Megalodon MMA

Scott Hicks

Scott is the founder of Megalodon. He was a long time student of the renowned Arjan Priteung Tongpakwan (Bangkok, Thailand). Scott has trained many state, regional, national and world champions. His fighters have dominated in both amateur and professional divisions, fighting around the world in countries such as, Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Thailand. Some of Hicks’ most notable events took place in Thailand’s famed Lumpinee and Rajadamnern Stadiums.

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In addition to Muay Thai, Hicks trained extensively in Muay Lanna and Faan Daap. He was the only non-Thai student of Arjan Manohp Yarana and Arjan Mohngkhohn Siangcharee that was promoted to Arjan status in Chaing Mai, Thailand. He became one of only a few Muay Boran/Muay Chaad Chuek trainers in the USA.

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Sit Quan Tong Muay Thai Association was established by Hicks to preserve the authenticity of Muay Thai and to ensure present/future Muay Thai practitioners engage in genuine training.

Casey Baynes

Casey is a third degree Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt under Romero “Jacare” Calvacante, head instructor of the World Champion “Alliance” team.

He is a certified Police Officer Standards and Training (P.O.S.T) Defensive Tactics instructor and a co-author of “Locks and Levers”- a P.O.S.T certified lesson plan for law enforcement.  Casey has been in law enforcement since 1995 and currently serves as an instructor at the Georgia Public Safety Commission facility in Forsyth.  He has training in several forms of martial arts. 

He is a graduate of Georgia College and State University with a major in Health and Physical Education.

Johnny Myung

Johnny  is a Black Belt in BJJ and former high school wrestler.  He received his black belt from Casey Baynes of Megalodon MMA.

Johnny has been competing since 2008, with over 17 top 3 finishes at competitions, numerous NAGA and Newbreed 1st place finishes and has competing with the National Fighting Championship (NFC) and has been featured on FloGrappling.

Besides training BJJ, he has also run in various races including the Georgia Marathon and a few Tough Mudder races. Johnny teaches the wrestling and Judo-geared portions of the BJJ classes.

Ian Bowen

Ian has been training with Professor Casey Baynes since 2005, and promoted to Black Belt in 2018. 

Ian has 17+ years law enforcement experience, and retired from the Athens Clarke County Police Department in 2019. Ian introduced a BJJ program to the department, which he kept open to both officers and civilians.  He was the lead defensive tactics instructor since 2015, using techniques based on a police-centric MMA style he developed with Casey over the years that the two trained together.

Chris Ashmore

Chris earned his Purple Belt in BJJ in 2021. He has been training since March 2017 and is a coach for the kid's program. Before joining the Megalodon team Chris served his country in the Marine Corps.

Bart

Mingledorff

Bart started martial arts as a wrestler. After moving from Northern California to Athens, Bart became the catalyst for the forming of the Clarke Central Wrestling Team, and competed on Team Georgia for two years as well as competing in Fargo, N. Dakota. Bart wrestled Freestyle, GrecoRoman, and Folkstyle. Bart finished in the Top 15 both years.

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Bart counseled troubled children for 5 years for the Georgia Department of Human Resources and Eckerd Academy of the Blue Ridge. Bart credits a lot of his coaching style to these years working as a counselor. 

Bart started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at the age of 30 and shortly after started competing and coaching kids. He has competed and medaled at every belt at IBJJF Gi and No-Gi tournaments. He has competed at many NewBreed Pro events, as well for the NFC and was featured on FloGrappling. Bart is currently a purple belt and the Megalodon Kid's Competition Coach. 

Grant Seman

Grant coaches Muay Thai for Megalodon and has decades of experience competing in Muay Thai. He was promoted to Khru in April 2021.

Kati Baynes Flores

Kati is a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Brown Belt.  She has trained and competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since she was approximately 8 years old. She has competed with IBJJF, NFC, and Fight2Win. Her competitions have been featured on FloGrappling.

Kati has volunteer experience assisting in the teaching of self defense tactics to police officers, and has experience with instruction of both children and adults in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. She offers private lessons to ladies who are interested in getting started in self-defense and martial arts.

Thiago Mayrink

Thiago started training Judo and BJJ in the late 1990's in Brazil, his home country. He moved to the United States at the end of 2016 and since then has been training and improving with us here at Megalodon. He received his Black Belt from Professor Casey in 2022 and is one of our assistant coaches for the Adults classes. Thiago is known for incorporating Judo style techniques into his BJJ lessons.

Kyle Stephens

Kyle is a Blue Belt in BJJ and assists with the kids' BJJ classes. He is an active competitor, with several first place finishes at both white and blue belt.

David McAllister

David is a BJJ Brown Belt and has been training with Professor Baynes since 2009. He has been in law enforcement for over 21 years, and is a defensive tactics and firearms instructor with the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office.

David has competed at several BJJ competitions with top 3 finishes. He helps coach BJJ for both our Adult's and Children's classes.

Nicolas 

Ayala-Toro

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Nicolas has been studying martial arts from an early age beginning with Kyodai Ryu Karate. After moving to the US mainland in 1997, he studied under Menkyo Kaiden Dr. Karl Friday of the Kashima Shinryu tradition of swordsmanship to the rank of Shoden.

Nicolas began to study Capoeira in 2013 under Grão Mestre Fran, founder of Grupo Maculelê Capoeira. Grão Mestre Fran granted him permission to teach Capoeira in the Athens area for the last several years.