Steven Bazzea began his martial arts journey in 1972 through the influence of his family who practiced Judo and Goju Ryu karate. Following an active sport karate career where he was awarded Springbok colours and numerous SA championship titles, his voyage of discovery led him to train in many different types and styles of martial arts. Pre UFC and the internet, there was not much on offer that could quell that feeling that there was something missing in traditional martial arts. Fortunately in 1998 one of the first grappling seminars was conducted in South Africa; the content was raw and unsophisticated; but it did enough to show the way forward. The only exposure in those early days of BJJ was scratchy video tapes and the odd news about the UFC.

Meeting Matt Thornton in 2001 helped piece together the fundamentals of Stand up, Clinch and Ground. Steve joined Straight Blast Gym International (SBGi) and the visionary application of “Aliveness“ in martial arts. SBGi was doing Stand up, Clinch and Ground (MMA) long before many gyms knew about it.

Steve has travelled to train in the USA, Brazil, Ireland, Slovakia and Italy and thanks all the instructors and coaches that have helped him develop his game, notably the SBG coaches; Matt Thornton, John Kavanagh, John Frankl, Rick Davidson, Travis Davidson and Pritt Mihkelson. Steve has also attended seminars and training camps with the following renowned instructors of Brazilian jiu-jitsu: Roger Gracie, Royler Gracie, Ricardo de la Riva, Andre Galvao, and Chris Haueter. He is a SBG International Black Belt graded under SBG President Matt Thornton.

He also started working in the health and exercise industry over 27 years ago. His profound admiration of the functioning of the human body in movement led him to research and study the most efficient , functional movement patterns in a method that can be easily assimilated. He combines corrective exercises with multi-structural bodywork that helps in the treatment and recovery of most movement compensation and imbalance patterns.”Move properly, move well, move often” – In the words of physical therapist Gray Cook.

Steve was the first coach to introduce functional training, MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu to the South Peninsula, SBG Cape Town is proving to be a high level gym with current EFC pro MMA fighters and national and regional Gi and No-gi grappling champions.