Gym Spotlight - Weapons 9

Gym Name: Weapons 9
Location: Englishtown, New Jersey, United States
Established: 2004
Head Trainer: Chris Tran
Fighters: Marc Seno
Website: www.facebook.com/Weapons9MuayThai

Weapons 9 Muay Thai was established in 2004 by Joe Pellegrino and head Muay Thai instructor Chris Tran.
 

Chris began training Muay Thai in 1997 under TBA instructor Rick Tucci. Chris has also trained with Kru Phil Nurse and Muay Thai legends Coban Lookchaomaesaitong and Kaensak Sor Ploenjitas. As a Chris fighter accumulated a record of 12-7. Chris also promotes The Warriors Cup, New Jersey’s only professional Muay Thai promotion and in 2012 received the New Jersey Martial Arts Hall of Fame’s Muay Thai match maker of the year award.
 

As a fight team Weapons 9 has a solid stable of amateur fighters. Marc Seno is their pro Nak Muay, he as competed for Friday Night Fights and Combat Sports Challenge. With a young stable of talented amateurs the Weapons 9 team should showcase a solid pro stable in the years to come.

Aside from sharpening your striking skills at Weapons 9 you can also expand your martial art skills by taking one of several martial arts that are offered. Joe Pellegrino heads the Western Boxing curriculum and because their association with Modern Martial Arts Catch Wrestling, Judo, and CSW style grappling are all available options to members.

Weapons 9 has the main goal of trying to ensure that its members and fighters learn proper technique and poise. In an age where you see plenty of fights turn into brawls because of lack of technique and poise, Weapons 9 strives to teach their member and fighters a skill set that would make Thailand proud. 

Gym Spotlight - Iron City

Gym Name: Iron City

Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Established: September 4, 2008

Head Trainer: Kru Jason Fenton

Fighters: Sean Kearney, Dejan Kajic

Website: Iron-City.CA

Iron City was founded in 2008 by Kru Jason Fenton. Under his watchful eye he has rapidly developed one of Canada’s finest Muay Thai schools. Kru Jason began training Muay Thai in 1993 under Ajarn Mike Miles.

Kru Jason has competed in several countries through out his 57 fight career including Canada, United States, Hungary, Mexico, England, and Thailand. He has been in the ring with some of the sports best names including legends like Jongsanan Fairtex and Khunsuk Sor Thankul.

From the beginning of his training Kru Jason had a love for teaching. He began to assist Ajarn Mike Miles a year after he began his training. After a celebrated fight career in which he won WKA World Titles in Muay Thai and Kickboxing, as well as a IKF International Title, Kru Jason turned his focus to training the next generation of strikers.

Currently training under Kru Jason at Iron City are Sean Kearney and Dejan Kajic. With the assistance of Kru Jason, Sean Kearney has put together a professional record of 24-7, with more than 50% of his fights having taken place in Thailand. Dejan Kajic has started his career at 3-0 under Kru Jason. Both fighters are some of North America’s top prospects in their respective weight classes, Sean at super lightweight and Dejan at light heavyweight.

Iron City focuses on traditional Muay Thai, this is evident by the legends they bring in to conduct seminars. They consistently bring some of the best fighters to ever grace a ring in to teach seminars. These fighters include Ajarn Jongsanan "Wooden Man" Fairtex, Ajarn Kongnapa Watcharawit, Ajarn Coban Lookchaomaesaithong, and Ajarn Paulo Tocha.

Although traditional Muay Thai is the primary focus of Iron City they also offer Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and wrestling. Their Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu program is taught by Carlson Gracie black belt Tom Montes. Their wrestling program is taught by Nick Ugoalah, a commonwealth gold medalist and trainer to members of Canada’s Olympic wrestling team. 

At Iron City the goal is to grow authentic Muay Thai in Vancouver. The instructors look to pass on their experience and knowledge to their students, as well as bring in different legends to pass on their own experiences to help build fighters that can go out and competed on a world level.