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I was on Youtube recently and was watching those old UFCs, those were the best...Hoyssssss Gracie man!
MMA nowadays looks more like boxing, of course this is IMO.
But did the sport make some kind of drastic change where only certain disciplines can go into the octagon?
How come we don't see Judo experts going up against pure boxers like back in the day?
I was on Youtube recently and was watching those old UFCs, those were the best...Hoyssssss Gracie man!
MMA nowadays looks more like boxing, of course this is IMO.
But did the sport make some kind of drastic change where only certain disciplines can go into the octagon? How come we don't see Judo experts going up against pure boxers like back in the day?
There's very few "pure" martial artists in MMA with the possible exception of jui jitsu guys and even they have to have some well roundedness to compete today. You just can't come into the sport with one really polished skill set like you used to be able to (Royce Gracie, Ronda Rousey). It's "mixed" for a reason and if you're lacking in any one area, it will be exploited. And even if you do have top level skills in all the various areas it takes to compete, you still have to be able to string all the movements together fluidly and move from one form to another in order to be at the height of the sport.
MMA has become a separate martial art in its own right. It really makes sense that the style would have to develop to best exploit the rules of the sport.
There's very few "pure" martial artists in MMA with the possible exception of jui jitsu guys and even they have to have some well roundedness to compete today. You just can't come into the sport with one really polished skill set like you used to be able to (Royce Gracie, Ronda Rousey). It's "mixed" for a reason and if you're lacking in any one area, it will be exploited. And even if you do have top level skills in all the various areas it takes to compete, you still have to be able to string all the movements together fluidly and move from one form to another in order to be at the height of the sport.
Agreed, in the early days, it might have been more exciting to see random matches (or mismatches) between specialized people with different backgrounds. But these days, the standard is a lot higher, and even if fighters normally still have strengths and weaknesses in different disciplines, no one that gets anywhere is just 1-dimensional.
The mayweather McGregor fight didn't help. A lot of casual fans wondered or thought random mma guys could take top level boxers in boxing.
Mayweather could have ended McGregor's life at any point. Ok, ended his state of consciousness. Forget about predicting the round, he could have done it down to the second.
A lot of people still think it was a real fight. But many who are realistic understand that part of the fun fantasy around mma was exposed.
There's very few "pure" martial artists in MMA with the possible exception of jui jitsu guys and even they have to have some well roundedness to compete today. You just can't come into the sport with one really polished skill set like you used to be able to (Royce Gracie, Ronda Rousey). It's "mixed" for a reason and if you're lacking in any one area, it will be exploited. And even if you do have top level skills in all the various areas it takes to compete, you still have to be able to string all the movements together fluidly and move from one form to another in order to be at the height of the sport.
Exactly. The perfect example is Ben Askren. He was an excellent NCAA wrestler and a champion in that sport. But his striking was sub par - not a really good boxer or kicker. Hence, he lost to a striker and got knocked out quickly. At the other extreme, Cro Cop was a great striker/kick boxer. But he lost in a submission to a Brazilia Judo expert who got beat up badly for a couple of rounds. But at one point Cro Cop lost his balance and landed on the floor. He got submitted quickly after that. He lost his balance because of a tricky Brazilian judo move when it appeared that the guy was about to get knocked out. He was probably just feigning it. In MMA, the weaknesses of a fighter get exploited at some point.
Ok thanks for the explanations, makes sense. I guess even after a few years those early MMA cards started getting boring and watching two guys on the ground hugging each other for 15 doesn't make for good entertainment. And I suspect the people would stop buying the pay-per-view to those matches.
But damn those first 2-3 years were pure entertainment. I see Hoyce still fights somewhat but not like he use to, those fights allowed his family to build those "Gracie Fighting schools" all over the nation (at least in Northern California they still exist).
It's become more mixed. Gracie was good because most people didn't understand jui jitsu back then. Now everyone has at least a decent grasp of BJJ so you have to be really good at it to rely on it as your main attack. As a result, more standing and striking techniques came into vogue, along with defensive wrestling to avoid the ground game if it's not someone's strength. I've also noticed that the type of martial art that's favored changes from time to time. For example, Muay Thai and BJJ, boxing and wrestling, etc. They have been some Judo players in MMA though. Karo Parysian used judo effectively, as did Ronda Rousey. I haven't seen Kayla Harrison fight but I imagine she does too since she's a very decorated judoka.
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