Brockton, MA: Where the Lauzon Story Starts
Joe Lauzon was born in Brockton and lived there until third grade. That is the short version.
The longer one has the east side of the city in it, the Downey School on Electric Avenue, and a bait shop on Crescent Street where a kid learned to work a counter. A lot of what this gym is starts in those three places.
The east side, and the Downey School
Brockton is the biggest city among the towns we serve, a little over 105,000 people, and the Lauzons were east-side people. Joe went to the Downey School at 55 Electric Avenue, about a mile east of downtown, a Brockton public school then and now. His father grew up in the city as well, so the family’s run in Brockton is a generation longer than Joe’s own.
When people ask Joe where he is from, the answer is Brockton, not the town the family moved to afterwards. That matters on a page like this. Plenty of gyms claim a city because a member lives there. This one gets to say it because the owner was born in it.
A bait shop on Crescent Street
Joe’s father owned J&J Bait and Tackle on Crescent Street, and the shop was Joe’s first job. It covered the whole business: deliveries, the retail counter, and the wholesale side. The doors have since closed. What the job left behind did not. A counter teaches you to talk to whoever walks in, which is most of what a front desk does, and Joe had that before he ever had a coach.
There is no Brockton gym
We get asked, so it is worth saying plainly: there is no Lauzon MMA location in Brockton. The city is where the story starts, not where the mats are. The two gyms are on Route 44 in Raynham, just off Route 24, and on Route 138 in Canton, and both are a short highway run from the Brockton line.
Both teach the same six programs, so the choice between them comes down to your drive and your week rather than to what you would be learning.
Which gym is closer
From downtown Brockton, Canton is about 9 miles and 16 minutes, straight up Route 138 through Stoughton. Raynham is about 17 miles and 23 minutes down Route 24 to Route 44. From the east side near the old school the numbers shift a little: about 20 minutes to Canton and 26 to Raynham.
Those are clear-road times, measured from City Hall and from the Downey School, so add a few minutes at rush hour. North and west of downtown, Canton usually wins on time. From the south and east, Raynham is the easier run.
What you would train
Adults have three doors in: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, and No-Gi Grappling. Jiu-jitsu is the grappling core of the gym and where most people start. Kickboxing is stand-up striking with a conditioning load attached. No-Gi Grappling is the same grappling without the jacket, faster and sweatier. Adult classes run an hour.
Kids are sorted by age rather than by size or experience. Tiny Ninjas BJJ is for ages 3 to 5, Vipers BJJ for 6 to 9, and Cobras BJJ for 10 to 13. Each band gets its own class and its own coach, which is why a five-year-old is not standing in line with a twelve-year-old.
The first visit is not a tryout
You do not need any experience to start. The way in is a free intro appointment, about 15 minutes: a look around the gym, how the classes and the membership work, and a conversation about what you want out of training. Bring shorts and a T-shirt. It ends with a short lesson on the mat, so your first class is not your first time on a mat.
That order matters more than it sounds. Most people who walk through the door have never trained anything, and the appointment is where we work out whether you are sorting out a kids’ class or your own.
The part before the gym
The family moved to East Bridgewater while Joe was in his teens, and that is where a sixteen-year-old walked into a gym for the first time. Brockton is the part before that, and it never stopped being part of the story. The school, the shop, the east side, a father who grew up on the same streets: none of that is decoration on this page.
Joe still teaches here
The gym is Joe’s and he is on the mats, not just on the website. He fought 26 times in the UFC. The coaches around him came up in the same rooms, most of them starting as members before they ever taught a class, which is the reason this place feels like a gym and not a franchise. If you already train and want to compete, the pro and amateur fight teams train here too.
How to start from Brockton
Use the form on this page. Pick a program, pick Raynham or Canton, leave a number that actually rings, and someone will call you back to book the intro. If you would rather talk to a person, call the Raynham gym on 508-219-0418 or the Canton gym on 781-499-8302.
Brockton is where this started. The mats are a few exits down the road, and the door is open.