About Limitless Combat Academy
Founded in 2017 by a former professional MMA fighter. Built on the idea that world-class martial arts training does not require a hostile environment.
Our Story
At Limitless Combat Academy, our mission is to empower our community through world-class martial arts training. Since 2017, we’ve dedicated ourselves to creating a safe, inclusive space where students of all levels feel motivated and respected. Led by experienced, credentialed coaches, our programs go beyond physical technique—we train the mind, body, and spirit to help every individual maximize their potential and achieve their goals.
At Limitless Combat Academy, our mission is to empower our community through world-class martial arts training. Since 2017, we’ve dedicated ourselves to creating a safe, inclusive space where students of all levels feel motivated and respected. Led by experienced, credentialed coaches, our programs go beyond physical technique—we train the mind, body, and spirit to help every individual maximize their potential and achieve their goals.
How It Started
The story of Limitless really starts in 2006, when our founder and head coach Kru Ali Hanjani stepped onto a mat for the first time. He was 20-something, looking for something, discipline, structure, a way to get into shape, something more meaningful than a regular gym, and he found Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Black Belt Will Ellis of Pagsuko Fight Team. He fell in love with it. Within a year he had added Muay Thai under Sensei Benjamin Schissler of Serial Boxe.
By 2010 he had turned professional. He spent the next six years competing in the MMA ranks, winning a title, training across the country, learning what world-class coaching actually looks like. He also learned what bad coaching looks like, what toxic gym culture looks like, and what happens when an instructor has more interest in their own ego than their students' progress.
In 2016 Kru Ali made the decision to retire from professional competition. The decision wasn't about leaving the sport; it was about giving it back. He'd spent a decade absorbing everything from coaches who had given him their time, their technique, and their patience. He wanted to do the same for the next generation.
The Early Days
Limitless opened its doors in 2017 at 585 Burbank St., the same space we still train in today. The first few years were what they always are for an honest gym: slow, steady, and built on one student at a time. People who walked through the door because a friend recommended it. People who came in for a free trial and stayed for years. Parents who brought one kid and ended up enrolling the whole family. A few competitive athletes who recognized the lineage and wanted to train under it.
The coaching staff grew slowly and deliberately. Coach Josh DeSherlia: a collegiate All-American wrestler with 20 years of coaching experience, joined to lead the wrestling program. Coach Mark Kondenko: a CU Boulder Exercise Physiology graduate who started training under Kru Ali in 2015, eventually took over beginner BJJ, strength and conditioning, and private training. Coach Rachel Fiddes: who began training Muay Thai under Kru Ali in 2016, became a coach in her own right, leading women's training and serving as one of the academy's most active competitors.
Every one of those coaches came up inside Limitless or alongside it. They aren't hired guns from another gym; they're students who became coaches because they earned it. That continuity is part of why the culture has stayed consistent: everyone who teaches here learned here or learned the same way.
What We Believe
Eight years in, the academy has grown. But the underlying ideas haven't changed. They're the same ones we opened with, and they're what makes us different:
Lineage matters
In martial arts, technique is passed down. Coaches teach what their coaches taught them, modified and improved through their own experience. That chain matters, and it's something that can't be faked. At Limitless, every discipline is taught by a coach whose lineage is real and verifiable. Muay Thai under Serial Boxe (Schissler). BJJ under the Shokunin BJJ Association (Wunderlich). Wrestling under a collegiate All-American. Our students learn the real thing.
Ego ruins gyms
The single thing that destroys most martial arts academies, and ruins the experience for most students, is ego. Instructor egos. Senior student egos. Newcomers who think they have something to prove. We built Limitless to be different, and we protect that environment fiercely. Students help each other get better. Coaches are patient. The only people who don't last here are the ones who can't leave their ego at the door.
Real progress is earned
Students get better at Limitless because the coaching is genuine and the standards are real. We don't hand out belts, stripes, or compliments to keep people engaged. We promote when it's earned, we correct when it's needed, and we praise when it's deserved. That honesty is the source of the confidence so many of our students report, at work, at school, and in the rest of their lives.
Martial arts are for everyone
Kids, adults, women, men, beginners, competitors, busy professionals, retirees, athletes coming back from injury, parents looking for something better than another youth sport. The mat is for all of them. We've built programs for the full range of why people train, and we believe deeply that everyone benefits from the discipline, the skill, and the community combat sports provide.
The community is the point
Techniques matter. Coaching matters. Lineage matters. But what students remember years later, and what brings them back year after year, is the people they trained with. The friendships forged on the mat are different from any other kind. We've built our academy to make those friendships possible.
Where We Are Now
Limitless serves hundreds of students across our adult programs, kids programs, women's self-defense, and private training. Our students range from kids taking their first steps onto the mat to professionals competing in MMA, BJJ, and Muay Thai tournaments around the country. Coaches from our team have cornered students in events from local grappling tournaments to professional fight cards.
We're an official affiliate of Serial Boxe Muay Thai (Sensei Benjamin Schissler), the Shokunin Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Association (Robert Wunderlich), and partner with Team Altitude Wrestling Club. These aren't logos on a wall; they're working relationships that mean our students learn real techniques and earn legitimate rank progression.
And the academy is still in the same space on Burbank Street, still run by Kru Ali, still built around the same principles. The walls have a few more medals on them now. But the work is the same.
Our Mission
To provide our community and students with a safe, welcoming academy that takes martial arts seriously, and to use that environment to help every student reach their fullest physical, mental, and personal potential.
That's what we wrote in 2017. It's still what we do.
Meet the Team
Limitless is led by a coaching staff with real lineage, real experience, and a real commitment to the students who train here.
