Jake Skelly perseveres building Broad Street Kickboxing
As a fan of combat sports, it warms my heart to see more and more academies opened and becoming successful. There are many challenges. First, you need a leader who will fight for his vision and his students. You need a good location. That location needs to have a community who are committed to learning, growing, and improving themselves. Some places may fail. Others may just get by. Then there are the schools who thrive. Jake Skelly is striving for the latter.
Skelly has been involved in mixed martial arts for a long time. He spent many years honing his mind and skills under Daddis Fighting Systems. Jake has moved on and had a couple of ventures that didn’t go his way over the past ten years. His latest plan to thrive is Broad Street Kickboxing. The school is nestled into a very busy, historic part of the city at 1168 Broad Street.
MyMMANews took a trip over to Philadelphia to see Jake and his latest baby. That school has outgrown the toddler stage and is now approaching adulthood. I asked Skelly about his rough start and his bright future. He tells us…
“I started Broad Street Kickboxing in 2020 during the Covid times. We struggled along and had barely 5 members for quite some time, but we have persevered. Now look at the room. For the last two years, we have added and improved. I’m proud of what we have done, but this is just the beginning. I want to be mentioned with the other great schools in the city.”
Please check out our interview on the link above. Jake and I discuss his academy and touch on the Philadelphia combat sports scene.
Jake has been a valuable member of the regions mixed martial arts growth. He’s worked many corners, held many pads, and is now beginning to see the fruits of his labor. Broad Street Kickboxing has a large number of members who are training to compete in kickboxing and MMA, including Jerry Valme who I had the pleasure of commentating for at Art of War Cage Fighting 30 where he was impressive winning his second consecutive bout. Skelly has an open-door policy and invites anyone in who would like to check them out or come in for a free class to see what they are all about. They have jiu-jitsu classes to go along with the kickboxing.
