Danny Beauclerc wants to put a popular MMA stereotype to bed. “People think of some giant, muscular, really aggressive guy covered in tattoos who always has a protein shake in their hand,” he explains of what he sees as a common misconception. “But most of us are not like that at all. Most of us are just normal looking people.”
In fact, Danny says his smaller stature is something that’s helped him to recruit new members to his gym ― Black Devil Mixed Martial Arts. “I’m not scary looking.” Danny admits. It's something that he says makes him a more approachable figure and a coach that his students feel comfortable training with. “I don’t look tough or anything like that. So that works for me sometimes because it dispels the thug, aggressive MMA-guy persona.”
Danny shares that as a kid growing up in a small town north of Peterborough he got picked on often. So he started training in martial arts at a local gym to build his confidence.
“My goal was just to stop getting beaten up,” he remembers with a laugh. But along the way, his fighting skills improved and he found himself competing and then teaching at a martial arts gym in Scarborough for six years before opening his own gym, Black Devil MMA, in The Annex in 2010.
