Jimmy “Cornbread” Mills started training at a young age with his father Jim Mills who was a boxer and wrestler. He started studying Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) after seeing Royce Gracie dominate in UFC II as a teenager. At that time there were very few places in the US to study BJJ with an instructor so he had to use VHS tapes, books, and magazine articles. In 2002 he was able to begin formal BJJ lessons and began studying the art. Jimmy is currently a 4th degree black belt in BJJ having been promoted by world champions, Helio “Soneca” Moreira, Rafael Ellwanger, and Adriano Lucio.
Jimmy is a former US Open Kickboxing champion and trained under Sakasem Fairtex at the Muay Thai Institute when he lived in Salt Lake City, UT and with the Golden Glory team under Ramon “Diamond” Dekkers and Cor Hemmers when he lived in Breda in The Netherlands. He was also promoted to black belt in kickboxing by Coach Duke Roufus and is a member of the Roufusport Association.
He began studying the Russian art of Sambo in 2008 and was the first certified Sambo instructor in Alabama under the former American Sambo Association. He is currently a Ikkyu (1st degree brown belt) in Judo under Tiago Goncalves and Patrick Fruge.
Coming from a boxing background he was always interested in MMA competition and putting all of the different martial arts together into one sport without the limited rule sets of other combat sports. Jimmy fought in 3 different countries on many different worldwide TV platforms and his students have competed professionally on 6 continents on the biggest events in the world including the UFC, Bellator, PFL, Strikeforce, Affliction, Glory, Shooto, and many more. Jimmy was a professional MMA fighter & Kickboxer in his day.
Jimmy is a big believer in education and holds 4 college degrees. He worked in the genetics lab at the University of South Alabama and is also a published scientific author. All of his students are taught the value of education and encouraged to pursue academics.
