downtown from the southern hill. Valencia and Mission streets between 16th and 24th are packed with taquerias, coffee bars and bookstores, so a post-training burrito is never more than a couple of blocks away.

If you want more MMA nights than Skrap Pack Mission offers, its sister gym, Skrap Pack Marina at 2068 Union Street, runs a two-hour MMA, boxing and Muay Thai sparring session on Fridays at 5pm.

Skrap Pack Mission, 672 South Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94110. Email info@skrappackmission.com. MMA Wednesday 7pm and Friday 6:30pm, coached by Coach Luis. Initiation $150 with two intro lessons; adults $265 a month, youth $250, no cancellation fee, 21 days' written notice to cancel. Closed Sunday. Parking across the street; 16th Street Mission BART nearby.