Founder Message
Martial arts changes lives.
At the lowest point in my life, I survived on one meal a day. I went to bed hungry. I watched my mother cry uncontrollably from hopelessness. I saw my loved ones suffer. I didn’t grow up in poverty as a child. In fact, I grew up quite comfortably in a loving home. Life only changed when my parents went bankrupt, lost everything, and became homeless. Poverty tore my family apart. My father eventually abandoned the family, leaving my mother, my younger brother, and myself to figure things out. Through a combination of luck, perseverance, and determination over many years, I pulled my family out of poverty. Along the way, I earned an MBA from Harvard University, helped to put my younger brother through school, provided for my mother financially, and became a self-made multimillionaire entrepreneur. Today, I am living the life of my dreams. I don’t share this story with you to garner sympathy or to brag. I share it with you simply because it is an example of the power of martial arts to change lives.
For me, martial arts is one of the greatest platforms to unleash human potential. As a child, I started Muay Thai at Sityodtong Camp in Pattaya, Thailand under Kru Yodtong Senanan. For almost 30 years, I have been involved in martial arts in some form or another – as a student, a fighter, a teacher, and a coach. Through martial arts, I inherited confidence, mental strength, courage, tenacity, work ethic, humility, and much more. Above all, it empowered me with an unbreakable warrior spirit to conquer adversity. Without martial arts, I really don’t know what would have happened to me.
A few years ago, I launched Evolve Mixed Martial Arts as my way to give back to the world. I wanted to share with the world what I had learned through martial arts. I even came up with the name, “Evolve” because I wanted it to be a place where everyone could be inspired to evolve into everything they wanted to be in life. I never imagined that Evolve would go on to become Asia’s top martial arts organization or that it would eventually have the most number of World Champions of any martial arts organization in the world. I simply wanted to make the world a better place in my small and humble way. Today, Evolve Mixed Martial Arts has Asia’s greatest collection of authentic World Champions in Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Mixed Martial Arts, Boxing, Wrestling, Submission Grappling, and more. It has been named the #1 martial arts organization in Asia by leading authorities such as CNN, FOX Sports, ESPN StarSports, Tokyo Times, The Fight Nation, Combat Asia, Asian MMA, Middleeasy, and many others.
My unquenchable passion to spread martial arts around the world gave birth to Evolve University, the largest world championship online university for martial arts. For the first time in history, anyone anywhere in the world can learn under the greatest collection of World Champions. More importantly, everyone in the world can benefit from martial arts in the same way I have. The true essence of martial arts is the journey of continuous self-improvement mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I don’t believe that we were put on this Earth just to live an easy, comfortable life. I believe that we were put on this Earth to unleash our potential so that we may give back to the world more than we receive. Martial arts has the incredible ability to change lives, to turn weakness into strength, to mold fear into courage, and to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Whether you are a complete beginner, an advanced martial artist, an elite professional fighter, or a world-class instructor, you will find a great learning platform in Evolve University. Evolve University will help to accelerate the attainment of your goals – be it real self-defense knowledge, an unbreakable warrior spirit, or a world championship title. As a student of Evolve University, you can expect the very best in daily fresh content and continuous website upgrades with new features and functionality. My entire team at Evolve University and I are committed to bringing you the very best online martial arts education available anywhere in the world.
We hope you enjoy your journey under our World Champions at Evolve University!
With much respect,
Chatri Sityodtong