Jeff Tucker, started his martial arts journey at the age of 3, studying Moo Duk Kwan Taekwon-Do under John Huff. Later, as a teenager he studied Hapkido under the prolific sensei TM Kwon, earning his blackbelt in 6 years at the age of 18, he continued to train, compete( full-contact World Pro Hapkido Series of tournaments) and instruct, until the age of 20. In 2006 Jeff was scouted by MTV to appea
r and compete in the MTV program ‘Final Fu’ - a series that pit the best practitioners of their respective martial arts styles against one another in a series of challenges and head to head fights. After the series concluded Jeff would go on to study BJJ(John Machado, Eddie Bravo,) and Catch Wrestling (James Zsigmond; protege under Erik Paulson, Josh Barnett, Vladimir Matyushenko, and Rigan Machado) - with the aim of transitioning to professional MMA competition. Incidentally, after suffering a number of knee, ankle, and shoulder injures during training/fight camps over the years, some which required multiple surgeries, Jeff was faced with the tough decision of trying to fight at a reduced physical capacity or transitioning to teaching what he’d learned in both martial arts and training injury prevention/movement, he’d decide upon the latter and go on to open Badger MMA Combat Conditioning center in San Pedro, CA in 2011. Philosophy of Badger MMA:
The story behind the name comes from the honey badger animal. Physically, the honey badger is a seemingly small, non-threatening animal. However, at a closer look, one would notice the thick skin, long claws and razor sharp teeth. Besides physical characteristics, the honey badger has other known attributes that make it a worthy adversary - its resilience, cleverness, voracity, determination, and fearlessness. While the honey badger is small in size, it has few natural predators because of its thick skin, strength and ferocious defensive mechanism. My friends and I are not physically the largest but when it comes to heart and strength, that’s a different story.
