This is a walkthrough on MMA striking. This is meant to help fans of the sport understand and accept certain FACTS specific to the striking arts and where and how MMA striking fits into the limited criterea.
First, a little history on how the sport of MMA (specific to America) became an actual sport.
The sport of MMA has been around for alot longer than 1991. I am not about to go into the origins from ancient cultures, but the modern sport of MMA started with the Gracie Challenge. You can read about it here:
Gracie Challenge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Gracies meant to prove to any fighter of any style that Gracie Jui Jitsu was THE BEST FIGHTING SYSTEM in the world. By its very design it challenged the long held notion the boxing (from an American point of view) was by far and away the ultimate "martial" combat.
That "Gracie Challenge" was the entire premise for The Ultimate Fighting Championship, and thus the UFC was born. Every fighter from every discipline was challenged to step in and grab the money and title in a "No holds barred" contest pitting every fighting system against each other.
As the world quickly found out, Jui Jitsu and grappling were far superior to any striking art. The main reason this was proven was that most striking arts were completely devoid of any defense against a basic takedown. In boxing there was never a reason to be concerned about anything more than what damage could be done with the hands. The footwork, foot position, clinch, hand position, head movement, stance, balance, defense, offense, countering, etc. were COMPLETELY WRONG against grappling opponents leaving only a "punchers chance" to any boxer looking to step into the cage.
The same held true for any type of Martial Art or sport that incorporated kicks, knees, or elbow strikes. Although the kicking fighter had the benefit of another 8-12 inches of striking range against a grappler, he was still not MECHANICALLY prepared for a skilled wrestler or jui jitsu fighter.
(Yes...I am aware that there were and still are plenty of MA's that incorporate striking and grappling, but those MA's had many holes that were exposed very quickly in the new sport of MMA.)
And thus MMA was born. Pride FC, UFC, and many other organizations and shows put on a ton of fights with confused rules, more confused refs, even more confused commentators, and to this day...confused judges. They were in rings and cages with different sized gloves or no gloves at all. They allowed Gi's and unitards, and some fighting garb I still wonder about. But what happened throughout this messy time was a specific combination of skills began to develop as the sport weaved its way through a minefield of freakshows and WWE references.
The explosion and dominance of wrestling in American MMA was a direct result of the lack of a sport for collegiate / olympic wrestling greats. The UFC was a way for these guys to continue to compete and actually get paid a couple of bucks for doing something in the cage that they couldnt do anywhere else. These great wrestlers shaped the sport as much as the Muay Thai fighters were shaping the sport in other parts of the world.
All of these disciplines became critical to survival in this new sport. Although many of the fighters were highly skilled in a single discipline, they began training and working to increase their ability in other areas. As an example of the evolution, Chuck Liddell (IMHO) was dominant because he was able to be a more balanced 2 dimensional fighter in a world of 1 dimensional (but working on improving in other areas) fighters. Chuck was nasty on his feet regardless of the guy in front of him, but more importantly Chuck was incredibly hard to takedown or keep down. Couture and Liddells trilogy is actually the perfect microchasm of the sport itself.
Hughes was correct when he annointed GSP as "the evolution of the sport". Hughes was basically saying that GSP was a 3 dimensional MMA fighter in a world of 1 and 2 dimensional guys. Anderson, Shogun, Machida, and younger...newer guys like Jon Jones etc. are able to blend and be deadly in virtually any place they find themselves. We are witnessing another phase right now...transitioning. The ability to win in the transition from one discipline to another is what we are seeing right now albeit tough to see as a casual fan.
So we get back to striking and we see fighters today that are the best MMA strikers we have ever seen. This is NOT based on talent alone, it is based on the ability to strike effeciently and effectively with all of the threats you must deal with in MMA. It takes years of MMA specific training which has only been available for the past 10 years or so.
In the years to come we will see more Anderson Silvas, GSP's, etc. and they will look more technically brilliant as the sport continues to evolve. They will NEVER be boxers, or kickboxers. Those sports would be as alien to a 100% MMA trained fighter as the "Gracie Challenge" would have been to a boxer way back when.
It is ridiculous to assume that a boxer can walk into MMA and beat the shit out of someone. It is also ridiculous to think a MMA fighter could hop in the ring with a highly skilled boxer and outbox him. The amount of time that is spent arguing about MMA striking compared to boxing is incredibly stupid and completely ill informed. The argument was SETTLED a long time ago. A boxer will always have a punchers chance in MMA because the fight starts on the feet.
Thanks for your time and attention.
