coaching staff
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Thiago Azeredo
Head Coach
Head trainer Thiago Azeredo has been practicing martial arts for over 30 years. He started with Olympic Style Tae Kwon Do earned a 4th Dan Black Belt. At the age of 13 he started training Muaythai under Aziz Nabih in New York. He eventually moved to Arizona in 2002 and start teaching Muaythai in Chandler. Thiago would travel periodically to Thailand and compete.
As a coach Thiago has been a USA Head coach for various international federations. He has produced 100+ muaythai world and national champions including 3 WBC National Champions, 9 IFMA Medals 4 WKA Medals and well over 50 US Open Champions in the 20+ years that he has been the head coach at Sitan Gym Arizona.
Currently Thiago is overbooked in private session bookings. Please select coaches below for 1 on 1 sessions.
Travis Clay
Head Coach / Youth Team
Travis is pro Muaythai Athlete with over 40 career bouts. He has competed all over the globe including Lumpenee Stadum in Bangkok, Thailand. Travis is the former WBC National PRO Champion and defended that title for over 4 years. You will find him on the mat training the youth athletes.
Nathan Hagberg
Head BJJ Coach
Nathan Hagberg: Black belt under Steve Rosenberg (Gustavo Dantes lineage) has well over 12 years of training and is the head coach and founder of Sitan Gym Arizona BJJ.
Nathan Hagberg
5x Arizona State Champion
7x IBJJF Internacional Open Champion
2x IBJJF US National medalist
2x IBJJF Pan Championship medalist
IBJJF European medalist
“Hit’em Up” Champion
Fight 2 Win veteran
High Rollerz veteran
Arshiyam Kanwar
Head Coach / Adult Team
Arshiyam is a 24 year old professional Muay Thai fighter and coach. He has 26 fights and has won over 10 inter/national titles, competed and medalled for team USA against the world’s best, and fought in Thailand multiple times. Arshiyam has been at Sitan gym Arizona training under gym owner/ head coach Thiago Azeredo since he was 12 years old. Muay Thai is no longer just a sport for him, it is a way of life.
Through his 10+ years of experience he will help you learn how to defend yourself, potentially compete in the ring, lose weight and overall get in better shape to get you closer to and achieve whatever your goals may be.
Ruben Navarette
Ruben has been training and competing in Muay Thai for 8 years, both on a national and international level. He has been with Sitan Gym since he was 12 years old and earned 9 national titles. Not only does he work with the kids and adults, but also runs the special needs program at Sitan Gym. Ruben will help you learn and excel at Muay Thai, regardless of what level you are at, by creating a strong, technical foundation adjusted to your personal style. Additionally, he will foster a supportive environment to help you thrive and achieve your goals.
Omar Mateen
Omar’s officially been doing martial arts for 5 and a half years, but fought for his whole life. Omar figured he was good at it (and he was tired of getting in trouble because of it), so he decided to fight legally without any repercussions. After looking up his gym options, it was between three places, a taekwondo gym, a wrestling gym, and a muay thai gym. He grabbed his shoes and headed out; it was a Saturday, so the only gym open was Sitan. He walked up early to talk to the owner, Thiago. He was fresh out of high school with no job, no money, no transportation, and after talking for a bit, he asked if he could come in early to
clean so that he could pay for his training. Miraculously Thiago said yes. He came in early Monday morning before the gym opened to do so, and that was my routine everyday for the first year of training. His second year of training, his living situation got complicated and he couldn’t go home – so he started living at the gym, and muay thai truly became his life.
He’s a 2x USOMT C- Class Champion, USOMT B-Class Champion, SAA Champion, and Monster Promotions Champion. He plans to keep fighting, teaching, and training until he’s the best that he can be, and wants to help others excel in their Muay Thai journey.
Fernando Valenzuela
Fernando started his Marital Arts journey with Tae Kwon Do. He earned his black belt and started to train Muaythai with Thiago. He has used his knowledge of Tae Kwon Do to enhance his Muaythai and help others with theirs. You will find him on the mat with the kids. Fernendo has competed in the US Open Muaythai and took Silver.
Gabby Apolinar
Gabby’s martial arts story started when she was 5. She trained a very traditional style of karate, Okinawan Shorin-Ryu, and earned her 2nd Dan black belt, going to Japan twice to test for those. She did karate from ages 5-18, becoming a 4x regional, 4x state, 2x national, and 1x world champ, competing all over the world.
She has been training Muay Thai for 4 years now, 3 of those here at Sitan where she found her home. You’ll see her in the office, teaching the all women’s Saturday class, and working with beginners every now and then.
Yulia Lisova
Kody Van Pelt
Kody is 15 years old, he has been training at Sitan Gym since he was 6 years old. He is a National Champion with a total of 4 fights on his record, having his first fight in 2022. Kody is one of the instructors for the kids’ beginner class. He was one of the first students to participate in the Special Needs curriculum that was created by Thiago, and now he is one of the instructors for that same class.