University Executive by Day, Jiu-Jitsu Professor by Night: Inside Chicago MMA

What does it take to run an MMA gym when you also have a full-time job—and you've been training for 30 years just because you love it?In this episode, Alex sits down with his longtime friend Misho Colo, co-owner of Chicago MMA in the South Loop. Misho's story doesn't follow the usual path. He's a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Ralph Gracie, a Muay Thai practitioner trained under one of the best coaches in the country, and—by day—the COO and Dean at the University of Chicago. He didn't open his gym to escape a day job. He opened it because the mats are where he's always belonged.They trace it all the way back to 1998, when Misho moved from Chicago to the Bay Area and stumbled into Ralph Gracie's academy—where his very first class ended in a ten-on-ten battle royal and a humbling armbar from Dan Camarillo. He never left. Over the next three decades, he trained across San Francisco, Boston, and even Mozambique, where he ended up running an impromptu jiu-jitsu school out of his spare bedroom for 20 sweaty Mozambicans after losing their mat space.Chicago MMA opened in 2010. Sixteen years later, Misho and his team just opened their second location—still running on the same philosophy that drew him to the arts in the first place: this is a place people come to learn, not just to train hard.You'll hear how he thinks about the shift from competitor to coach, why he's built a culture that balances building a fight team with welcoming total beginners, and what finally pushed him to make the switch to Gymdesk.In this episode:Training alongside BJ Penn, the Camarillos, and Carlson Gracie Sr.—and what that era taught him about building a real martial arts cultureThe Mozambique chapter: finding jiu-jitsu in a country with no martial arts scene and accidentally becoming the head instructorWhy competitive training environments and community schools require completely different approaches—and how to know which one you're buildingThe moment he decided to open a second location, and how that decision finally pushed him to switch gym management softwareWhat he looks for in a gym that puts the art firstChicago MMA is a Gymdesk customer based in Chicago, Illinois.