more Karate in the UFC

[explosive_power]

Lyoto Machida silenced the karate critics that karate was useless in a real fight..

Do you guys want to see more karate based fighters in UFC?

[sensei8]

I've no preference either way because no matter what's done in the UFC or anywhere else; critics will still be critical of karate, whether its pro or con.

Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.

[jsteczko]

Critics, who do not practice karate will always find a way to criticize karate. I have a friend who trains MMA and he very often says "Muay Thai, boxing and BJJ is the best, this is proven in MMA". I avoid these discussions because they are meaningless.

Even when I say to my friend "karate is used by Bas Rutten and Lyota Machida" he will find an excuse that it is not karate they are training. His reply mostly is "Yes, but they train a special style and it is not karate". Funny...

Lyota Machida is a good example of that karate can be used in MMA. But I believe the biggest asset you can have is your own mind and not the style. There are many other great martial arts than these which are used in MMA but mostly they are not allowed. Because they may focus on killing your opponent. In UFC you do not want to see these guys killing. Hitting each other e.g. in the throat or any other surface that can really hurt.

You maybe say "But they throttle on the floor!". Yes they do, but they don't do it in the middle of the throat where Adam's apple is but on the sides where veins are. In BJJ they just stop the flow of the blood to the brain and this is not as dangerous as hitting one's Adam apple.

On one side MMA is a good martial art, but on the other side it is a sport and they may be not that effective as other real fighting styles.

And when I go back to your question, more karatekas in UFC would be nice. But I don't care too much because I don't watch UFC.

[explosive_power]

Critics, who do not practice karate will always find a way to criticize karate. I have a friend who trains MMA and he very often says "Muay Thai, boxing and BJJ is the best, this is proven in MMA". I avoid these discussions because they are meaningless.

Even when I say to my friend "karate is used by Bas Rutten and Lyota Machida" he will find an excuse that it is not karate they are training. His reply mostly is "Yes, but they train a special style and it is not karate". Funny...

Lyota Machida is a good example of that karate can be used in MMA. But I believe the biggest asset you can have is your own mind and not the style. There are many other great martial arts than these which are used in MMA but mostly they are not allowed. Because they may focus on killing your opponent. In UFC you do not want to see these guys killing. Hitting each other e.g. in the throat or any other surface that can really hurt.

You maybe say "But they throttle on the floor!". Yes they do, but they don't do it in the middle of the throat where Adam's apple is but on the sides where veins are. In BJJ they just stop the flow of the blood to the brain and this is not as dangerous as hitting one's Adam apple.

On one side MMA is a good martial art, but on the other side it is a sport and they may be not that effective as other real fighting styles.

And when I go back to your question, more karatekas in UFC would be nice. But I don't care too much because I don't watch UFC.

yeah. it's really funny how they say machida's style is not karate.

When it REALLY, clearly is.

[Toptomcat]

I don't really want to see more karateka in the UFC. I want to see more good fighters in the UFC, and I want to see the level of competition continue to rise. If those good fighters come from a karate background, excellent- I'll be watching what they do closely to see if I can learn anything. If those good fighters come from a background in Welsh shin kicking, my reaction will be precisely the same. Though I personally come from a karate background, I think it would be slightly arrogant and provincial to cheer a fighter purely because he happens to do the same.

[RW]

Lyoto Machida silenced the karate critics that karate was useless in a real fight..

Do you guys want to see more karate based fighters in UFC?

Of course!

[RW]

On a side note, I wonder how Muay Thai displaced karate as the choice martial art for striking?

There was full contact karate at first. These guys had awesome punching and of course, karate kicks. That FCK became "kickboxing" (still karate based).

At some point karate just stopped being relevant for kickboxing and Muay Thai displaced it. But, when and why? I don't think that the lack of elbow and knee strikes made the difference (after all, karate DOES have them in kata, drills, etc, they could have just incorporated them into the kickboxing repertoire. Also, shin vs. instep kicking isn't a good enough reason, after all in the UFC fighters use the shin and instep indistinctively in the spur of the moment, judging the distance isn't as precise.

[Toptomcat]

I can't speak to the historical side of things- the hows and whys- but I am reasonably sure you're underrating the technical differences between MT and karate. Don't think of it as being a matter of elbows and knees- think of it as being a matter of a developed science of clinchwork. Karate has knees and elbows, but they are very rarely taught as clinch tools. Similarly, Muay Thai's advantage isn't that they know how to kick with the shins, but that they make them their primary tool for kicking and condition the living hell out of them, resulting in an entirely different animal.

[GeoGiant]

As a person that trains in Karate & loves to watch UFC, I want to see solid competition. SPORTS will always evolve... there will always be those people that follow the flavor of the week and there will always be those people that stick with what worked in the past. I'm fine with watching either as long as I'm seeing top notch talent verses top notch talent.

[Dobie1979]

I think I'm with everyone here when I say, I just want to see solid competition in the UFC. Do I think it's cool that there are guys in the UFC that practice Karate? Heck Yea!