How Ivey League Mixed Martial Arts Came To Be – By Danny Ives

Over the years I’m pretty sure I’ve asked a million times about how I ended up in the Annapolis area and how Ivey League MMA got started.

I wish I had a super cool story for you, but I think it’s pretty normal, not all that interesting. Most people like the story though so what the hey, I’ll tell you how it all went down.

I’m not from Maryland. In fact, before I opened up Ivey League I’d never even heard of this place called Annapolis. I got brought down here back in 2005 in order to teach mixed martial arts at a local Washington DC MMA Academy.

I taught at that academy for 2+ years. In that time I really grew to like Maryland and the people here. In late 2007 I started looking for placed in Maryland to open up my very own Mix Martial Arts Academy.

Some students of asked me to come out to Annapolis to watch the Lehigh-Navy wrestling meet. So I came out, watched the wrestling match, then toured the city a little bit. As it turned out, I really liked Annapolis.

It seemed like a fun place and for sure my kind of town. The other key thing that pushed me to come here was the lack of real mixed martial arts training being offered.

Only one other guy in town was teaching anything close to MMA. So i said to myself time to jump in with both feet.

That’s what I did. By March of 2008 I’d gotten Ivey League MMA up and running. It didn’t take long before we had over two hundred students. I’ve been here ever since.

Now my academy is located in Arnold, which is just a stones throw away from the Annapolis border. Getting to where we are today hasn’t been easy, I can assure you of that. It took a ton of work from both the staff as well as the students. In the end it’s all worth it.

On March 3rd we’ll be celebrating 6 years in business. This is thanks to all the great people we’ve had the chance to work with over the years.

Anyway, there you have it. The story of how Ivey League MMA came to be, told by yours truly, Danny Ives.

Below are some videos shot at some of the different locations we’ve been at over the years. Check them out!