I like watching PRIDE the most. I feel the fighters are the most skilled and good over all at what they do but NOT anything special when it comes to martial arts.
One thing is for certain though.. not one fighter from any MMA circuit that i have seen is an authority in any particular art . Most fighters are not even black belts in anything.. just highly trained physical specimens. Not normal people. So comparing a true martial artist to a highly trained MMA Athlete is very out of the question.
I firmly believe it is impossible to completely compare any style of martial art to another. It is impossible because they are all so different. An orange is a fruit and so is a banana. Both are fruit but very different.
How can you compare them other than give a personal preference in taste? You can compare color, taste, nutrients, smell and so on but what determines them to be better?
In Martial Arts it is even harder because there are too many aspects to even attempt to compare. But the most common and basic comparison is between striking and grappling.
This is pointless in my opinion. I think in combat it goes to who makes the first mistake in a ring fight that determines who has the advantage to carry on to a victory. If a good grappler gets a hold of you then look out! On the other hand you better look out with even more caution to the great striking artist!!! Chuck Liddell is a good example of a fighter who knows how to avoid getting to the ground and punches the lights out of most of his opponents. He has won the light heavyweight title more than once using good striking.
But I would still not consider a credible authority as a good martial artist. He is a well-trained slugger and pit fighter. Take of the gloves, mouthpiece and cup and use practical martial arts methods in the street and he would then appear to be more normal than we would expect. This goes to any MMA fighter in my opinion.
If a MMA fighter is to depend in his striking ability in the street then he needs to develop proper body mechanics, to know that the quickest way to a target is a strait line and also consider other uncontrollable factors like: no mats, no cage, hard ground to think about when getting slammed to the floor.
I guarantee that any human being will start to worry about the ground after hitting it while getting a concussion because he thought he was still on a mat, in a cage and in a controlled environment.
A real fight only lasts a few seconds. There wont be too much hugging on the ground getting hurt by the asphalt, rocks, glass and other hazardous things you find in a parking lot.. Let's not forget CURBS and PARKING DIVIDERS.
Most traditional martial artists train to avoid being taken to the ground and are pretty good at it after a few years of training.
The problem with people who are quick to judge traditional Martial arts as ineffective have no clue of what it takes to become a skilled practitioner because of their lack of patience to go through the process that it takes to to learn real self defense. So they turn to the sport of MMA thinking it will give them what they are looking for and are convinced of its superiority only after a few months.
Since there are rules in the ring, the bottom line is that MMA is sport oriented and not real combat.
We must remember this point before anything. If it is not a sport, then anyone should be able to get in a ring and fight, scratch, gouge eyes, pull cheeks, strike groin and collapse your esophagus and attack very vital points of the body in order to disable an opponent. Then it is no longer a sport and the risks are much higher. We might as well be in the games in ancient Rome at the coliseum entertaining Julius Caesar himself!
But since there ARE rules, then MMA should be considered a sport that is regulated in a controlled environment. So in short, it should be considered a sport with a combative attitude yet still far from REAL COMBAT.
That does not mean that none of these fighters are skilled at what they do. In fact, they are very skilled and more than amazing.
But to call MMA a mixture of martial arts is blasphemous when there is no standard to the level of any art practiced. No one is even close to being an authority in any art. The Gracie's practiced BJJ. Not MMA. If anyone were to be remotely considered a credible martial artist it would be one of the Gracie's. But to think BJJ is better than other arts I would seriously have to beg to differ. Again all arts provide an advantage in certain situations, but in the street it is way different than on a mat for an hour. Anything can go wrong no matter how good you are and no matter what you practice.
We should all remember the basic principles of true BUDO in the martial arts and what they can offer to us. Not try to knock one art for another.
Of course we are not talking about Mc Dojos and their commercial take of what real training is, only schools of credible and authentic training.
Good training!
Oss!
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