Andre Dickerson Explains How Team Takeover Grew From Combat Sports Grind Into a Regional Brand
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Andre Dickerson’s Team Takeover journey started long before the apparel, athlete partnerships and online storefront. On the JMA Podcast, Dickerson traced that story back to youth wrestling, rough early MMA experiences, years of grappling and a willingness to build relationships throughout the Northeast combat sports scene.
When Andre Dickerson joined John Murray and Jeremy Fairhurst on the JMA Podcast, the conversation quickly showed why his name has become familiar around regional MMA and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu events.
Dickerson, the owner of Team Takeover, discussed his history as a wrestler, mixed martial artist and submission grappler before explaining how he transformed those experiences into a growing sports apparel and custom merchandise business.
More importantly, the interview revealed a common thread connecting his competition career and his business philosophy: keep showing up.
“You need to be way more involved online,” Dickerson told the JMA Podcast while discussing what separates athletes and businesses that grow from those that disappear between events.
For Dickerson, that mentality came from years of learning things the difficult way.
Wrestling Built Andre Dickerson’s Foundation
Dickerson told the JMA Podcast that he began wrestling at approximately five years old, competing around the Glens Falls and Hudson Falls area before continuing through high school.
That wrestling background eventually pulled him toward MMA.
His introduction hardly resembled the organized development system many young fighters use today. Dickerson recalled agreeing to take an MMA fight with virtually no formal MMA experience after someone at the gym asked if he wanted to compete.
Training for that early opportunity became its own story.
Dickerson described preparing outside in the grass, finding places to train wherever he could and entering competition without the submission knowledge that later became a major part of his game.
Some details from Dickerson’s earliest fighting years do not appear in the modern online record, something he addressed during the interview.
Tapology currently lists Andre Tavish Dickerson with a 2-1 amateur MMA record, including an arm-triangle submission victory over Drew Chevalier and a TKO victory over Noah Burke. His publicly documented competitive history also includes several grappling appearances.
The timing matters.
New York operated under a much different combat-sports environment during the period Dickerson described. The state did not establish its modern regulatory framework for MMA until 2016. When New York legalized and regulated the sport, lawmakers specifically noted that unregulated amateur MMA events had previously taken place through a loophole in the old law.
That history provides important context for the unconventional early fight stories Dickerson shared on the podcast.
From MMA to Boxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Dickerson did not stay locked into one discipline.
He gravitated toward striking, experimented with kickboxing and eventually moved toward boxing. At the same time, grappling remained part of his training.
He told JMA that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu eventually became a long-term pursuit, with more than a decade spent on the mats.
The grind sometimes became extreme.
Dickerson recalled working long hours, handling snow-removal shifts and still finding a way to train late at night because he had a competition and a weight cut approaching.
During the COVID era, when normal training became difficult, he took another grassroots approach: he built a training space behind his house.
What started as a way to keep himself active eventually attracted other athletes. Dickerson said sessions sometimes packed roughly 20 people into the homemade facility.
Those experiences help explain why the Andre Dickerson Team Takeover story feels so connected to regional combat sports. His business did not develop from outside the community. It grew from someone who had already spent years competing, training and networking inside it.
Team Takeover Became Bigger Than Fight Gear
One of the most revealing parts of the JMA Podcast interview came when Dickerson explained what Team Takeover actually does.
People frequently associate the company with rash guards, fight shorts and MMA equipment. Dickerson said that only represents part of the operation.
The larger model revolves around providing customized online merchandise storefronts for gyms, sports teams, athletes and businesses.
A gym or organization can provide its branding and designs, while Team Takeover handles products through its storefront. Dickerson explained that clients can determine how much profit they want to build into merchandise pricing, giving gyms and athletes another potential revenue stream without requiring them to manage every individual order themselves.
The current Team Takeover Online Store supports that broader picture. Its storefront features dedicated merchandise sections for numerous martial arts organizations and teams, including Black Hole HQ, Mongoose Training Center, Oswego Jiu Jitsu, Momentum BJJ, Imperium BJJ and others.
Dickerson said during the interview that Team Takeover had already worked with dozens of gyms and several businesses while branching into wrestling, soccer, baseball and other sports.
He also claimed the website was attracting more than 5,000 visitors per week at the time of the interview.
That expanding audience creates something bigger than a printing service. Each additional athlete or gym introduces another audience to the same marketplace.
“You’re still getting traffic and people just looking at your gym or business,” Dickerson explained.
Why Fighters Need to Build a Brand Before They Become Famous
The strongest business lesson from the Andre Dickerson Team Takeover interview had little to do with clothing.
Dickerson believes fighters need to market themselves.
He said athletes frequently approach him looking for sponsorships despite having limited social-media activity or audience engagement. Instead of simply giving away products, Team Takeover often works with athletes through discounts or other arrangements.
His message to fighters remains straightforward: sponsors need a reason to invest.
Posting only during fight camp does not create a sustainable brand.
Dickerson encouraged competitors to post consistently, interact with followers, collaborate with other accounts and improve the quality of their photos and videos.
That advice fits closely with what JMurrayAthletics has seen while covering regional combat sports. Press conferences, interviews and live-event coverage give developing athletes opportunities to gain experience in front of cameras before they reach larger promotions.
For amateur and regional fighters, those opportunities can matter almost as much as another highlight clip.
A fighter who learns how to compete and communicate gives promoters, sponsors and fans more reasons to follow the journey.
“You have to build your brand,” Dickerson said.
Team Takeover’s Reach Across Regional Combat Sports
Dickerson’s network now stretches through gyms and athletes across the Northeast.
During the podcast, he discussed working with competitors and organizations connected to Black Hole, Mongoose, Legends and several other academies. He also described producing custom apparel for athletes competing across MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, karate and bare-knuckle boxing.
His public competition history also shows that Dickerson has remained connected to grappling after his MMA appearances. Tapology records him competing professionally in grappling at IGC 6 in 2023, where he defeated Nikolay Todorov by unanimous decision before later facing Henry Oberlander.
That combination of competitor and entrepreneur gives Dickerson an unusual perspective.
He understands the athlete who needs gear.
He understands the gym owner trying to sell merchandise.
He understands the promoter looking for another revenue source.
And he understands the challenge of getting anyone to notice.
Competition Still Matters
Business may consume more of Dickerson’s schedule now, but he told the JMA Podcast that he had not finished competing.
At the time of the April interview, Dickerson said he had increased his training again, working out four to five days per week while strength training several times weekly. He also said he had dropped approximately 15 pounds as he prepared to return to competition.
He discussed a planned May 16 appearance at Victory, and official results for Victory 39: Rage in the Cage later listed Andre Dickerson opposite Aiden Rubeck, although the publicly available CombatReg result remains marked “TBD.”
That competitive side remains important to the Team Takeover identity.
Dickerson does not sell combat-sports culture solely from behind a computer. He has lived through wrestling rooms, MMA camps, boxing training, submission grappling tournaments and the strange regional fight scene that existed before New York established its modern regulations.
That experience now feeds directly into the company he continues to grow.
Andre Dickerson’s Biggest Lesson: Stay Visible and Keep Working
There were plenty of wild stories during Dickerson’s JMA Podcast appearance, from training for fights in the grass to turning his backyard into a makeshift gym.
However, the most valuable takeaway may have been much simpler.
Momentum matters.
Dickerson repeatedly returned to the importance of staying active, maintaining relationships and giving people a reason to remember your name.
That philosophy helped turn Team Takeover from an apparel idea into a platform serving athletes, gyms and organizations across several sports.
It also offers a lesson for every regional fighter trying to build something beyond their next bout.
Winning matters.
Training matters.
But if nobody knows who you are when the fight ends, you still have work to do.
The Andre Dickerson Team Takeover interview shows what can happen when someone treats that work with the same persistence they once brought into the wrestling room.
For more conversations with athletes, coaches, promoters and personalities throughout regional combat sports, visit the JMA Podcast archive on JMurrayAthletics.
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