Team Fulinkazan

Team Fulinkazan is a collection of up-and-coming Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) athletes based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Although they have only been around for just over a year, the club has come a long way in such a short space of time. Founded in October 2004 and basing itself at the Planet Fitness Gym on Halifax Road in Bradford, the club often only had the three founding members — Keishi Meada, Tom Harris and Mark ‘Spenna’ Spencer — on the mat.

Now, one year on, they have developed a strong team of MMA fighters and submission grapplers. Products of this forward-thinking team include fighters such Simon ‘Eddie’ Waring, Saif Khan, Jamie Healy and Ian Lorentz, who have all competed and have been victorious in the well-known MMA event ‘Battle in Brigg’. With Keishi Maeda notching up tournament wins in both amateur MMA and submission wrestling, there is an ever-growing list of successful athletes among the ranks of Team Fulinkazan.

Spreading their wings in order to include training sessions at the well-equipped Kings Gym in Bradford city centre, Team Fulinkazan makes good use of the impressive mat space and numerous facilities (including a 20ft boxing ring, numerous punch bags and a sauna). Mondays and Wednesdays see training take place at the gym (which doubles as a Muay Thai training centre), with sessions also held at Planet Fitness on Fridays and Saturdays.

The team has a mix of abilities from beginners to international fighters training with them, and everyone is welcome to join in. The level of instruction at the gym enjoyed a boost after Japanese Shooto stars Hiroyuki Abe and Megumi Fuji (who recently conducted a seminar for the team) promoted Johnny Bolton, Tom Harris and Mark ‘Spenna’ Spencer to purple belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). These already accomplished coaches can now claim to be the highest-ranked BJJ practitioners in Bradford.

Now the official UK representatives of the Japanese fight team AACC, Team Fulinkazan enjoy strong links with many local clubs. The newly forged alliance with the Japanese MMA team will see regular future visits from top coaches as well as planned trips to the Far East.