Matt W. Thornton
Instructor and ranked competitor representing SBG International (SBGI).
Associations
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Matt Thornton is the founder and head coach of Straight Blast Gym, which he opened in Oregon in 1992 and has grown into more than 50 affiliate academies while running his own Portland academy for over twenty years. He started in boxing, took up JKD in 1988 after serving in the US Army, and moved to Portland in 1990 to teach at a JKD Concepts academy. Training with Rickson Gracie in 1991 turned him toward Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and shaped the philosophy he calls Aliveness. Thornton received his blue belt from Rickson Gracie in 1993, the year he met his main coach, Chris Haueter, who awarded his purple, brown, and, in 2002, his black belt. He was the first BJJ black belt in Oregon and has promoted fourteen black belts of his own. He has taught in more than 25 countries and introduced the art to Reunion Island and Iceland.