Is the UFC too hurtful for the fighters.

ufc fights are far less dangerous than boxing and kickboxing.

 

yeah, in boxing and kickboxing you cant really protect yourself if your taking a beating, all you can do is cover up. in mma you can use grappling to control and take your opponent down. also with the bigger gloves you are less likely to get one-punch ko'd and much more likely to take sustained punishment which is more dangerous. also in boxing if you are defenseless and go down you are given a count and the opportunity to get up and carry on, in mma if you are no longer capable of defending yourself at any point there is no count and the fight is over. with 5 minute rounds the pace naturally slows and far far less strikes are exchanged in mma than boxing, and standard distance fights and championship fights are shorter than their counterparts in boxing.

 

The larger gloves used in boxing or kickboxing only reduce superficial damage to the hands or face - yet they exacerbate the internal damage that a fighter takes from the prolonged beating. It's better to get sparked out quick than to take a Gatti/Ward style beating for ten rounds.

 

You can beat someone in MMA without leaving any damage at all, you can't in boxing.

 

truth is development in mma started off in comparing how styles match up against each other, but has changed into attempting to simulate a 'street fight'. Problem is its still a far cry from a full fledged self defense confrontation. That goal is unattainable by anything but bumfights, which is psychotic. Boxing, TKD, Judo, Wrestling, fencing all seek to improve a specific skill very deeply by isolating the focus. It is through these martial practices that true elite ability is attained. Notice, they are all olympic sports.

People watch taekwondo and wonder, 'they could easily punch with their hands down like that.'

but I don't watch boxing saying 'look how open his body is to a roundhouse', or, 'he could back kick when he charges in like that'

anymore than someone might watch Judo and say 'these guys are so open to head-butts and groin kicks'

or someone watching wrestling and say 'what if he peeled his pinkey finger back and broke it?'

or competitive olympic shooting and say 'lol these guys have no preception of cover or concealment'

or someone watching fencing thinking 'these guys would get pwned by someone with a sheild'

Many mma fans I have spoken to do indeed think like this, though they don't often realize how ridiculous it is.

What they don't see is I could watch mma and easily observe that in 95% of the grappling positions they spend a lot of time in one man could easily, with no training or skill bite the other man in certain places which would en the fight in seconds. A human can bite hard enough to shatter his own teeth. Being bitten by a human is extremely painfull, much like being bitten by a ******. A bit to the neck (for example in the so called 'ground and pound' position) could end up being fatal.

Other things such as eye gouges, groin strikes, finger breaks are very simple and require little skill which completely compromise the 'like a real street fight' theory that many mma fans embrace.

many people don't realize how far we truly are from realism. The best alternative we have is the isolation and extreme development of specific skills. Granted mma is interesting and a decent skill to have is to be well rounded, but the best of any specific thing are not developed in mma. in fact you could say 'ufc: the best of no-one' (though BJJ might be an exception). Truth be told it is simply an interesting 'what if' whisper of how certain martial practices compare to eachother, not a good comparison tool there either.

I notice many people in this forum are more mature than many others I go to so I feel comfortable discussing this here, lets try to have some intellignet conversation.

 

Cage-fighting is hard on the body, as hard as it gets. No doubt.

 

I think most MMA fans are realistic when they say like a real street fight. Doesn't mean fighters get their choice of pool cues and broken beer bottles. Obviously there's gona be rules.

Let me put it this way, the rules that are in place are almost as brutal as possible while still preventing fighters from getting long term injuries easily. You can obviously poke someones eye out but there won't be any fighters left.

Also, the fact that you see 95% of people can be beating when they're on the ground also means they can be beaten back. I'll put my money on someone who is great at MMA than any other sport to win the fight with no biting restriction. It goes both ways, except MMA fighter can actually fight.
Again, I'll put my money on MMA fighter everytime in an actual street fight where no holds barred is applied, because he can do much more than anyone else. Biting, groin strikes etc etc, they can do just as well. Plus, they have the skill to put themselves in the position to be able to do those things better.

If you're talking cheap things than I'll tell you this, when I'm putting you in a choke, and you gauge my eye, fine. If that means survival, cause u will die and i wont. If you try biting me while im putting you in an arm bar, fine, I'll still break your arm, and kill you with a choke. MMA will still have greatest chance winning in a street fight.

In fact we are not very far from realism. Again, it's as real as it can get while still preserving the fighters.

 

If you're fighting an MMA fighter in the street, for whatever reason, he may just be trying to hurt you just enough, or simply knock you out to end the conflict. But the second you try to eye gouge him are break his nuts and maim him, that opens you up to the whole rest of his abilities which he will use.

You try and gouge my eye out? That's fine, I can defend myself in wrestler's positions, but you can't stop me now from breaking all of your bones.

Congratulations you may never be able to walk normally again.

 

Wrestler with their headbutt in streetfight are a deadly combinaison seriously.

 

biting, eye gouging, etc... are things which can be done by someone with no experience, simply mental ferocity. That fight that you described (assuming the shocked mma fighter can continue fighting through the pain of losing an eye, or having a chunk bit out of his neck, I think you would be surprised who can't, one of my fathers friend was attacked by an excellent wrestler in college and bit a chunk out of his cheek into his mouth and the guy couldn't do anything but hold his face. he lost that fight.) left him maimed post fight. Things didn't go well for him. He is very likely permenantly damaged and requires imediate medical attention.

Not to mention if someone had had a knife in his/her pocket and pulled it out in the fray and stabbed from the inside like an experienced knifefighter would.

What I'm getting at is that grappling in a 'streetfight' puts you in a riskier situation than striking, especially at a distance. An equally skilled grappler would be at more risk than an equally skiller boxer/MT/tkd/whatever. So, in mma (I'll use ufc format as the default for this discussion) grappling defense is hindered. Making grappling a much more logical choice than it normally would be.

Also, notice that the fighters wear gloves which hinders the destructive factor of punching, making all punches less destructive than they would be in a 'streetfight', reducing striking ability (specifically punching) which again makes grappling more viable than it would normally be.

Even more is of course the importance of developing skills which allow you to take people out very quickly while moving. This requires highly developed kicking and striking skills. The kind people have to train specifically in for years to attain. Thus if you were in a 'real street fight' you would not be tied up with the first attacker, grappling with him while his potential friends were kicking you in the head.

This video specifically comes to mind. Notice that this man is a skilled boxer and had he stopped to grapple any one of these men he would not have won this fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iDlzL7zrNU

or this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGAzeYM9G-0

So, in many pure striking martial practices we work to achieve the ability for a one-strike-certain-victory. Where a skilled fighter who can read human body movement and has high speed, power, and accuracy, can strike his opponent one time and end the confrontation. This allows him to be in the best situation possible in a fight against multiple people.

this is why I prefer training in striking, but not grappling. And it dissapoints me that the mma format (developed mostly by gracies) is designed to give grappling such a huge advantage. So much that people start to think that if you don't know how to grapple your toast in a streetfight. The whole 'most fights go to the ground, man' logic (don't get me started lol)

(disclaimer: I am in no way trying to say you could not use BJJ or judo in a street fight effectively, I know for a fact their elite fighters are some bad dudes)

 

I've always said that the rules often protect fighters with bad technique during MMA competition. Examples would be fighters that get up from prone positions incorrectly because the rules prohibit kicking a downed opponenet or when a fighter turtles up to in an effort to ward off an attack simply because striking weak areas such as the back of the head is prohibited.

In my jiujutsu classes we covered dealing with bites, eye gouging, groin strikes/grabs, etc. Most good martial arts schools should cover street self defense in this manner. A good martial artist is prepared for any situation.

One has to tailor his training to fit the environment one expects to perform in. In preparing for MMA - one has to train under MMA rules. The same is true of competing in boxing or grappling tournaments. Street defense requires a different attitude and situational awareness beyond MMA or grappling training. I've always focused on street defense - at a detriment to my performance in the ring. That's just a nice way to say that I always sucked in organized competition - but I've never had my teeth kicked in in the street which is much more important in my view.

 

Why are you arguing than?

If you're in a street fight I'd rather know MMA and the format is not mostly developed by Gracies(that's an asinine statement out of ignorance). MMA doesn't give no advantage to the ground people, in fact its the opposite. If you can stall the other person on the ground you get stood up, but if you stall the other person standing up, no one is gona put you on the ground.

Yes, most fights do end up on the ground. When 2 people of same striking skill end up facing off. If not, and I see you know boxing, I will take you to the ground, you won't be able to do anything to stop me and you will get hopelessly pounded out. Like the video you showed, good thing no one knew wrestling against those lonely boxers, they've would've been ****ed.

 

As long as they didn't go all weak in the knees...