Going to play devils advocate here. Can we even call it Mixed Martial Arts anymore? As the competition has increased the skill set of fighters has adapted to cover aspects of BJJ Wrestling basic striking and frankly not much else. The sport no longer contains fighters from any single discipline. On that basis can we even call it mixed martial arts when what we have is effectively hybrid wrestling pancrase style with striking?
I see your point, to be a truly elite fighter you have to keep an updated style, which leads me to wonder, what if they hit a style that's effectively the best and doesn't have any advancement but is a more boring style of todays? You're seeing more and more wrestling and BJJ coming into play, what if everyone who needs to be elite has to learn that type of style? I don't think that's gonna completely the case, I think a lot of fighters will fight their own style but effectively, the true mixed martial arts is over, we've found out what the elite styles are. BJJ and Wrestling are the most effective.
i mean soccer kicks, knees to downed opponents heads, lack of a cage for wrestlers to leg hump and hug people against and the yellow card. it allowed a broader range of styles and made for much more exciting fights with much less boring wrestler bull****.
It did somewhat. As PRIDE incorporated "trueer" Mixed Martial Arts that was closer to Vale Tudo. Invariably you had fighters who came from distinct disciplines. In addition the rule set allowed for far greater techniques than the current unified rules.
Ah, fair enough. Pride's whole rules and judges were much better, though I'm not a fan of Soccer Kicks or downed knees at all. It's the ultimate ***** move.
I think you'd be interested in the sprawling arguments which have taken place on the Dominick Cruz thread. Quite pertinent to this topic.
No MMA is not dead because if fighters want success they have to learn to mix other disciplines with their primary art/sport. Perhaps a better way of putting it is style vs style dead? Yeah.
I love them, I love their relentlessness, but for a fight I just don't think that's a fair thing. Most people argue they just want to see a no holds barred fight in MMA, I'm fine with rules like that, I'd rather see a fair fight. I like the idea of a ten second knockdown rule in MMa. I know it would never happen, I just like the whole fair fight thing and wonder if any fights would've gone different if the guy had been given the chance to recover.
The original intent of mixed martial arts contests was to see who performs better in a real fight. The rules changes have made it less like a real fight, but it's still closer to a real fight than not. I am against a 10 count in mma. You don't get a 10 count in real life. Also, the chance to recover brings about a higher risk of brain damage. The quick ko is much more humane.
Agreed that style vs style is dying, mainly because fighters are realising the importance of cross training now so you're getting wrestlers like Cruz and Edgar who've ended up more reliant on their striking and the new breed of mma trained guys starting to come through like Jones and MacDonald are comfortable anywhere. It's a natural evolution IMO.
I get that it's not what happens in real life. Real life does not produce entertaining fights, not in my experiences anyway. They tend to be very embarassing and unwatchable, despite the excitement of "oh my god, it's a real unsanctioned fight!". I agree on the recovery thing though, that's my favourite thing about MMA, that damage isn't as crippling as it is in say, boxing. The point of MMA is who would win in a fight, Karate guy or Wrestler, not so much "let's pit these two guys together with as little rules as possible and see who wins". It's to make it a fair level playing field for two styles to duke it out. I know you're not exactly saying that, I just think if you want no holds barred fighting, then Vale Tudo has everything covered. Still though, people are going to find different ways to win a fight and take advantage of the rules and such, it's how some people win. The whole "who would win" mentality of styles is dead in MMA, it's moved on. It's actually a sport rather than a competition now. I don't mind at all, I have the 100 greatest UFC fights and I must say, some of the older fights are the worst on the disc, for pure entertainment value anyway, and obviously skill wise.
