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Marc Laimon

Marc Laimon is a fifth-degree BJJ black belt, Nova Gyms instructor and founder of Cobra Kai in Las Vegas.

Biography

Marc Laimon is a fifth-degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and Nova Gyms instructor in Wisconsin who founded the Cobra Kai academy in Las Vegas and coached MMA fighters. In a 2008 interview, Laimon traced his interest in jiu-jitsu to watching Royce Gracie at UFC 4. He left college and plans for a chiropractic career to train. He credited Ethan Milius with teaching him to examine his own grappling and work out how to improve it. Laimon recalled spending time at the Beverly Hills Jiu-Jitsu Club, teaching in Hawaii and then moving to John Lewis's school in Las Vegas. He received his black belt from Lewis by August 2001. His competition results chart the years before that promotion. He won heavyweight gold at purple belt at the 1999 Pan Championship, then shared bronze in the heavyweight brown-belt division in 2000, representing Nova União USA. In no-gi competition, he won the first Grapplers Quest West absolute tournament in 2000. He submitted Chris Brennan by armbar in 1:35, edged Jeff Monson on an advantage after a scoreless match, and beat Dean Lister 4–2 in the final. Lister won their later meeting at the International Pro Ams on points. Laimon also won an American qualifier for the 2001 ADCC championships in the division below 99 kilograms. Laimon opened Cobra Kai in Las Vegas in 2004 and defeated Ryron Gracie at the city's Grapplers Quest event that November. In a January 2005 interview, he explained that the academy's name began as a joke about the villains' school in The Karate Kid. With his own competitions, teaching, gym management and television work competing for time, he wanted to give more attention to coaching his fighters and grapplers. Chris Holdsworth moved to Las Vegas at nineteen to train with Laimon full time. Laimon gave him his brown belt and, in 2009, his black belt. Niko Han also received both ranks from Laimon: brown belt in Rio de Janeiro in 2003, followed by black belt in Las Vegas on February 14, 2008. Laimon served as grappling coach on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. By 2008, he was encouraging Team Takedown's wrestlers to enter grappling events, using competition to connect their takedowns with guard passing and submissions. He also competed alongside them: the combined Cobra Kai and Team Takedown squad won the Western Grappling Duals in San Diego on February 9, 2008. In the championship dual, Laimon beat Ray Seralle 15–3. Laimon described his teaching as a process of watching successful competitors, trying their techniques himself and passing useful details to his students. At Team Takedown, that study became a shared task: he supplied the other coaches with opponents' fight footage so they could discuss how to prepare. He moved to Dallas to coach Johny Hendricks full time and was Team Takedown's head coach by February 2014. He coached Hendricks during his rise to the UFC welterweight title that year. Laimon recalled having to adapt his grappling to strikes when he trained with Bas Rutten for Pancrase. His guard teaching gave MMA fighters another option alongside a sweep or submission: get back up. He also advised grapplers whose opponents backed away from butterfly guard to stand, reconnect with a grip and then return to guard. The DVD Marc Laimon No Gi Remix offered another way to study grappling, collecting competition footage from the Pro Ams and Grapplers Quest West. Joe D’Arce credited Laimon with spreading the D’Arce choke on the West Coast and shortening its spoken name to one syllable for quick instructions from the corner. His account also credits Laimon with the M’Arce, a transition into the same finishing position. The credit concerns how the technique was taught and adapted; it does not establish who invented the underlying choke. Stephan Kesting recalled one of Laimon's seminars ending with questions that expanded from the last technique to the whole day's material, then to anything in jiu-jitsu or submission grappling. Laimon continued coaching beyond the Cobra Kai and Team Takedown years. Ben Askren worked with him toward the end of his MMA career and spoke appreciatively of that coaching in 2020. Nova Gyms had announced classes with Laimon through its partnership with The Movement Center Pewaukee in January 2018. As of September 2026, its staff roster lists him at both Pewaukee and Oak Creek.

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