Home / Awards 2026

MMA Gym Finder Awards 2026

Every award on this site is calculated from public Google data — ratings and review counts — using a transparent, deterministic formula. None of these awards can be bought.

Why our awards are different

Awards are merit-based and cannot be purchased. Featured listings on this site are paid (and clearly labeled as such), but the awards below come from the same Google ratings and review counts you can verify yourself. If a gym holds an award, they earned it.

We re-run the calculation annually and publish the badge year on every embeddable image so visitors can see when an award was earned.

Scoring formula

For every ranking award we compute a Bayesian-smoothed score:

score = (n × r + 15 × 4.2) / (n + 15)

where r is the gym's Google rating (0–5) and n is its Google review count. The smoothing factor pulls low-review gyms toward a 4.2 prior so a single 5.0/2-review gym doesn't outrank a 4.8/300-review gym. Gyms below 10 reviews or below a 4.0 rating are excluded from all rankings.

Qualifier badges

Threshold-based. Earned by clearing data minimums — no ranking, no cap on how many gyms can hold them.

Top Rated
Rating of 4.7+ stars with 50+ Google reviews.
Highly Reviewed
100+ Google reviews at 4.5+ stars.
Community Favorite
200+ Google reviews at 4.5+ stars — broad, sustained community support.

City rankings

Bayesian-weighted ranking against every other gym in the same city.

#1 in City
Highest Bayesian-weighted rating among all gyms in the city (minimum 3-gym pool).
Top 5 in City
Ranked among the top 5 gyms in the city by Bayesian-weighted rating.
Top 10 in City
Ranked among the top 10 gyms in the city by Bayesian-weighted rating.

Discipline-in-city rankings

Per-discipline rankings — e.g. the top BJJ gym in a given city, scored only against other BJJ gyms in the same city.

Top BJJ
Highest-rated gym offering Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching BJJ).
Top Muay Thai
Highest-rated gym offering Muay Thai in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching Muay Thai).
Top Kickboxing
Highest-rated gym offering Kickboxing in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching Kickboxing).
Top Boxing
Highest-rated gym offering Boxing in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching Boxing).
Top Wrestling
Highest-rated gym offering Wrestling in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching Wrestling).
Top Grappling
Highest-rated gym offering Grappling & Submission in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching Grappling).
Top MMA
Highest-rated gym offering Mixed Martial Arts in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching MMA).
Top Judo
Highest-rated gym offering Judo in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching Judo).
Top Karate
Highest-rated gym offering Karate in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching Karate).
Top Taekwondo
Highest-rated gym offering Taekwondo in the city (minimum 2 gyms in that city teaching Taekwondo).

State rankings

Bayesian-weighted ranking against every other gym in the state.

#1 in State
Highest Bayesian-weighted rating in the state (minimum 8-gym pool).
Top 10 in State
Ranked among the top 10 gyms in the state by Bayesian-weighted rating.

For gym owners

If your gym earned an award, the badge and a one-line HTML embed snippet appear on your gym's page on this site. Paste the snippet into your own website to display the badge — each badge links back to your listing so visitors can verify the award. You don't have to do anything to qualify; we calculate awards automatically from public Google data.

Claim your listing if you'd like to update gym details, add a Featured upgrade for paid lead-generation, or correct anything we got wrong.