location_on

American Kickboxing Academy

categoryAcademy
calendar_month1985
location_onSan Jose United States

Description

American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) is a mixed martial arts gym in San Jose, California, founded in 1985 by Javier Mendez. One of the pioneering MMA schools in the United States, it has trained prominent fighters including Daniel Cormier, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Cain Velasquez, Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck. Dave Camarillo ran its grappling program from September 2003, where he developed Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu, and Leandro Vieira has been the academy's Brazilian jiu-jitsu head coach.

Also known as

AKA · AKA Gym

Locations (1)

  • location_onSan Jose United States
    7012 Realm Drive, San Jose, California, United States
    warning No sources cited

Founder

Javier Mendez

Instructors (2)

Trained here (3)

  • Cain Velasquez
    sports_martial_artsGuerrilla Jiu-Jitsu Probable
    Probable
    Wikipedia and multiple MMA outlets report Velasquez earned a brown belt in Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu under Dave Camarillo while training at AKA; single secondary source
    The evidence favours the claim and nothing credible contradicts it, but it falls short of establishing it.
    under Dave Camarillo (2006)
    fact_checkassessed by FSMverified
    Frederico Muñoz
    Researcher, Martialis
    1 source expand_more
    fact_check
    Wikipedia and multiple MMA outlets report Velasquez earned a brown belt in Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu under Dave Camarillo while training at AKA; single secondary source
    “Velasquez is a brown belt in Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu under Dave Camarillo”
    — Cain Velasquez - Wikipedia (EN). Wikipedia (English)link history info
    sports_martial_artsBrazilian jiu-jitsu Probable
    Probable
    Multiple independent MMA outlets report Leandro Vieira of Checkmat awarded Velasquez his BJJ black belt in October 2013; corroborated by Wikipedia
    The evidence favours the claim and nothing credible contradicts it, but it falls short of establishing it.
    under Leandro Vieira (2013)
    fact_checkassessed by FSMverified
    Frederico Muñoz
    Researcher, Martialis
    1 source expand_more
    fact_check
    Multiple independent MMA outlets report Leandro Vieira of Checkmat awarded Velasquez his BJJ black belt in October 2013; corroborated by Wikipedia
    “a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Leandro Vieira”
    — Cain Velasquez - Wikipedia (EN). Wikipedia (English)link history info
  • Jon Fitch
    sports_martial_artsGuerrilla Jiu-Jitsu Probable
    Probable
    Multiple sources report Fitch received his black belt in Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu under Dave Camarillo while at AKA; corroborated by Wikipedia and BJJ Heroes
    The evidence favours the claim and nothing credible contradicts it, but it falls short of establishing it.
    under Dave Camarillo
    fact_checkassessed by FSMverified
    Frederico Muñoz
    Researcher, Martialis
    1 source expand_more
    fact_check
    Multiple sources report Fitch received his black belt in Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu under Dave Camarillo while at AKA; corroborated by Wikipedia and BJJ Heroes
    “Dave Camarillo became a mainstream name as a coach after many of his students became big stars in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA), names such as Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, Mike Swick, and Cain Velazquez.”
    — BJJ Heroes. Dave Camarillo (BJJ Heroes). BJJ Heroes link history info
  • Josh Koscheck
    sports_martial_artsGuerrilla Jiu-Jitsu Probable
    Probable
    Multiple sources report Koscheck earned a black belt in Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu under Dave Camarillo while at AKA; corroborated by Wikipedia and BJJ Heroes
    The evidence favours the claim and nothing credible contradicts it, but it falls short of establishing it.
    under Dave Camarillo
    fact_checkassessed by FSMverified
    Frederico Muñoz
    Researcher, Martialis
    1 source expand_more
    fact_check
    Multiple sources report Koscheck earned a black belt in Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu under Dave Camarillo while at AKA; corroborated by Wikipedia and BJJ Heroes
    “Dave Camarillo became a mainstream name as a coach after many of his students became big stars in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA), names such as Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, Mike Swick, and Cain Velazquez.”
    — BJJ Heroes. Dave Camarillo (BJJ Heroes). BJJ Heroes link history info

Styles founded here (1)

sports_martial_arts
Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu
founded c. 2003, San Jose

Tags

mma · academy · san-jose · usa

Sources

American Kickboxing Academy - Wikipedia (EN). Wikipedia (English) link history info
“In September 2003 Dave took over the grappling program at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California.”
— BJJ Heroes. Dave Camarillo (BJJ Heroes). BJJ Heroes link history info

Identifiers

https://martial.is/entity/01KZQ7BS7KJ444KWAH72XGN2NT
Wikidata

Cite and reuse

CC BY-SA 4.0expand_more
Plain text
Muñoz, Frederico (YEAR_PLACEHOLDER). American Kickboxing Academy. In Martialis: Martial Arts Lineage Database. https://martial.is/entity/01KZQ7BS7KJ444KWAH72XGN2NT - CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed ACCESSED_DATE_PLACEHOLDER.
BibTeX
@incollection{martialis_01KZQ7BS7KJ444KWAH72XGN2NT, author = {Muñoz, Frederico}, title = {American Kickboxing Academy}, booktitle = {Martialis: Martial Arts Lineage Database}, year = {YEAR_PLACEHOLDER}, url = {https://martial.is/entity/01KZQ7BS7KJ444KWAH72XGN2NT}, urldate = {ACCESSED_DATE_PLACEHOLDER}, note = {CC BY-SA 4.0} }
data_object JSON-LDdata_object Turtle

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