TJS

Either way would work but If you plan on doing both getting a base in judo first would be good.

Nick Diaz is actually a purple belt. Like I said as a grappling fan I love watchin Karo but he is proabably still in the prelims because onnly one of his fights has ended in somethign other than a decision and the crowd usually dosent like that. If you noticed in his post fight interview he said he promised lorenzo he would try and end it with a submission.

his biggest test is going to be how his judo stackes up against someone that he cant physically overpower ala matt hughes. Karo is one of my favorite fighters to watch but he has had trouble with strong wrestlers in the past ala sean sherk...hopefully we will get a beautiful display of judo vs wrestling if he fights hughes.

yoshida is bigger and stronger but Karo has definetly been able to use more judo in a mma setting than yoshida.

Its a Grappling tournament that has qualifiers all around the world to compete in the Abu dhabi combat club submission grappling tournament usually hely in the United arab emierates by sheik tahoon. You see wrestlers, Judokas, sambo, BJJ, Submission grapplers etc from all around the world competing in a no gi setting. Proabably the most prestigious grappling tournament around these days.

Watch ADCC

could you elaborate on that. To my knowladge The Gracie children were taught as a favor and teaching foreigners was somethign rearely done and also illegal at the time.

Well when learning techniques(especially for the first time) It proabably is best to pair up with someone similar to your size. once you get a good bas it is good to practice with people of various sizes both big and small though.

Sticking a finger in someones mouth and pulling their cheek like a fish hook. An example would be fish hooking someone someone who is on their back to setup a punch they cant get away from. Proabably illegal because If your gona allow fish hooking then it's not fair for biting to be illegal...If someone tries to fish hook me they will loose a finger or most of it atleast anyways yea..its a move like biting or scratching that dosent really requie technique and anyone can do it thus it's illegal.

That description sounds alot like another fighter..what was his name...oh yea ..Royce Gracie

double edged sword It would be great for the sport but as you said I wouldent want it to head down the path of TKD. I dont thing BJJ is very diluted at this point. Sure there are some people who dont deserve the belts they werar but not many because It will become painfully obvious if someone isint the belt they claim to be when they roll with others of that rank or enter tournaments.

He has a small karate school in colorado if i remember correctly. Since his UFC days he has added a bit of grappling and wrestling into his cirriculum.

well said and since it's easier to close distance then to keep it and strike the striker has to really be on top if his game.

What proves this? Are we talking the ring or the street? that fact that when a grappler and a striker fought in the early days 9 times out of 10 the Grappler woudl get a takedown and finish his opponet with strikes or a submission. I saw no reason to belive the fights that took place in the first 3-4 UFC's would have been any diffrent if they were in a field or an alley. Is it possible? yes but proabably not. Infact The mat actually helped alot of the strikers since they would usually hit their head on the ground during the takedown.

I think it generally proved that when a grappler and a sriker fight the grappler will usually win. Striking stlyes certainly arent useless though. You also have to look at whotch stlyes were able to cross train and become sucessful so far the stlyes that have been able to do that are Boxing, Thai boxing, BJJ, Judo, wrestling, sambo and there are a few karate guy mainly from kyokushin and its ofshoots aswell. But you are right there are stlyes that dont work well against trained fighters but will help people on the street.

What happens when they cant beat one person because the got takcled by some kid who wrestled ain HS and get beaten to a mess because they new nothing about the ground?

Good point. They could usually finish off strikers pretty easily on the ground but someone with a basic undestanding of the ground and ground defense was in for a long fight if they cant get back up.

Why is that? because Judo and Kyokushin both have more rules than MMA?? There is no evidence or logic behind that. Judo has more limited rules than BJJ and Kyokushin has more limited ruled than Thai boxing.

Wrestling did better than 90% of other martial arts in early NHB fighting.

Honestly I cant wait to see, Im unsure- Will guy with a strong background in wresling, grappling or striking be on top ..guy's like Cro Cop with his kickboxing background, Couture with his wrestling background, yoshida with his Judo background, or Nog with his Jiu jitsu. Or will guys who have trained mma as a whole since day 1 dominate..I guess we will just have ot wait and see. It seems most of the top guys at this point come from a background in one stlye...but there are plenty of exceptions.

Most of the top grapplers in MMA have a base in Gi training....

It's good for Street self defense. Gives you a good basic skills in standup strking and some of the weapon defenses are good.

Yes I used to, but some things changed and im at a new school now.

proabably not....9 years is a huge Gap. Kyokushin and Judo have a big emphasis on conditioning too so that would help.

You will hear conflicting opinions but I will put in my thoughts. Generally most of the Top guys in the sport think it's best to train with a Gi atleast in the begining, then take it off later if you want ot go that path. I personally belive you will develop better fundementals if you train with a Gi early on. People have more control over you and escapes from various positions aswell as Submissions are alot more difficult and require more techniwue when wearing a Gi. But there are school that choose to train no Gi only and if they just want to compete in submission wrestling or MMA then it's nderstandable. If you look at most of the top grapplers out there in Submission grappling, ADCC, or BJJ most of them atleast started with a Gi.