Meet the Grantees

Empowering Local Martial Artists to better Serve their communities

We are proud to announce the selected grantees for 2023.

Yessenia Montalvo is the owner of Legacy Boxing Club and a retired police detective from the Newark police department. She worked in Patrol, Narcotics, Cell Block, Communications, the Office of Homeland Security, and the Detective Squad. She is a Silver level boxing coach, Level 2 Official and referee with the USA Boxing Commission in NJ, as well as a well-rounded matchmaker and event coordinator for her annual fundraising events in amateur boxing.

Yessenia founded The Pretty Strong Project to introduce, educate, recruit and train females of all ages in the sport of Olympic Amateur Boxing. Through this training, funded in partnership with Better Fight, she and her staff will empower her students to become independent, confident and strong while also learning to defend themselves.

Third Ward Jiu-Jitsu was founded in 2019, with a mission to provide affordable self-defense in the Third Ward of Houston, TX. With a passion for building community, Andrew and Sarah launched their gym with specific programs for women and the LGBTQ community. Opening in January of 2020, they quickly closed their doors in March due to COVID, then reopened in the Fall of 2021 with their inaugural Women’s Week. This program highlights female grapplers from Houston, giving them opportunities to teach and join the instructor roster at 3WJJ. 

In August of 2022, 3WJJ launched their first LGBTQ only program, and started offering monthly LGBTQ only classes in February 2023. This led to the gym applying to Better Fight Fellowship’s grant program to build a LGBTQ Jiu-Jitsu network. By hosting LGBTQ coaches to teach the weekend classes and participate in community events, 3WJJ has created a pipeline that delivers diverse leadership to a community long underrepresented in the sport. 

Chase has been in the gym nearly every day since he was 19 years old, and has competed at the highest possible level as a professional MMA fighter and grappler. He is the former CXF featherweight champion and a veteran of the Dana White Contender Series. When he opened his own gym, he decided that he wanted it to specialize in helping children and young adults who had lost their way.

In partnership with Jenni’s Flowers and Better Fight, Chase is currently offering specialized classes to young adults who have recently aged out of the foster youth system. Bringing students in from across the city, Chase is spearheading a comprehensive initiative that provides one hour of MMA training and thirty minutes of mental well-being activities. This classes provide an invaluable sense of community and stability to young people going through an often tumultuous and difficult moment in their lives.