Justin McCully

Justin McCully's path to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was shaped long before he ever stepped onto a mat. His father built a career spanning law enforcement roles as a Secret Service agent, police officer, and member of the Strike Force in Los Angeles — treating physical training as both a professional obligation and personal discipline. He cross-trained constantly, cycling through weightlifting, swimming, boxing, judo, and kickboxing, and kept the family home stocked with a heavy bag or speed bag at all times. For Justin and his older brother Sean McCully, martial arts was not an extracurricular interest but simply the texture of daily life.

The two brothers began sparring as young as ages four and seven, putting on gloves to settle arguments in what their father viewed as a practical extension of his philosophy on self-protection. As the younger — and physically larger — of the two, Justin spent roughly a decade serving as Sean's informal training partner and, by his own description, his "whipping post" as Sean worked through techniques on a willing target. Rather than breeding resentment, the dynamic proved motivating. Around age fourteen, Justin began training on his own terms, taking up taekwondo and kickboxing as a means of holding his own at home.

His early martial arts focus did not survive intact through his teenage years. Justin stepped away from formal training for three to four years to concentrate on high school team sports, eventually going on to play football at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California — a chapter that would serve as the bridge to an entirely different direction.

After finishing football at Orange Coast College, Justin McCully encountered Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu almost by accident. Allan Góes — a high-level black belt in the Carlson Gracie lineage — had opened a school nearby, and the timing coincided roughly with the second UFC event and the first World Combat show, which Renzo Gracie won. Justin arrived at Góes' school skeptical of what BJJ could offer someone with his background in striking arts. The visit did not go as anticipated. He received, by his own account, a decisive and memorable submission loss that fundamentally reframed his understanding of grappling.

Justin initially trained under both Góes and Franco de Camargo. When Góes departed to open his own school, Justin followed without hesitation — a decision that would prove pivotal to his development. Góes began using Justin as a practice partner for private students, an arrangement that generated four to five hours of daily mat time. That volume of training compressed what might have been years of gradual progress into a far shorter window. Equally valuable was the conceptual exposure: by sitting in on Góes' private coaching sessions, Justin absorbed instructional reasoning alongside physical repetition, building an understanding of BJJ that extended well beyond technique memorization.

In a January 2001 profile in Grappling Magazine, Justin reflected on how that environment shaped him, crediting the combination of high mat time and proximity to Góes' coaching as the foundation of his grappling identity.

The McCully brothers gained entry to the Japanese fighting circuit through a personal connection — a friend named Todd Medina, who had cultivated relationships with Japanese promoters and bookers. Sean McCully established the initial foothold, working tryouts for Japanese bookers and competing for Rings on multiple occasions before expanding the network to include his younger brother. Through that pipeline, Justin competed for Pancrase, Rings, Daido Juku, and World Vale Tudo, while also appearing on cards tied to New Japan pro-wrestling — events that incorporated live shoot segments within the broader production — and All Japan Kickboxing.

World Vale Tudo Championship 9

One of the more notable moments of Justin's competitive record came at World Vale Tudo Championship 9, where he entered the tournament as a purple belt and was regarded as an underdog. He defeated Mario Neto by submission in Round 1 at 1:53 — a result that drew significant attention given his standing in the field. His run ended in the quarterfinals, however, when a sustained injury prevented him from advancing further.

The Japanese Circuit and American Recognition

In his January 2001 interview with Grappling Magazine, Justin offered a candid observation about competing in Japan during that era: many of the top fighters working the Japanese circuit did not compete in the UFC and therefore went largely unrecognized in the United States, where mainstream awareness of combat sports was still heavily filtered through that single organization. He identified this as a meaningful gap between the quality of competition happening internationally and the credit fighters received at home.

From Extreme University to L.A. Boxing

The McCully brothers' coaching operation grew out of an earlier and more turbulent venture. Sean had co-founded Extreme University with two partners — an ambitious training facility that attracted prominent names including Mark Kerr, Mark Coleman, Maurice Smith, and Randy Couture. Despite the caliber of athletes passing through its doors, the gym struggled under the weight of heavy upfront investment and conflicting management visions. Justin, reflecting on the situation in his January 2001 Grappling Magazine profile, observed that all of the EU partners had sound ideas — they simply had them at different times, which gradually pulled the enterprise apart. The experience was instructive.

Building a Reputation

Sean went on to open L.A. Boxing in Costa Mesa, operating it for eight years as of January 2001, with Justin working alongside him. The gym offered group and private instruction across a broad curriculum: boxing, kickboxing, grappling, no-holds-barred fighting, and general fitness, with programming designed for men, women, and children. The facility's reputation extended well beyond Southern California — by the time of the Grappling Magazine profile, several major Japanese organizations were regularly sending top fighters to the McCullys for weeks-long training camps ahead of significant bouts, a direct reflection of the professional respect the brothers had earned through their own years of competition abroad.

Both Justin and Sean articulated a consistent philosophy in their public statements: they trained and competed out of genuine love for martial arts, not primarily for financial reward. They acknowledged, however, the value of recognition in their home country — something fighters on the Japanese circuit often found elusive despite the caliber of their work. As of January 2001, L.A. Boxing was located at 2380 Newport Blvd, Costa Mesa, California.