St. Petersburg– trainer, wants to get fighters in his gym and continue to grow the sport he loves.

A former MMA fighter turned coach, Dunn has been involved with mixed martial arts for almost 20 years. He opened up a gym in the mid-1990s when his old coach left for Brazil. From there, Dunn never looked back.

“When he graduated and returned to Brazil, I then took over the training at the academy, and the academy essentially became mine,” Dunn said.

Not only did Dunn open up an academy locally for fighters to train, his gym, was the first mixed martial arts gym in the entire Pinellas County area. It also became the first MMA gym in the state of Florida to participate in MMA tournaments.

AJ Comparetto, assistant coach to Dunn since he started the gym, believes the gyms continuing success is due to the way Dunn teaches his fighters.

“Shane as an instructor has a unique ability to go ahead and break down complex moves into simple, almost picture instructions,” Comparetto said. “So, by making very complex things simple, it’s allowed someone like me who doesn’t have all the athletic ability that many people have, to pick up very complex moves.”

SPMF will continue to be successful as long as new talent continues to pour in and Dunn hasn’t had a problem with that in the past.

With the gym’s historically noted longevity in the sport, it wouldn’t be surprising that they continue competing against top gyms around the country.