Anyone else fond of watching these matches on the television or at live events? Say through Ultimate Fighting Championship or PRIDE? I've relatively recently (about the last year or so) taken to watching these, having always appreciated sports like boxing and professional and amateur wrestling. For those unaware of what MMA is: Mixed Martial Arts is an all-style welcomed combat sport, with matches usually incorporating striking (punches and kicks), clinching and grappling, and ground wrestling. People with knowledge of both Western and Eastern martial arts (usually in combination) fight in (generally) round-divided matches with thin-gloves allowing grasping, in a ring or similar enclosure, with knock out, submission, doctor/referee stoppage, and decision victories. Historically, it's similar to the Hellenic pankration.
Yes! I watched Ultimate Fighting, was great. My cable channels have been cut off now so I don’t get to watch it. boohoo. I practiced Shaolin kickboxing from a young age, did that for many years and it has shaped my physique today. My legs are quite big compared to the rest of my body, they are quite strong too, I have big forearms and a six-pack, my arms are well defined but not that big, same with my chest. In fights I still keep the stance I learnt from my kickboxing days. The techniques and skills I learnt there will be with me forever. I did some sort of Kung fu for a while, it was okay, I got to fight with people twice my size but I found some the stuff to be inappropriate and useless, I found myself reverting back to my kickboxing style. I've always loved wrestling, I love submission manoeuvres, I'm into that technical sort of stuff. If there was an ultimate wrestling type place here I’d sign up definitely. After these summer holidays I’m going to start another type of martial art, I want to put on some weight (muscle) as well. The fighting isn’t extravagant or pretty, its bloody nasty and that’s what real fights are like, there is also a lot of strategy involved. Ultimate fighting rocks!
Ghost 007: You live in London, right? There probably should be either a wrestling academy or a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu place to learn some good grappling. Check this out: http://gracie-barra.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=5&id=71&Itemid=71 But yes, MMA is quite cool. Although I say PRIDE is better than UFC - more aggressive and generally stronger guys.
Nope, just out of London, Thames Valley region (Berkshire). I don't think they have any wrestling academies in my area. Its mainly Kickboxing, Kung Fu and Tae Kwon Do. I've never heard of PRIDE, will check it out whenever I can. Are guys in the US interested in kickboxing/tae kwon do? or is it mainly just wrestling/boxing?
There's a Tae Kwon Do place right down the block from where I live. It's a huge sport/martial art here, but also has a bad reputation for producing crappy training places, owing to the amount of kids and women who want to be part of it. Muay Thai and other kick boxing systems are also becoming big here in the US. American Kick Boxing also remains a sport, as does Savate, but not as much. Of course, we also have tons of boxing gyms, specifically here in New York City. I live near where Mike Tyson trained. Boxing is especially popular in black neighbourhoods, and wrestling is practiced in most highschools and colleges.
The difference between Pride and UFC is that Pride is focused on the quality of fighters, while the UFC looks at personality, charisma, and the ability to draw crowds. Pride has better fighters, but the UFC is better managed. Which is why Pride will probably fail in the next two years while the UFC will continue to grow. The thing I hate about the UFC is this inflow of TUF fighters that keep getting fights despite their incompetence in the ring. I do not want to ever see Forrest Griffin or Ed Herman fight another fight. Or Heath Herring. Or that blond guy that supposedly "trains real well", but looses every fight in the octagon. If you lose a fight in the UFC, you should have to get a win in a smaller organization before you come back. My biggest beef with Pride is the boxing ring. That thing has GOT to go. There should not be corners in an MMA fight. And you should not have to stop the fight because a guy's head is outside of the ropes. This usually hurts the guy in the dominate position, which is bogus. The refs in Pride are much, much better than the UFC. I've seen too many UFC fights stopped early, and too many stopped too late. Pride fights, in my opinion, all go on one or two punches too long, but they are consistent, and the fighters know that. John McCarthy is probably the only exception to the UFC ref's sucking at their jobs. He is consistent, and the fighters respect him for that. My favorite fighter right now is still Fedor Emelianenko. I'm also following the early career of his protege, Kiril. I also enjoy watching Mirko Filopovich fight, and can't wait to see him bring respectability to the UFC heavyweight division. I grew up fighting, both boxing and karate, and I still dent the heavy-bag on a weekly basis. I followed the UFC from the beginning, since it came to my childhood home of Charlotte, NC for UFC 2. I strayed away from the UFC for a few years while I was in the islands, and away from TV, but picked up where I left off about 5 years ago, as MMA was starting to prove to be a better sport than pugilism. Nice to see an MMA thread here, PJ. Strange juxtaposition of two of my hobbies.
i am very disappointed by those shows... they do.. often seem to be trying to make it last. and in others they deliberately go all out. it seems very fixed. and.. on cable.. i couldnt believe my eyes. when the fighters are not fighting... the producers see fit to have these.. ultimate fighters sit around in underwear in a big nice House, on couches, and talk and laugh and discuss life... life friendly homos. what the hell is that. one minute they are all laughing and acting gay.. and in the next, we are supposed to watch them fight?? i dont buy it. i dont like what they are selling. only on pay per view.. to you see real figthing. -MT
i like watching k1 more, more martial arts based than UFC which seems to be a mix of kickboxing and WWE
I've found myself watching these fights via Youtube a lot too! Pride is definitely the best. Fedor is an unbelievable fighter. He hasn't lost a proper fight yet and at times he looks superhuman. Could be currently the best fighter walking the planet Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
It seems we have three Fedor fans here, as I'm a huge fan, too. He's a real incredible fighter and it is such a joy to watch him dominate on all levels. Swivel, I have to agree with you on the boxing ring in Pride. They should enclose the ropes in a mesh or a wire, in order that they don't have to constantly restart the fights. However, I prefer the size and shape, as it seems to breed the aggressiveness that I find so much more appealing for in Pride. I say UFC has too much room to wiggle in, leading to long fights with less action. That guy who fought Cro Cop, for instance, was leading the Croatian around the octagon. He would have been knocked out in one minute if he didn't have the space to move around in,. And I certainly agree: Cro Cop is going to finally make UFC heavyweight division good. He is going to utterly dominate, though. I see him as champion before the end of the year. It'd be pretty awesome to have a PRIDE v. UFC champion match to see who is truly the top dog.
Mosheh Thezion: Yeah, I am not a huge fan of "The Ultimate Fighter", either. I also think it is BS that the original final bout between the finalists gave the guy with the broken nose the win. He was much more injured but one on decision? Lame. TheDevilsReject: I have to say K1 is pretty great, too. But the fact that Kyokushin Karate has sucked for the last 30 years makes it less enjoyable, considering so many Kyokushin fight.
Mirko vs. Fedor rematch? Yeah, that would be amazing. The only problem I have with all of these rematches is the decline of one of the fighters. Mirko is younger than Fedor, so if you keep rematching them, eventually Mirko will win. Perhaps even right now. Against Hunt (who is another amazing fighter that I love to watch), Fedor looked human. I've never seen him taken down like that, or put in side-control (twice, no less!). I hope Fedor defends his title a few more times and then retires from MMA, then he can stick to Sambo for a few more years and concentrate on training up Kiril. Has anyone else been following this young star? One fight doesn't tell you everything, but know this... this is the kid that Fedor picked as the most likely to fill his shoes. Not either of his younger brothers, or any other Russian superstar... this kid. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29d49TCjqa4 Doesn't he move like Fedor? Big and fast and confident. Keep your eye out for his fights, he could be the next big thing. Edit: Regarding K1, they have lost me. Too little action. Too many fighters trying to win from scoring, instead of landing meaningful shots. If you don't understand BJJ, MMA fights look boring, or like WWE. If you have spent some time rolling around with a BJJ artist, the ground-game becomes the most exciting facet of MMA. The beauty of MMA is that you truly find out what style of fighting works best. This is an argument that people have been having for thousands of years, and until the first UFC, nobody knew really. The first UFC's were like those cheesy fight-movies (which I loved), where the American karate dude, the big fat wrestling Texan, the Japanese Sumo guy, the African warrior, etc... all meet at some remote island and fight to the death to see who the best fighter is. Well, that is what the old UFC's were. They were an exhibit for Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. And indeed, it turns out that if you had to fight another human being with no weapons, BJJ will almost always win. Even if you are outsized.
I watch those Ultimate Fight shows . My boyfriend loves to watch those. So its that or watch National Poker with him. They have women now fighting. Some are pretty good! I was in a cycling race in Hillsboro, Illinois. I was trying to keep up and racing down a cobbled street, and swear I saw Matt Hewes. (his family is from there) Fancy him coming out to see a bike race! It WAS him and he totally was there cheering us on. ...yeah...well..... in a quiet sort of way. ok. ok.....Maybe he was simply waiting to cross the street to go get a Slurpy.
For Fedor fans, check out this fight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qljoxp5tjjw It is Fedor and his mentor Voronov fighting. Very cool stuff when you think about the number of years that Fedor has trained under Voronov (since his teens), it is very much like watching Fedor fight Kiril or his little brother 18 years from now. You can also see why Combat Sambo is the best fighting system in the world, beyond doubt. It constantly integrates all other fighting styles into its own system, so it adapts to change. It is very much like the system that Matt Hughes and Tim Sylvia train in under the Miletich system.
Swivel: I would rather Fedor quit before he becomes beatable, certainly. The only legitimately undefeated champion would be an excellent way to end his career, although I am convinced he has at least three or four more years. Let's hope that Randy Couture's reentry into the ring won't be disasterous like Royce's return to the UFC. I'll check out Kiril later. In regards to BJJ > All, I'm not so sure! I think it is a rather unrealistic fighting technique outside of the ring. In the ring, strikers like Liddel and Cro Cop have shown that you can win against a BJJ by adopting the right moves and training only moderately in the ground, whereas Sakuraba and Hughes have shown that BJJists are not invincible, and indeed, the Gracies are far from Gods (and can be CRUSHED). Catch Wrestling and Militech can beat BJJ and I'd say traditional judo/jujutsu, in the hands of a capable fighter, could do so too, as well as Greco-Roman wrestling and Sambo. What BJJ showed was that in a ring enviroment, grpund fighting is necessary. What future bouts showed, was that BJJ alone is ridiculous, and that a well-rounded fighting style is best.
That's true. The only form of combat where Jiu-Jitsu would be completely dominant and effective would be submission fighting alone. However, in Pride and UFC, there are many other ways to win the fight.
I disagree. First off, you can't use the recent fights of extremely old contestants as an example. And you can't use any example where a contestant can't don his gi. Sambo, Combat Sambo, and BJJ assume that people aren't running around naked when they need to fight. Also, these three do not allow gloves in fights. The only reason that brawlers and GnP'ers stand a chance against BJJ artists is because MMA allows them to enter the ring with weapons in the form of wrapped and gloved fists. If you've ever been in a fight, you know that you can't go at someone standing up the way Liddel does, nor can you pound someone on the ground the way that Tito does, not without hand protection. All of these fighters are using weapons, while MMA takes away all advantage to BJJ and Sambo fighters. They do this to make the fights more interesting for viewers. I think you guys need to go back and watch the first several UFC's to see what styles matched up well. Current MMA organizations do not allow a perfect comparison.
I’m I the only one here that hates mixed martial arts fighting? I enjoyed watching the UFC back in the 90’s. This was before they implemented all of the new rules to make the matches safer for the fighters. I don’t enjoy watching most MMA matches because I have no desire to watch men fight on the ground. Watching two skilled Ju Jitsu fighters compete against each other can occasionally be enjoyable, but watching two fighters with no stamina is like gay porn. I have no desire to watch exhausted men lay on top of each other until the referee decides to break them apart. The only MMA fighting that I watch nowadays are the “Best Of” compilations. MMA has become very popular in North America since the first UFC match in 1993. But unfortunately for me, the one combat sport that I enjoy watching hasn’t really gained in popularity since the first matches were held in North America. I am talking about Muay Thai. (Not kickboxing) Muay Thia is almost impossible to find on American or Canadian television.
I wouldn't want to watch these fakers. Martial arts shouldn't be a sport. A real master in a fight would simply kill their opponent.
