Titans Martial Arts and Fitness is an affiliate of Renzo Gracie Academy in New York City, New York. Kevin Taylor and Peter Martell received their black belts in 2008 directly from Renzo Gracie. In 2021, Kevin and Peter were awarded their 4th degree black belts.
Our club really started back in 1993 when the Ultimate Fighting Championship began to develop a following. Royce Gracie, a little guy from Brazil, was dominating much larger opponents in a number of fighting styles with a martial art called Brazilian jiu jitsu. People quickly became fascinated in this new martial art that seemed invincible.
Kevin and Peter didn’t start together, but eventually they formed a partnership that has lasted decades. Over time, they along with other people who were interested in trying this new art, started meeting frequently in gyms in Halifax including Titans Gymnastics; hence the name we maintain to this day.
Back then, the only resources they had were magazines, VHS tapes of UFC events, and eventually they got their hands on a copy of the Renzo Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Instructional Video VHS series.
After completing the VHS tapes, they realized they needed further instruction and they decided to travel to New York City to train with Renzo Gracie in person at his Academy. From there they were able to progress much more rapidly and in 2007, they were both awarded their black belts from Renzo Gracie himself, a true legend in mixed martial arts.
Kevin and Peter are the founding fathers of Brazilian jiu jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts in Atlantic Canada and continue to train and teach daily at our academy. Our students have a wide variety of goals; kids learning discipline and self-defense, office workers adding a little spice to their lives, police officers learning practical tactics that can keep them safe on the job and professional athletes competing on the world stage.
At one point we proved that we could train an average person to go from a doughy IT professional to a pro MMA fighter in just one year! You can check out the incredibly moving series, Cubicle to the Cage, on YouTube.
No matter what you would like to accomplish, we welcome you to the team and look forward to helping you reach your full potential.
