Penn students found mixed martial arts club to teach combat techniques, create community

A new mixed martial arts club on campus is providing Penn students with the opportunity to learn combat techniques and participate in competitions.  

Penn MMA, which was founded in the 2023 fall semester by College senior Maximilian Chan, trains and practices mixed martial arts — a full-contact combat sport featuring techniques from various martial arts from around the world. Several Penn MMA members are preparing to compete in an event on April 12 in Morgantown, West Virginia, hosted by the intercollegiate mixed martial arts organization NUCA. 

Penn MMA lessons are led by more experienced members with backgrounds in various forms of martial arts. The club also holds more casual practices and joint sessions with other martial arts groups on campus, such as clubs for taekwondo, boxing, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, among others. 

“Something that's been really great about MMA at Penn is you're learning something new every session. That's because the students are the coaches. So everybody's coming in with their own background,” Engineering first year Sydney Diaz said. 

Chan estimates that most of the club members are newcomers, with only around one-fourth of members having extensive experience before joining. 

“We know how scary [mixed martial arts] is, and we try to be as beginner-friendly as possible,” College first year Julian Velazquez said. “Where we hold certain practices, we specifically tailor to beginners, so they can start learning how to defend themselves, learn how to fight, and they can warm up eventually to competing if that's something that they want to do.”

Unlike with point systems in some other martial arts competitions, opponents in MMA aim to incapacitate each other in three-minute, three-round fights, either by knocking them out, forcing them to surrender, or by having the referee issue a technical knockout over health concerns. The risk of injuries, such as concussions or bloody eyes, can make the competitions more intense than sparring practices and smokers, which are exhibition fights.

Despite the competitive nature of the sport, Chan said that members often have different reasons for learning MMA.

“[Competing’s] just for some people,” Chan said. “For most of the community members — like 95% —you just train because you want to get better. You want to have some exercise. You want to meet some new people, some amazing people, or you want to learn how to fight. … No one's going to end up being an MMA fighter when we graduate.”

Multiple Penn MMA members said that they appreciated the club's focus on community building. 

“I feel like the friendships I have over MMA are different than the friendships I have outside of it,” Chan said. “A lot of times, when you spar, you both get in the heat of it. Afterwards, you like them. ‘You're a pretty cool guy.' ‘Yeah, you're pretty good.' And you get really close.”

The club hosts various events to that end, including tournament watch parties and, most recently, retreats over the Easter weekend.

“We walked up a ski resort, we hung out at the top of the mountain, and we did a campfire — just generally team bonding, getting really close,” Velazquez said. “I think that was a really good way [for] the people on the team and members of the club to meet each other [and] learn about each other on a more personal level.”

Penn MMA will become eligible for funding from the Student Activities Council next academic year, and the club hopes to bring in professional coaches.

“Along with our own training, we've also had to help in the training of others. Bringing in coaches … would definitely help take the load off some,” Velazquez said. “Knowing how to do the sport and knowing how to coach the sport, those are two separate things.”

Diaz said that Penn MMA is likely to last as new people join and become regular members. 

“They come in with no experience, and then, bam, you're seeing them every single day at the club,” Diaz said. “We just had a second-semester senior join, and she was going every single day. With that spirit, I think this club could go on for as long as we want because it's a great community.”