Blog
Stories, fights, no-gi
From the corner
What Coach Rex has learned in twenty-five years of teaching people to handle themselves. New rounds whenever there's something worth saying.
What this is
Twenty-five years of notes, written down
This is the Rock N Roll Fight Company blog, and Coach Rex Pena writes it. Same guy who holds the pads. Nobody ghostwrites this and nobody optimises it for a robot. If a thing is on here, Rex either did it, coached it, or watched it happen from the corner.
Here is why that matters. Rex started teaching at Hostility MMA in 2007, Ventura's first MMA gym, and opened his own room in 2008. He holds three black belts: first-generation Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Kenpo and Tang Soo Do. Twenty-five years competing in both striking and grappling. He took his first professional MMA fight at 42. Six of the fighters he trained reached The Ultimate Fighter and the UFC, and Tony "El Cucuy" Ferguson took it the furthest. That list is not here to brag. It is here so you know who is talking before you take any of it seriously. You can check the names yourself.
What gets written about:
- The gym's history. Hostility MMA, the split that made two gyms, the 26-foot cage on Goodyear Avenue, the hexagon cage downtown, and the room being built now.
- The fighters. Who trained here, what they drilled, and what happened when they walked out.
- No-gi jiu-jitsu. Rex's specialty. Scrambles, guillotines, getting back to your feet when someone puts you on the floor.
- Self-defense that holds up. Not theory. What you do when a hand closes on your wrist in a parking lot, not on a mat with a willing partner.
- Fight nights. Corners, nerves, weight, and the two sentences that are worth saying between rounds.
Who it is for: the woman who has never trained and is not sure she belongs in a gym. The parent wondering whether their kid is old enough. The guy who has been meaning to start for six years. The amateur with a date on the calendar and nobody in his corner. You all get the same posts, because the basics do not change once the pressure goes up.
New rounds go up when there is something worth saying, not on a schedule. If you want a straight answer to one specific question instead, that is what Ask Coach Rex is for. If you want to stop reading and start training, here is what you'll learn.
