DEGREES / CERTIFICATIONS

• Black Belt / Instructor Certification - Goju Ryu Karate - Pablo Fernandez Jr

• Black Belt / Instructor Certification  - Aiki Jiujitsu - Jose Delgado

• Black Belt / Instructor Certification - Shuai Jiao - Shuai Jiao Evolution - Shifu Gavriel Ben Judah, Matthew Gelfand and Mario Polito

• Brown Belt - Judo - Tino Markile

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ASSOCIATION(S)

• Shuai Jiao Evolution

• Dungeon MMA

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STYLE(S)

• Shuai Jiao

• Goju Ryu Karate

• Aiki Jiujitsu

• Judo

• Boxing

• Greco Roman Wrestling

• Folk Wrestling

• Wing Chun

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Full Contact Karate Champion

Grand Nationals​
1992, Puerto Rico

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AMATEUR BOXING, KICKBOXING and SAN DA CHAMPION

Puerto Rico
1986-1992

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IUS OPEN MARTIAL ARTS SAN DA CHAMPION

2013, 2014

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Harry Fontanez was born in 1973 in Puerto Rico.  He started boxing with his father, Martin Fontanez and uncle Evan Fontanez at 7 years old.  These fundamentals have served as a foundation to his fighting style and laid the groundwork for his martial arts career.

 

By 10 he was living in Bronx, New York and began training Goju-Ryu Karate with his uncle sensei Pablo Delgado at a community center on Boston Road.   Their teaching focused on the basics with a constant combat element always present.  His teachers focused on full contact conditioning, sport fighting and self-defense techniques.  

 

At the age of 16 he received his black belt and moved on training in Aki-Jiujitsu and Judo with Sensei Pablo Fernandez and Sensei Tino Markile. These teachers showed him combat striking/joint locking as well as throwing techniques.  He continued on to get his Brown Belt in Judo in 1990 and Black Belt in Aiki-Jiujitsu in 1994.

 

While training under his Aki-Jiujitsu instructors he also joined his high school wrestling team in an effort to expand his knowledge and fighting ability.  Harryfought competitively in high school freestyle wrestling, amateur boxing, amateur kickboxing, full contact karate and other full contact tournaments into his twenties and did exceptionally well.  Even after he stopped competing, over the years he dabbled in Jeet Kun Do, Wing Chun, Kali/Escrima and Kempo Karate continuing to further his skill.

 

In 2005 he teamed up with his friend Robert Dyer to start Dungeon MMA to train fighters by using his knowledge and experience.  In 2010 Robert moved to Florida and opened up a school while Harry stayed in New York to continue training fighters and learn.  Many fighters have come and gone but all who’ve experienced Harry’s coaching can attest to the hard but incredibly effective training methods he implements. 

 

In 2013, Harry met Shifu James Chin from the Chinese Swai Jiao Association and decided he would fight again after being out of the tournament circuit for over fifteen years.  He trained mostly on his own but the week before the fight James had introduced him to his classmate Shifu Gavriel Ben Judah and their students Matthew Gelfand, Mario Polito and Franc Gomez at their class in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  In 2013 he competed in the US Open Martial Arts Championship in Queens, New York and won showing himself that his knowledge and skill accumulated over the years only improved tenfold. 

 

Over the next year, Harry started to come to train in Shuai Jiao both with James’ classes in Flushing and Long Island and Gavriel’s class in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  He competed again in 2014 and won again in the Heavyweight division. 

 

Over the next few years he became good friends with Gavriel, Mario and Matt which in 2016 (when they moved schools to Long Island City) established Shuai Jiao Evolution to combine all of their knowledge into a complete fighting system.  Today, Harry teaches alongside his friends in Long Island City always learning always growing.