ACADEMY OF COMBAT ARTS

There are many places around the community that offer different subcategories of Mixed Martial Arts, and the Academy of Combat Arts Fargo (ACA) offers a handful of them, as well as a pro-MMA team. Fighting with technique is an allencompassing way to describe this type of sport, while still only touching the surface of what it entails. Let's learn about the academy and break them down!

ounded in 2009 by MMA fighter and coach Dylan Spicer, ACA has grown to have around 150+ members from all walks of life, according to Dylan.

“Really, it's a melting pot around here, which is really great to have in today's day and age. We have worldclass instruction—we've proven ourselves on the world stage, [to] those who are familiar with professional fighting and fighting locally,” he said.

Dylan Spicer is an undefeated MMA veteran with an 8-0 record in the octagon. He is an experienced trainer, with former UFC fighter Pablo Garza as a former student. He coaches those invited to the Academy of Combat Arts MMA program!

The academy has received quite a bit of recognition for producing both professional fighters, as well as individual success stories for those who joined the programming for other reasons.

“People come here for a lot of different reasons, and we try to accommodate everybody's needs,” Dylan said. “Some people want to come here for stress relief, other people come because they want to learn how to be a professional fighter and other people [have] various rhymes and reasons to be in here. But like I said, we're trying to help everybody reach their goal.”

The ACA gym is open seven days a week and open to members to come in and train at all open times, in addition to their program’s classes!

With a wide variety of members at the gym, Dylan said that making sure that those who join are adding to the positivity of the academy is a priority.

“We literally have soccer moms, doctors and lots of college students. We've got a little bit of everybody, but it's a really great community because everybody knows how to get along here,” Dylan said. “...We're big on the culture of this gym. That's really important to us. You know, the accolades—those are really cool— but they wouldn't really be significant if everybody else in the gym wasn't buying into that.”

Whether you’re looking to go professional, sweat out some of the day’s stress or want to try a new way of exercise, you can find a variety of classes to fit your lifestyle and goals.