My name is Sam Hakimi, and I am the head coach and founder of Hustle Striking. I’ve been training in martial arts since I was 11 years old at Team Karate Centers, under Master Fariborz Azakh. There, I earned my second degree black belt in Hapkido Blend and became the head instructor of the junior program at 16 years of age. Master Fariborz blessed me with the opportunity of being able to teach over a thousand students. I am forever grateful for the blessing he gave me, and knowledge to open up Hustle Striking. At around the same time, from ages 16-20, I trained with the legendary Benny “The Jet” Urquidez and Peter “Sugarfoot” Cunningham. Working with these two Legends in the sport of kickboxing gave me a solid foundation in my striking. Sparring and training with Sensei Peter’s fighters like German Baltazar and Shawn Yacobian at such a young age gave me a great advantage in terms of hand to hand combat. From there, I gradually focused on boxing by training with Bernie Hopalian. A combination of all of these different arts from Hapkido, kickboxing and boxing and knowledge from all these great mentors is what I try to pass on to the students at Hustle Striking.

My name is Momotaro Tachibe and I am a coach at Hustle Striking. I started my martial arts journey when I was 8 years old with Taekwondo at International Taekwondo. There, I fell in love with the training and discipline of the art and have been a big fan of fighting since. After that my brother introduced me to boxing and I fell in love. Throughout highschool I focused on bodybuilding and boxing, going back and forth until I went to college. After graduating from UCLA with a Philosophy degree, I came back home to an opportunity from Sam Hakimi to become a coach at Hustle Striking. Since then I have dedicated my time to truly learning and understanding the art of boxing, and how to teach it to others. As a coach my goal is to show my students and clients the mental and physical discipline it takes to be a boxer and have it extend to their everyday lifestyle.