Career Paths

Greg Jackson, owner and head coach of Jackson-Winkeljohn Mixed Martial Arts, travels the world teaching martial arts to U.S.

Special Forces, police departments and world-renowned UFC fighters. He has also coached a number of UFC legends, including Rashad Evans, Georges St-Pierre, and Carlos Condit.

Jackson grew up in Albuquerque’s South Valley where he learned to bare-knuckle fight and trained in realist martial arts before starting his own gym in 1992. In 1993 he started training police.

“MMA is unique from other sports because of the bottom line, which is ‘I can kick your ass,’” he said. “You might be a good soccer player, but I can kick your ass. You might even be a good boxer, but I can kick your ass. It’s as close to what you would do in a real fight.”

Jackson invented his own fighting style called “Gaidojutsu,” which combines wrestling, kickboxing, judo and Jiu-Jitsu. His coaching skills have taken him from his small local gym to events across the globe. A look at Jackson’s schedule for the upcoming weeks reveals trips to Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and Australia.

Despite 10 years of coaching experience, Jackson said he is constantly learning more about fighting.

“There has to be a lot of variance between the fighting styles of fighters, but you need to know everything from boxing to Jiu-Jitsu to ground pound,” he said. “Every individual has his or her specialties, but I would say the most important is wrestling. It’s the gateway to controlling a fight. My strongest suit is finding a way to win any way I can. I pride myself on that.”

Jackson said the success of his gym builds upon a “culture of survival” unique to New Mexico.

“We have always produced fighters,” he said. “We carry on a tradition of combat sports in New Mexico. New Mexicans always had to be tough; Native Americans and the Spanish had to live out here in the wilderness and you had to learn to protect yourself.”

Jackson said despite the violence that surrounds the sport, most of the fighters he meets are friendly.

“Let me put it this way, if you were an accountant, you do accounting all day and the last thing you want to do is come home and do some more accounting,” he said. “We fight all day and the last thing we want to do when we get off work is fight.”