Oleg Taktarov started it all with some fights in the UFC, I think he won one of the earlier UFC's, 5 or 6. It only Russians that compete at a high level in Combat Sambo, as far as I know. For instance, Andre Arlovsky is a Sambo fighter, not many people know that. Besides him, there is Fedor and his two younger brothers, and his protege Kiril. Most Sambo fighters stick to the Sambo-specific championships. It is like asking how many Kickboxing fighters are in Pride today. Once they come over, they aren't really K1 fighters anymore, they are now MMA fighters. And the reason it hasn't taken off the way BJJ has is because BJJ is a specific set of tools, many of which are in Sambo already. These tools help any MMA fighter for defense. Sambo doesn't really offer immediate benefits like that. It is more of an overall discipline than a bag of tools.
TREMENDOUS night of fights, yes. Just -excellent- fighting over all. Wonderful match ups on all level. The ending really was magical - as was watching Chuck Norris and Nicholas Cage become best buddies.
Agree. I'm an enormous fan of all MMA, but most of my friends have chosen one side or the other (UFC or Pride), and act like a bunch of fanboys. Two things about this night of fighting: I can't remember the last UFC event that was this exciting top to bottom. And the New Year's event was also great, making two wonderful PPV events back-to-back. So it seems that Pride puts together better cards, with better parity and competition. However, my UFC friends love to point out that Pride 33 proves that the UFC has the better fighters, and a case is easily made. Trigg is UFC-born, and he beat the Pride GP champ. Nick Diaz is UFC-born, has a loss to Sherk, the current 155 champ, and just beat the Mike Tyson of the Pride LW division. And, of course, Dan Henderson is UFC-born, and he now owns two Pride division belts. My counter to these guys is that Pride now has these fighters, no matter where they came from. So, if they are so great, they are now in Pride, and winning. Their counter would be that these guys are out of the UFC because they couldn't hang, and now are wrecking ship in Pride. Touche. One thing I loved about Pride 33 is that the ring worked well. When the ring works, it is better than a cage, but when it doesn't work, it ruins a fight. In Pride 33, the ring was in fine form. It kept the fighters on their feet and in close proximity, and it kept the ground game from stagnating the way some UFC fights can. Now Pride needs to lose the screaming madwoman and Americanize the presentation a tad, and they can make a killing in the American market. MMA is growing fast enough that the UFC won't be able to handle all of the talent anyway. What we need is what Football and Baseball had to create when they had two divisions with different management and rules, we need a World Series of MMA every year. New Year's Eve, can you imagine it? Each division belt-holder would fight the other division's belt-holder. No champ would fight after October in preparation, and then, a night of nothing but championship bouts. If they can get the weight-classes to coincide better (UFC needs to add another weight class, the jump from 185 to 205 is just ridiculous) we would have an event that would quickly become second only to the Superbowl in money-making power. *drool* Matchups at the end of this year: HW - Mirko Filopovich (UFC) vs. Fedor Emeliananko (PFC) (Rematch) LHW - Quinton Jackson (UFC) vs. Ricardo Arona (PFC) MW - Jason MacDonald (UFC) Paulo Filho (PFC) WW - George St. Pierre (UFC) vs. Shinya Aoki (PFC) LW - Shawn Sherk (UFC) vs. Nick Diaz (PFC) (Rematch) Look at that. That is the best fight card ever written down. The two organizations could split the take, and the fighters would make a mint. And both organizations would win fans from each other, instead of stealing them, as they fear. MMA fans want more fighting, and when they realize that both organizations have something to offer, they will watch both.
I love how this stuff is slowly morphing into "Boxing". It is like watching(in real-time years) how the greeks and romans came to like "Pugilism". Basically the majority of fans really just want to see some action from two men on their feet. Soon kicking will be seen as faggy by many fans and we may see a renaissance of boxing again. 10 or so years from now, is my guess. Personally I liked the first few UFC where "there were no rules". Well some rules so they could have it on T.V. It was amazing how un-brutal some of it's best fighters were back then. Tank Abbot was brutal and poorly skilled, but fun to watch as well.
I don't think ANY MMA fans want to see the sport become more like boxing, just the opposite. Most people I know scream at fighters to employ more leg-kicks, and to work the clinch more actively. Besides, nobody wants a standing-count in MMA, which is a moronic way to conduct a fight, and far more brutal than anything that happens in MMA. Standing-counts and those pillows they strap to their hands are ways for boxing to extend the brutal nature of pugilism. That's why boxers retire semi-retarded, while MMA practitioners lead normal lives with cauliflower-ear! Boxing is on its way out. It has been declining for almost 10 years. MMA is the future of competitive fighting.
Swivel: I'd love to see a UFC v. Pride World Series, too. That would be...Godly. But that UFC has "better fighters" is severely wrong. Based on one series of bouts is ridiculous, specifically when many examples of the reverse are found (Mirko and Liddel were PRIDE before UFC). But yes, the UFC guys were great the other night.
And I'll have to agree with Swivel: I don't think MMA will turn into boxing, as it were. However, I do foresee MMA developing a more varied striking game. Right now, MMA has not blended its three main modes of fighting. This is likely to change within a year or so.
Liddell fought in the UFC before he fought in any Pride events. I think it is impossible to say which organization has the best fighters, especially since the fighters are jumping back and forth, retiring, getting old, new upstarts are constantly surprising, etc... If there is anything we learned this weekend, it's that one punch, at the right place and right time, can make a lesser fighter the victor, and a superior fighter a napper. So I try to leave the speculation and comparisons to the nuthuggers Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Edit: Agree on a more varied striking game. Most MMA fighters are still shaking off their roots. You have a lot of guys from collegiate wrestling that are learning to strike. What I want to see more of are the Muay Thai and K1 fighters learning enough BJJ to survive in MMA. Like Anderson Silva, he is an exciting fighter that is doing what you are hinting at. Leg-kicks, everyone. Leg-kicks. Go back and watch the Sakurai fight again, that dude was chopping down trees!
I would love to see how some kung-fu or Wing chun guys would do in PRIDE. I remember reading somewhere that Wing chun is supposed to be one of the best and most realistic self-defense fighting systems ever invented. However it is basically the opposite of BJJ. All very fast strikes and blocks and no grappling. Anyone know any Youtube videos of Kung-fu in PRIDE etc?
Uh, Kung-fu in MMA? They would get killed. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8692039060969768186 (MMA fighters like to snap the arms of Kung-fu fighters)
Best fighting style? This is the way I fight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc8pTpZgu_I And here is me with my favorite technique against multiple opponents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcAUcf58H5w&mode=user&search= And I call this technique, "M4-Motherfucker" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6i05UXbMxQ&mode=user&search= Sadly, though... sometimes the M4 technique backfires: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkZQBVCoM_4&mode=user&search=
I'm not too sure. Here's some anti-grappling techniques in the Wing chun repertoire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y-Cun2iBcs Seriously, check out some other Wing chun demonstrations. U don't see them fighting other disciplines too much though because a lot of their moves break arms and can be fatal.
Wing chun is something else entirely. It isn't Kung-fu, it prides itself on being a "realistic" fighting style. However, from my experience with Wing chun, it requires a willing dance-partner. My brother-in-law (the instructor in the videos I posted) runs the Close Quarters Combat school for the Special Forces at Ft. Bragg. (He was on an A-Team for 8 years with tours in both Gulf wars, Afghanistan, and almost every one of Clinton's conflicts) He studied Wing chun for many years, and implements that training in his CQC training. We were at a family gathering and he wanted to roll with me. We weigh about the same amount, and my training is in BJJ and boxing. Every time he tried something on me, and I countered, he would say something like, "No, come at me like this". That's the problem with most personal-defense training, it requires a slow-moving dance partner with a wooden knife. Most Wing chun guys would freak if they actually landed one of their fake punches and felt their knuckles crunch. With all respect to you, of course.
The problem with Gung Fu is that all the practitioners suck terribly. I mean, seriously, they are jokes in the ring. They have virtually no killer instinct and for all their training, manage to do nothing. Gung Fu is maximized not against a single fighter in a highly organized, restricted, competition, but against multiple-attackers, usually armed, in a street-fight like enviroment. Gung Fu was monk combat defense. However, I would love to see a realistic Gung Fu practictioner training for MMA. Someone who takes a Bruce Like like approach, intergrating his years with the intent to win and with the ability to withstand punishment and deal with the unstaged. Mas Oyama's Kyokushin (as opposed to the bullshit it has become now) is another great example of a striking art dveloping along these lines. Kyokushin was a marvelous system for many years, until they refused to put on gloves so they could remain training face-strikes without massive, deforming injuries, every training session.
What most people also do not realize is this: MMA != Self defense. In self defense, there is no rules. Nor is there usually a fair fight. If you get into a street fight, you cannot ground wrestle unless you are sure someone is not going to come up and start stomping on your neck, pulling a gun, or stabbing you. If you are in a self-defense fight and put your face near a dude's mouth, he is going to bite you. He is going to fishhook you. He is going to head butt you. He is going to kick you in the face when you're down. He's going to knee you in the groin. He isn't going to be wearing gloves. MMA is a sport. What you do in MMA is what is effective for the competition.
Well, you're probably right but it doesn't stop me from really wanting to see a wing chun practitioner fight in PRIDE.
I feel like there was a dude in one of the first UFC's who fought in the Wing chun style. He might not have been trained in it, but his actions were eerily similar. He fought with open hands, did a lot of fast hand-slapping, and had that thick body that seems to work well with Wing chun. Quick search... Wrong, I was thinking of Keith Hackney, but he turns out to have been a Kempo fighter. But if you watch him fight, you would swear he is squaring off in front of a Wing chun dummy. Of course, this isn't the best fight to demonstrate what I'm talking about... but it is the reason he is called the "giant killer" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIPWWqvpKb4 Like watching two bears wrestling!
I love the way Wing chun works. It neutralises an attack whilst quickly putting the opponent down at the same time! It's one of the only arts to do that. Most of them have blocks and then counter measures. Here's kickboxing V wing chun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV4Jq6H9pEQ&mode=related&search= I think it's fair to say that any striking-only (especially punching) art does not stand a chance against Wing chun techniques. The famous guard of Wing chun is very effective as it is aligned down the center of the body, deflecting strikes left or right. It also allows the WC guy to rapidly counter down the middle of his opponent after he strikes. If the kickboxer had tried punching him, he would have been on the ground getting hammered before he even knew it! Konwing this, he did not even try to punch him in this clip.
