Recently someone collared Ed O'Niell (Al Bundy on Married with Children and got him to talk about MMA. He raises some interesting points. I disagree with most of them but they are interesting none the less. He's obviously an intelligent and articulate guy. He been training with the Gracie's for an eternity and his opinions are similar to those of Rorion Gracie. http://videos.proelite.com/46768
COOL! thanks for the link.. really interesting features huh! Matt has the arms of a T-Rex hehehehe LOl well maybe right then
Ed O'Neill, gotta love him. Still flashes of Al got Bundy left in him, "that lil' Latino kid . . .", "he got hit with a roundhouse." His arms aren't even long enough to throw a roundhouse. Funny.
Oh yeah, I gotta say Ed's point is nothing exceptional. It's the ol' Jack of all trades, master of none (one) theory. You can't fault a person who studies many disciplines for not being as good at boxing as the man who focuses solely on boxing. That's asinine. That's kind of what makes MMA so exciting is the fact that you must have at least a working knowledge of many disciplines to effectively compete. So you don't know what you're bound to get, a choke, a submission, a ko. Al wants the sport to devolve. No gloves at all is insane. The sports been there, done that and it's time to move on. I like the road MMA is going down with its adequate regulations. Weight classes, time limits, gloves, the prohibition of the gi and hair pulling (two of Royce Gracie's most valuable assets) were welcomed additions as far as I'm concerned. This changed it from a toughman gorefest to an actual sport. Yesteryear's fighters would not be able to compete with today's breed of MMA combatant. And the reason why belts change hands so rapidly is because it's very difficult to master every discipline in MMA and someone is bound to be at such a high degree in his discipline that he is going to beat the incumbent champ. Franklin fights Silva 5 times. Franklin nets 5 losses. But there is bound to be somebody that's good enough at his personal discipline to present major problems for Silva.
It would be nice to see something like the early UFC's held once a year as a proving ground to make sure that MMA remains on the right track--a combat-effective direction--compared to the other martial arts systems. Now that MMA is a regulated (and respectable) sport like boxing, kickboxing, and wrestling, there are inevitably going to be those who claim it's not "deadly" enough. For these naysayers, there should be a Vale-Tudo style tournament open to champions of any style held once every couple years (like the Olympics). As long as the MMA guys continue to dominate, we'll have proof that the recently-developed BJJ-Wrestling-Boxing-MT mixture we call "MMA" is the most effective one around.
I think its wrong to say that MMA guys can't hit as hard as pro boxers. Sure some are better than others, but the reason that they don't hit like boxers is that their structure has to be different to accomodate other factors (shoots, sprawls, kicks, etc). They may sacrifice a little power in the hands for a more appropriate stance. Which is why Al Bundy was critizising Liddel's long range body shot for not looking like a boxer's body shot. An MMA guy fights at a slightly longer range than a boxer (who only has to worry about hands). That's why it didn't look like a boxing blow, which would have been tighter and thrown from closer. Whether Liddell was wise to use that shot against Jackson is another matter. Jackson is renouned for his tight guard (funky ******) and couter shots. Foolish if you ask me. As for the stand up rule, I think its right to stand guys up if nothing is happening or they're just resting. Who wants to see to guys lying there for 30mins as used to happen. If guys reach stalemate, start again. Its the same as a clinch in boxing where nothing is happening.
After seeing Tito vs Liddell 2 again on unleashed the other night, Chuck really threw that same hook to the body with a good deal of success, which probably gave him confidence in it against a guy who uses a similar style of standup (with much better success though) in Rampage. Given Tito and Rampages former training partnership, and possibly still at least talking reguarly, Rampage watching that fight tape, and Rampage being a much much better striker than Tito, I think it explains alot of what happened. Kind of off topic, but just something I noticed.
when I watch that fight the thing I notice most is the fear on Tito's face.I think he might have peed his pants in that fight.
