“Some martial arts, like wushu, are deeply entrenched in the Philippines, and when you look at Thailand, they have their long and proud tradition of Muay Thai fighters,” De Souza explains. With this strategy, Evolve quickly became the world’s greatest hotbed of mixed martial arts talent and helped legitimize the sport in the region, but it was no easy task to unify the different combat styles from the cultures across Asia. You could learn grappling from the BJJ World Champions and wrestling from United States champions.” Now you didn’t have to travel to Thailand just to get that authentic Muay Thai experience. The instructors descend from legends like Kru Sityodtong and Renzo Gracie,” Wesley De Souza, Vice President of Evolve, says. “The level of instruction at Evolve set it apart from other academies.
With those elite teachers in the fold, Evolve was able to offer the unparalleled experience of training under World Champions with diverse skill sets – an enticing concept for any aspiring martial arts star. Recruited from all over the world, these instructors were the top experts in their respective fields, which included Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, and Muay Thai. Underpinned by a philosophy of bringing authentic martial arts to Singapore, the gym’s leadership quickly amassed the largest group of World Champion instructors across various disciplines. With mixed martial arts in Southeast Asia still in its infancy, the modern, state-of-the-art facility was the first of its kind in “The Lion City.” Uniting CulturesĮvolve had a vision of becoming a combat sports powerhouse, and it quickly began laying the foundation to make that dream a reality. Before it was christened by sports media as the leading mixed martial arts gym in Asia – where superstars like Renzo Gracie and Rafael Dos Anjos have held training camps – Evolve MMA was just a discrete tenant in PoMo, one of Singapore’s oldest malls.īut upon opening in 2009, Evolve already stood out from its contemporaries.