# BJJ or MMA gym? In Sacramento



## hhyuncheol

Hey guys beginner looking to get in to MMA and looking for some guidance on where to start. To help you guys out with your decision let me give you some background information

I’m currently looking in the Sacramento region. First I want to know if I should join a MMA gym or a BJJ specific gym. The two schools I am looking are Urijah’s Ultimate Fitness (http://ultimatefitness.pro/) and Yemaso BJJ (http://www.yemasobjj.com/). 

Where’s why I’m looking at both.

Ultimately the two things I want out of MMA is competition and the confidence of self defense. Actual MMA competition seems much more a high risk route in terms of money, time, and physical injury so I lean heavily towards BJJ competition because of this reason and I do like the culture and style a lot more. But wanting the ability to defend myself in a fight makes me lean more towards Urijah’s Ultimate Fitness since they have a variety of different styles (kickboxing, boxing, bjj) where I will be able to learn stand up techniques as well as groundwork. The only thing that detracts me away from Urijah’s Ultimate Fitness is that Marcus Yemaso Torregrosa (owner of Yemaso BJJ) is world renown and a true legend in the BJJ community. I know Dustin Akbar (the instructor at Uriah’s gym) is also good and has experience in actual MMA competition but I feel his BJJ game is no where Marcus’. Also the Yemaso BJJ gym has a strong competition team and brings home big titles like 2nd Place at IBJJF’s SF Open. I feel the BJJ team at Urijah’s will never reach this peak because of the focus of MMA instead of pure BJJ. But at the same time I probably won’t ever learn stand up at Yemaso’s BJJ gym.

I’ve been battling back and forth and can’t come to a conclusion. Please help!


----------



## Life B Ez

It doesn't sound like any of us can help. You need to just decide what you'd prefer to work on. If you want to compete in bjj go to Yemaso if you want stand up/wrestling/mma go to Alpha Male. They are both quality teams just filling two different needs.

Go take a class at each school and talk to the instructors and tell them what you're looking for. In my experience that's the best way to decide what is best for you.


----------

