The master

“If I can do it, so can you.”

Massimo Mitola, Sifu Maximo, teaches South-East Asian martial arts for self-defence at Black Bull Academy in Desenzano del Garda. For him Jeet Kune Do, Kali, Silat, Muay Thai and MMA go far beyond technique: they are tools for personal growth, survival and awareness.

A family with fighting in its blood

Martial arts run in the Mitola family. His older brother, twelve years his senior, was already a karate black belt when Massimo started, and was a role model and a constant push to improve. His father, an operational motorcyclist in the Carabinieri, had a natural talent for boxing and passed on a principle that runs through all of Massimo’s teaching: adapt to every situation, and act first when it is clear the confrontation can no longer be avoided.

The masters

Sifu Guru Serafino Fontana, his Italian master, founder of K.E.S.A. Italia: the first to bring the Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Kali and Indonesian Silat of the Magda Institute to Italy. Massimo has trained with him since the age of fifteen, throughout his whole martial path to this day.

Sifu Guru Cass Magda, his American master, founder of the Magda Institute in Los Angeles and a direct student of Dan Inosanto, himself a disciple of Bruce Lee.

“I do not represent only myself: I carry on what was handed down to me.”

• Phase 3 in Jeet Kune Do, the system created by Bruce Lee.
• Phase 3 in Filipino Kali.
• Phase 3 in Indonesian Silat.
• 2nd Dan black belt in Kyokushinkai Karate.

Over thirty years of martial arts

Massimo starts karate at the age of 12. At 15 he meets his master, Sifu Guru Serafino Fontana, the figure who has guided his whole martial path ever since. With him he takes up Jeet Kune Do in 1991, Pentjak Silat in 1993 and Filipino Kali in 1995.

• 2007: he becomes an instructor.
• 2009: he founds Black Bull Academy as an amateur sports association and opens his own gym in Desenzano del Garda.
• 2011: Black Bull is recognised as a Desenzano sports association, which allows it to take over the management of a municipal gym: the Bagatta gym, where the adult classes are still held today.

Continuous training

• Since 2007 he has attended instructor and refresher courses every year: five weekends a year.
• He has had the honour of attending seminars and training with Sifu Tim Tackett and Guro Dan Inosanto.
• Twice a year he trains with Sifu Guru Cass Magda in Italy, at the Summer Camp and Winter Camp that the K.E.S.A. Italia instructors work hard to organise: for students it is a chance to meet the American master, for instructors a way to keep up with updated, constantly evolving programmes.
• At least once every two years he flies to Los Angeles to train at Sifu Guru Cass Magda’s Magda Institute.

Demonstrations and awards

• For ten years, twice a year, he gave martial arts demonstrations at the Festival dell’Oriente in Milan, Padua and Bologna, for as long as demonstrations were part of the programme.
• He received a commendation from the Municipality of Desenzano del Garda for the association’s work in bringing martial arts to young people and in fighting bullying.

In schools and in security

• For five years he has been teaching self-defence in secondary schools, from first to fifth year: real teaching projects, on the American model, assessed and recorded in pupils’ school reports. An important step towards recognising martial arts as an educational subject, an idea Black Bull has embraced from the start.
• He trains security staff and venue personnel, and his students include members of the police and security forces.
• He regularly runs self-defence courses for women.

Kyokushinkai karate and competition

• In 2024 he earned his 2nd Dan black belt after a test of 40 two-minute full-contact rounds against 16 Italian and foreign fighters from all over Europe: a test of physical endurance and inner awareness that also earned him a commendation from Japan.
• On 29 March 2025 Black Bull organised, together with Shihan Francesco Fina’s AIK Shinkyokushinkai Italia and Russian Unidefense, the first international Kyokushinkai karate tournament at the Palasport in Manerba del Garda, under the patronage of CONI and ASI and in collaboration with Marcell Jacobs’s Jacobs Sports Academy. Over 130 athletes from Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Poland and Hungary, alongside the first Para Budo Championship with 30 athletes with disabilities: a memorable day, presented at a press conference and covered by the newspapers (Bresciaoggi, 29 March 2025: “Full contact, a Manerba si fa sul serio”).

The press conference: Viviana Masini, Alex Potinga, Francesco Fina and Massimo Mitola. Click the photo to read the Bresciaoggi article.

• Between March and April 2027 he is organising a new national championship.
• He regularly accompanies students who want to try competition in full contact, light contact, K1 and Kyokushinkai karate events.

The Black Bull Formula

The Black Bull method was born from the fusion of these experiences, knowledge and traditions into a simple, direct and pragmatic formula. It focuses on what really matters when danger is real: when you cannot avoid it or run, and you are forced to act.

• Mind before body: perceiving danger, managing fear, a calm mind that makes the body effective.
• Few techniques, mastered: punches, kicks, elbows and knees, and short combinations trained until they become automatic.
• Real defence: responses to shoves, grabs and chokes, no choreography.
• Consistency: 45–60 minutes of daily training is worth more than long, occasional sessions.

Black Bull is the style of the sharp, decisive, targeted strike: the mindset of the bull, centred, ready, determined.

• I’ll Teach You to Defend Yourself – The Black Bull Formula (e-book, in Italian). Eight chapters: the mental approach to self-defence, technical basics, impact strikes, effective combinations, real defensive techniques, training and consistency.