Meet the Fighters

Thiago Alves was already competing in MMA as a teenager winning his first fight at 15 against a 25 year old man. He made the move to South Florida at 19 to train at American Top Team. Alves fought for the UFC Welterweight title against GSP in 2009 and holds a win in the UFC over former champion Matt Hughes. After his UFC career, he went on to win the BKFC world title and started his coaching career at ATT.

Grant Dawson discovered MMA while wrestling in high school and immediately knew it was his future. He had his first MMA fights in a friend's backyard learning moves from YouTube videos and found his first gym when his friends decided it was no longer for them. He wrestled throughout high school and placed 6th at state. Since then his MMA wrestling style has grown more and more dominant. Dawson is an avid Star Wars and anime fan and also enjoys both collecting and playing Yu-Gi-Oh!

Johnny Eblen took a job in South Florida after finishing out his college wrestling career at the University of Missouri. There he met Olympian and American Top Team coach, Steve Mocco. After only a handful of amateur fights, he quit his job and moved in with his now head coach, Mike Brown so that he could focus full-time on MMA. He would go on to win the Bellator Middleweight championship in June of 2022 after a dominating performance over MMA legend Gegard Mousasi. Even more impressive, Elben had never trained any striking before the age of 25.

Gauge Young started wrestling early at age 12 and ventured into kickboxing at 16 before even graduating high school. When his goal of playing college football fell through, he turned to MMA and began training full-time. He made his MMA debut at 18 as soon as he was old enough to compete. Young later made the move to Kansas City, MO where he had the opportunity to fight in front of Dana White on Lookin’ For a Fight. He impressed with a big KO finish and is looked at as one of the Midwest’s most promising young prospects!

Renato Moicano entered the professional MMA scene in 2010 and was immediately thrown into the fire. He didn’t have the luxury of a long amateur career or developing himself as a fighter, fighting a 30-8 veteran at the age of only 21. This was only his second pro fight. He proceeded to make a name for himself across the country of Brazil before making his way to the UFC. He now has a YouTube channel “Money Moicano” growing quickly in popularity while still being ranked in the UFC lightweight division.

Isaac Dulgarian was an accomplished wrestler before his transition to MMA. As the younger cousin of wrestler, fighter and coach, LC Davis, he was a NCAA D2 wrestler and 3-time state champion. His heavy wrestling style has translated well to MMA, resulting in dominating top control and devastating ground and pound. He also has found an interesting hobby outside the cage, keeping bees and producing his own honey.