Cube MMA Seoul Review: Training MMA in Korea

Review based on three months of training in late 2022; refreshed August 2026. Cube MMA in Seoul was one of my favourite places to train while travelling. This article is primarily a firsthand gym review, so I have kept the parts that matter — coaching, culture, class style and what it was like training there — while clearly dating the schedule and price information instead of presenting it as current.

Cube MMA Seoul: my experience

I trained at Cube MMA for roughly three months while living in Seoul. I originally planned to train elsewhere, but Cube ended up being a much better fit for me because I liked the coaching, the mixed MMA focus and the smaller-gym culture.

The head coach during my stay was Kim Hyeong Gwang (김형광). What stood out was how well he adjusted feedback to the person in front of him. I have trained under a lot of coaches, and he was unusually good at giving me one or two corrections I could actually use rather than overwhelming me with ten things at once.

What you train

Cube is an MMA gym rather than a BJJ school with a little striking on the side. During my stay, training blended striking, wrestling, no-gi grappling, MMA combinations and conditioning. Even sessions that had a nominal focus often crossed over into the other areas.

That suited me. I had more grappling experience than striking experience, so drilling takedowns into strikes, striking into clinches and ground-and-pound sequences exposed gaps that pure BJJ did not.

How hard is the training?

Physically, I found Cube demanding. I often trained for two hours or more and still left before some of the regulars finished conditioning. Sparring was part of the culture, but the experienced competitors I worked with were generally good at adjusting their intensity.

As with any unfamiliar gym, I told new partners that it was our first round together and asked to start easy. That is still my standard advice when dropping into BJJ or MMA gyms abroad. I have a longer guide to visiting BJJ gyms while travelling.

Gym culture

Cube felt like a small local team. There were hobbyists, amateur competitors and people fighting professionally, but there was not much status theatre around that. I could train with much better people without feeling as though I was wasting their time.

I was also often the only non-Korean person in the room. That made it a much more immersive experience than training at a gym built around international visitors.

Do you need Korean?

For a one-off drop-in, you can get by with English, demonstration and translation apps. For several months of regular training, basic Korean helped me a lot.

I learned words for body parts, directions, timing and common training instructions. A lot of combat-sport terminology is borrowed from English, which helps, but the class itself was not run for English speakers.

Facilities

The gym was compact, which is normal in Seoul, but it did not feel cramped during normal classes. There was a main mat/training area plus another padded area we used for wall work and grappling.

Schedule, pricing and location

The schedule and price figures in the original review were from 2022. At the time, classes were concentrated in the evening and I paid a short-term rate that was relatively expensive by local-gym standards. I have removed the old US-dollar conversion because it is not useful in 2026.

Before visiting, check Cube MMA’s current Naver listing or contact the gym directly for the current timetable, drop-in policy and fees. Naver Maps is generally more useful than Google Maps for finding local businesses in Korea.

Would I train at Cube MMA again?

Yes. The reason is not a particular timetable or membership price; it is the coaching and the culture I experienced there. If you want an MMA-focused local gym rather than an English-language drop-in experience, Cube was exactly that for me.