MMA is a Sport!

A question that I’m often asked is this: Is MMA the toughest or the best fighting style? This takes a few minutes and even a short “demo” to answer that question. No MMA is not the toughest or the best martial art. It is a SPORT and not even a martial art as we old timers understand it. Do MMA fighters use martial arts techniques? Yes! Are MMA fighters the very best fighters? Within the confines of the rules by which they are governed – yes we usually see the best MMA fighters in Pride, Vale Tudo and the UFC.

Don’t for one minute think that because these fighters are highly skilled grapplers and/or kick boxers and are trained in an extremely brutal regimen – that they are 100% Martial Artists. In fact most of them aren’t. Most are skilled in one or maybe two styles as mentioned above. They don’t waste time on bo katas when they could be doing “super sets” on the bench. They don’t waste time doing kata which adds the elegance of a true martial artist at work – they have sprints to do. They have rules. Martial Arts practitioners don’t. A martial art trains you to fight multiple opponents – which you won’t find in the ring – but will find in the street. A skilled MMA practitioner, within the rules structure they use, will probably knock down, slam to the ground or knock down their opponent and then begin a vicious attempt to sit on the opponents chest (the mounted position) and rain down punches and elbows until the referee breaks the fight off. If a Brazilian grappler, they will continue to slip and slide from position to position while trying to pull off a submission at any opportunity that’s offered.

Now either of these two dominant MMA types are extremely efficient in the ring, but let me see a guy “mounted” on my friend and throwing punches down and he’ll get “punted” into the middle of the roadway -yeah, out by those double yellow lines! That’s martial arts! Sure a trained MMA fighter will probably “take down” most martial arts fighters and pummel them into submission – those are the RULES. That would be about as much of a challenge as a man smacking a woman in the head with a telescopic steel baton – it’s not a fair comparison. It wasn’t always so, in the beginning of the UFC, when strictly martial arts fighters showed up, they put on some very impressive fights. What if a deadly MMA fighter has me in a guillotine choke? Can I bite a chunk out of his arm? No! Can I reach upward and begin scratching his eyes out? Can I rip one of his cauliflower ears off? No! So you watch and decide for yourselves is MMA training the baddest martial arts style around? Not even close!