Why Wai Kru

By Bill Whelan It sounded like chopsticks breaking, said Nobu, one of the instructors at the Wai Kru gym. With an ice pack over his eye, he explained how he caught a knee to the face while sparring with his partner, Mike. Black eye for sure, but I've had bigger. It comes with the sport. This was a typical night at the gym, located at 236 Brighton Ave, crammed next to Express Laundromat. The gym was opened in 2006 by John Allan, who wrestled at Boston College and has 15 years of martial arts experience, including three years training in Thailand. When he came back to Boston, he started Wai Kru because there were no gyms in the area that combined all the facets of mixed martial arts, from wrestling to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai. There were only a handful of specialty gyms that taught one or two disciplines. I surrounded myself with the right people and we took off right away, said Allan. It was around this time period that MMA surged in popularity in America. It came through the creation of the reality show The Ultimate Fighter and the growth of UFC fighting league, which merged many of the smaller MMA leagues and gained a cable TV deal with Spike in 2005. This mainstream attention made MMA and similar fighting gyms very popular workout spots. It's the purest expression of humanity. MMA is like tapping into years of genetic process. That's why it's taken off, said Allan. Martial arts have been around for centuries and are deeply ingrained in the religion and culture of eastern societies, only recently becoming popular in the west. Walking into the street entrance of Wai Kru, the stale stench of sweat drifts up from the basement where the gym is located. Walking down the steps past the pictures and trophies, you can hear hip-hop coming out of a small boombox in the corner of the room. Even the ceiling of the cramped basement was sweating. There are two large mats in middle of the gym, as well as a boxing

ring and an octagon cage behind the mats. Wai Kru takes pride in training multiple disciplines. The big blue and red mat in the middle featured judogi fighters sparring. This discipline involves fighters manipulating each others gi, a cloth robe each fighter wears. The red mat in the octagon cage had no gi fighters, without robes, being taught different submission and reversal moves. In the far corner, Muay Thai fighters lightly sparred by striking each other with their shins, one of the key components of Muay Thai. Wai Kru doesnt aim to just provide fitness benefits like some of the MMA gyms in the area. Everyone fights at Wai Kru and nearly half the members also compete on the fight team that travels to competitions around New England. The team is what creates the close-knit brotherhood of Wai Kru. The team is comprised of both amateur and professional fighters. David Salim is a 26-year-old purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has trained at Wai Kru for four years. He has competed as an Amateur fighter in the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation for the last three. Salim said he became interested in the sport from watching it on TV. He described himself as a real dorky kid who quickly learned it was fun to beat up people who were bigger than him. All the purple belts here started together. The camaraderie we have is great. The professional fighters are the core of the Wai Kru team. Nick Drummond is a 29-year-old professional MMA fighter who has trained at the gym since August of 2008. Drummond has a Wai Kru tattoo on his right arm and raises a Wai Kru symbol with his hand every time he wins. Hes won all three of his professional fights so far. In addition to fighting for the team, Drummond also manages the gym the Wai Kru gym, where he typically spends more that 40 hours a week. He also works the corner for every amateur fighter. With the continuing growth of MMA, both Tapout and Combat Sports, two of the biggest companies in MMA, opened state-of-the-art gyms in downtown Boston last year. But it is the sense of community that sets Wai Kru apart. I don't pay many of the instructors. said Allan. Carlos Neto, a judo world champion from Brazil, teaches at the gym in return for lessons in other disciplines from Allan. On a Monday afternoon, Allan's 5-year-old daughter is riding her

purple tricycle around the 24 square foot mat. She gets a smile and a wave from a resting John Doomsday Howard, one of the most prominent fighters at the gym who boasts a 14-6 record in UFC, the pinnacle of MMA competition. We are all a big family, said Allan. Allan said that in five years he hopes to be Right where I am. We have a lot of devoted and dedicated people. We compete and we win. After he said that, Allan went to go administer an ice pack to one of his fighters. It was just another typical day at Wai Kru.