Obsessive Student to Successful MMA Gym Owner

Every martial arts school has a founding story—a blend of passion, necessity, and vision.

At Cornerstone Mixed Martial Arts in Deerfield, Illinois, the journey began long before doors officially opened.

As co-owner Mario recounts, their gym’s birth was forged from years of training, struggle, and a deep love for teaching martial arts.

Drifting: Searching for a Martial Arts Home

Mario’s martial arts origins were shaped by years of wandering, training wherever space was available. “My coach, I’ve been training with him since 2009 and we would just be moving around from gym to gym. He would sublease some locations. He’s an instructor at a rec center and we’d go there to train every now and then. And it got difficult to get consistent training in,” Mario explains.

Despite the lack of a permanent base, Mario’s commitment never wavered. Even after his own days competing as an amateur MMA fighter—“I just fought at the amateur level, but I did go undefeated at four”—his love for martial arts pushed him to keep going and teaching part-time, wherever possible.

But the dream was always to build more—a physical place where consistency, community, and passion could converge.

Planting Roots: The Creation of Cornerstone

That moment finally arrived in July 2019. As Mario describes it: “So even after I was done competing, I had started personal training and I still had a passion for martial arts. So we decided to open up a physical location in July of 2019.” Anchoring themselves in Deerfield, they moved from a small, nomadic group to a true team.

Yet, Mario never lost sight of the primary goal: building community. “Committing to a specific location allowed us to really begin to build a group of competitors. And honestly, the most important thing are hobbyists, and that’s really where the passion of the business is anyway.”

Crisis on the Mats: The Pandemic Hits

Just as Cornerstone found its footing, an unimaginable challenge emerged—COVID-19. “We opened in July of 2019, and then within half a year, we were looking at. All right, so what are the options here? How are we going to be able to survive this?” The gym pivoted to online classes, but limitations quickly became clear. “We moved on to online, like Zoom, but it’s not as effective of a workout as being in person. You don’t have partners, but we did the best we could.”

When in-person training resumed, the obstacles kept coming. “It was very difficult because they kept going, masks on, masks off, separation. So we had difficulty managing it, but we were. We got some grants, had loyal members, and we got through it, and then once it ended, just off and running where we left off.”

It was a trial by fire, testing the resilience of both the owners and their students—with the support of their loyal community making all the difference.

Lessons Learned: Building a Thriving Community

Reflecting now, Mario is clear on what mattered most during those years. “Organization is key. So having an organized way of keeping members engaged through emails or social media, along with building the community, like without building a community of people that enjoy training together, doesn’t matter how good your program is, if they don’t have fun in the classes, they’re not going to want to continue coming.”

Building a successful gym, he learned, isn’t about focusing on competitive superstars. “Less than 1% of people ever get into an MMA cage. So that’s a pretty poor market to go after. If I’m just going for 1% of people, I’m not going to be very successful. So families, hobbyists, kids, they’re the ones who build the business. And the competitors benefit from better amenities due to those members.”

For Cornerstone, success comes from making every student—young or old, beginner or competitor—feel valued and included.

Moving Forward: Cornerstone’s Future

With challenges overcome and lessons absorbed, Mario’s vision now looks to the future. “We want to expand to a larger location. I feel multiple locations are very hard because you have a vision of how you want to run it and giving somebody else the reins to run it…that’s very difficult. So I think having a larger location where we could bring more community together is our ultimate goal.”

At Cornerstone, martial arts is about more than competition. It’s about connection, growth, and community—a business model forged through struggle, strengthened by experience, and carried forward by the passion to teach and inspire.