UFC

[Muaythaiboxer]

good street fighters win bad ones lose.

[AngryMatt]

Good street fighters don't get into fights.

[Treebranch]

Str33tGuy, to my understanding MMA's are mainly people who mix Sport MA's, they rarely mixed TMA's with SMA's. I think that's the common consensus since the term MMA came from UFC. Look at my MA experience, I've studied various MA's but I don't study them to mix them, each has it's good and bad. I take what's good about them and put the Taijutsu into them to make them more effective.

[STR33T GUY]

I’m not into arguing semantics so I’ll tell you what I do and you can call it anything you want.

My striking is based on boxing with elements of MT added and some modifications by me to make it more street worthy.

My grappling is a blend of free style wrestling, Jujitsu, some BJJ and a little GR wrestling.

I’ve taken a year of TKD but haven’t bothered to retain any part of it.

[baronbvp]

Sounds about like me. My striking is predominantly boxing and kickboxing, mostly self-taught and one-on-one with various people throughout my life. My grappling is a blend of the wrestling I learned in high school, freestyle ground grappling from sparring with friends over the years, and some judo and BJJ moves. I have also taken some other things like kung fu, MT, and TKD but don't retain much of it, at least not consciusly. Over the last 20 years I have focused the overall effort into military combat survival in hostile territory. I haven't been in many street fights -- maybe 5 -- particularly since I got older. I have been weight training for the past 15 years.

Now I am taking Shorin-Ryu and trying to focus on its art and functionality but learn the kata. However, I can't resist adapting some of it to my own style. My renshi and I are also doing some one-on-one Splashing Hands, which I guess is a new kind of street kung fu derivative.

Does that make me a MMA? I have no idea. Maybe this is a good topic for a new thread.

Edited April 5, 2005 by baronbvp

[Mr Pockets]

I'm just going to repost what I posted before but it was removed, with the bad word removed:

I see a lot of points in here I like and even more I dislike. First of all, technically speaking, boxing is a martial art. It's just not a "martial art" like you traditionally think of them. In a way, you are right in saying that many UFCers do not really care about "martial arts," they just care about fighting. But that brings up another point: martial arts, I thought, was supposed to be about fighting. Throw in whatever other philosophy or spiritual nonsense you want, actual fighting used to be a goal. What the UFCers have done is something remarkable- theyve allowed martial arts to evolve in order to come up with somethign that works effectively. Do UFCers train to fight in the streets? Of course not! Could they beat someone down on the street? You bet. If you want to be capable of fighting on the streets, training in so called "MMA" is the best way to go. It isnt a big stretch from getting someone to tap out to breaking their bones or choking them unconcious. Nor is it a big step from kicking a leg to a knee, a groin, punching a throat or simply putting your thumb in someones eye or ripping their ear off their head. All in all, the UFC, Pride, all those things are competition BASED on real life fighting. "As real as it gets..." with sanctioned rules that is. A reflection of reality it isn't, but it's a great approximation.

[Treebranch]

Mr Pockets it's O.K. to admit you don't know everything, I admit I don't. You are only going to judge things based on your limited knowledge of them, and so does everyone else. You are not right and neither am I. You can only do what feels right for you. If you are going to compete than you are on the right track. I'm not going to compete and have no desire to, but I would love to sparr with someone like you. I've had plenty of streetfights and I've sparred in a ring in Lima Lama, it would be fun. I'm about learning and improving my own skills. I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone but myself. I only lost one streetfight and that's because they broke it up right when I was gettting the mount. So TMAers have streetfights too you know, we are not all wimps.

[SevenStar]

I'm just going to repost what I posted before but it was removed, with the bad word removed:

I see a lot of points in here I like and even more I dislike. First of all, technically speaking, boxing is a martial art. It's just not a "martial art" like you traditionally think of them. In a way, you are right in saying that many UFCers do not really care about "martial arts," they just care about fighting. But that brings up another point: martial arts, I thought, was supposed to be about fighting. Throw in whatever other philosophy or spiritual nonsense you want, actual fighting used to be a goal. What the UFCers have done is something remarkable- theyve allowed martial arts to evolve in order to come up with somethign that works effectively. Do UFCers train to fight in the streets? Of course not! Could they beat someone down on the street? You bet. If you want to be capable of fighting on the streets, training in so called "MMA" is the best way to go. It isnt a big stretch from getting someone to tap out to breaking their bones or choking them unconcious. Nor is it a big step from kicking a leg to a knee, a groin, punching a throat or simply putting your thumb in someones eye or ripping their ear off their head. All in all, the UFC, Pride, all those things are competition BASED on real life fighting. "As real as it gets..." with sanctioned rules that is. A reflection of reality it isn't, but it's a great approximation.

good post.

[SevenStar]

I'm not going to compete and have no desire to, but I would love to sparr with someone like you. I've had plenty of streetfights and I've sparred in a ring in Lima Lama, it would be fun. I'm about learning and improving my own skills. I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone but myself. I only lost one streetfight and that's because they broke it up right when I was gettting the mount. So TMAers have streetfights too you know, we are not all wimps.

it's not abot wimps and proving points - we compete because we like to compete. Have you ever beaten the game "street fighter II" with Ryu? his ending says it all: "ceremony means nothing to him - the fight is everything" - that is the proper spirit for this.

as far as wimps, it's not that anyone is saying that TMA don't have fights. From an experience standpoint, the avg sport fighter has more relative experience with fighting because he's likely had more fights, as he has more opportunity - you are avoiding fights, he is looking for them.

[dtstiachi]

How many here have competed in UFC?