MMA overload

[neijia_boxer]

As much as I like the sport aspect of MMA, I think MMA (Mixed martial arts) is going to implode on itself soon. I am already over all the hype now-a-days. UFC first came out it was like maybe one or two shows a year, or every 6 months. Then PRIDE did its shows in Japan around the same time and there was also Extreme combat challenge a year later. Now there is like a UFC almost twice a month, as well as the Ultimate fighter, Ultimate fight night, and Ultimate finale. Then came WEC, Strikeforce, Bodog fights, IFL, and Affliction all tagged along the MMA bandwagon. I haven't even mentioned all the local shows like Combat Sports Challenge, Valhalla, Operation Octagon, Ultimate Warrior Challenge, King of the Ring, Muay Thai smokers, Grapplers Quest, and NAGA tournaments... even our own school has fights now every month. Its like a show or tournament every weekend. It was so refreshing to watch the last Mayweather fight last month since it wasn't even MMA. The politics of the UFC's monopoly on the sport is pretty ugly too. It's preventing Randy Couture from fighting Fedor.

[fuga]

Other than catching the occasional clip or fight posted online, I really don't follow it, and am mostly unaware of upcoming fights, but they do seem to be happening all the time.

Boxers fight all the time but there much less hype except for the big fights. But back in the old days, we had Friday night fights, so we had fights every weekend to watch. It just seems like MMA is trying to mainstream in order to capture revenue stream.

[Chris Fleming]

The novelty of Fedor fighting Randy is really lost to me. Seeing Randy lose another match doesn't appeal anymore.

[fuga]

Of course, the one true shining star in the MMA morass is Bully Beatdown. You can't beat that show for laughs and a sense of justice being served by the fistful!

[jwalker]

I agree, I think MMA has peaked in North America, you know you've reached bubble point when films like 'Fighting' and 'Never Back Down' come out. I can't say I'm sorry, UFC marketed towards a particular audience, and they are getting that audience warts and all. And while a lot of good has come of this, 5 min rounds, compulsory testing for steroids, I still do not get any where as amped for MMA as I did back in the days of PRIDE. I miss that show every day, imo the greatest spectator show the world has ever seen! But that's just me. And I can assure you, it does not affect my intake of MMA one bit whatsoever. Strange though, how the marketing angle the UFC took deflated my excitement so.

But whatever, I can say that while MMA has become more popular in North America, the people of New Zealand and England (two countries that I have lived in recently, for sake of reference) still do not give on single good god damn about MMA, and I doubt they ever will.

For the majority of the world only one sport really matters... FUTBOWL (as they call it in England).

PS. Randy v Fedor was never going to be competitve it was going to be murder, don't believe the hype.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

The armchairist novelty will spiral into a niche like boxing or wrestling.

But mma as a sport and as a training ideology is here to stay.

It is clearly a superior method of fight training that has virtual newbs tooling long time practitioners regularly in clubs everywhere.

Model T car can't compete with a Camaro, it's that simple.

My training model involves a lot of the same regimens you'll find in mma camps now and what you would have found in old kungfu schools by all accounts before the forms, face games and other ego shit started to rise in the early 1900's .

There tons of useful stuff to draw from traditional, and there's a huge chunk that is utter bullocks.

mixing your martial arts is a way to stay tuned, stay fit and keep ready. forms and solo practice is virtually useless for developing the fighting spirit. Co-ordination and structure? Reiterative memory practice? sure. But not much beyond that.

you cannot swim if you don't go in the water.

[Chris McKinley]

Darth, I agree with everything you just said. In fact, for my combatives class, I'm actually still sorting out how I'm going to market it to IMA folks because of one little sticking point: how to introduce them to this level of reality without scaring 'em off with the culture shock of it. So few IMA practitioners are used to going home from class with bone bruises and adrenaline fallout. I'm cringing in anticipation of the first time somebody asks me, "Where's the qi?".

[neijia_boxer]

The armchairist novelty will spiral into a niche like boxing or wrestling.

But mma as a sport and as a training ideology is here to stay.

It is clearly a superior method of fight training that has virtual newbs tooling long time practitioners regularly in clubs everywhere.

Model T car can't compete with a Camaro, it's that simple.

My training model involves a lot of the same regimens you'll find in mma camps now and what you would have found in old kungfu schools by all accounts before the forms, face games and other ego shit started to rise in the early 1900's .

There tons of useful stuff to draw from traditional, and there's a huge chunk that is utter bullocks.

mixing your martial arts is a way to stay tuned, stay fit and keep ready. forms and solo practice is virtually useless for developing the fighting spirit. Co-ordination and structure? Reiterative memory practice? sure. But not much beyond that.

you cannot swim if you don't go in the water.

I agree with the MMA TRAINING ASPECT 100%, but I am more talking about the actual number of events and Media Blitz. I am starting to care less and less about who is fighting who and starting to enjoy other things in life. I has a blast surfing over the summer, been training for my first running event, been working with a weight trainer and doing cross fit, even had a cool time renovating the bathroom one weekend. There is just so much more to life that having to be at a martial arts school all the time or at a MMA show or on PPV party watching the latest fight.

[yusuf]

I disagree with the 'MMA is dead'. Having visited several seminars in the last year I am beginning to despair the state of CMA. I have had the misfortune to cross hands with three teachers of 15-20 experience and managed to slap them all around. They would get pawned by students with a year of MMA. The more ordinary people see this the more they will go towards MMA and we are also beginning to see MMA guys cross training weapons etc with interesting results (Karl tanswell is one who comes to mind)

The weird thing is the very basic level of sill I have managed to steal is from the a traditional school, whose methods are opposite to an MMA school but still produces people who can fight.. go figure???

[Chris McKinley]

neijia boxer,

RE: "There is just so much more to life that having to be at a martial arts school all the time or at a MMA show or on PPV party watching the latest fight.". That was always true, even before the overexposure of MMA as an entertainment medium. Glad you found those priorities.

[Juan]

I disagree with the 'MMA is dead'. Having visited several seminars in the last year I am beginning to despair the state of CMA. I have had the misfortune to cross hands with three teachers of 15-20 experience and managed to slap them all around. They would get pawned by students with a year of MMA. The more ordinary people see this the more they will go towards MMA and we are also beginning to see MMA guys cross training weapons etc with interesting results (Karl tanswell is one who comes to mind)

The weird thing is the very basic level of sill I have managed to steal is from the a traditional school, whose methods are opposite to an MMA school but still produces people who can fight.. go figure???

Dude, don't dispair...there are still some certified bad asses in CMA. Yesterday I had a private class with Sifu Mark Cheng and he slapped me around, and I had a great time. The funny thing is, is that the best CMA guys are going to be guys that cross train. I think Sifu Cheng is one of the most complete Martial Artists I have ever met. You can converse with him about virtually any martial art and he has personal experience in that art or is at least very knowledgeable about about the art.

[Juan]

Although I agree that they over-hype fights I don't think MMA is going any where. You're just burnt out on it, and justifiebly so. I think it's silly for the UFC to try and put up a free fight to comepte with the Pacquiao/Cotto fight on 11/14. I also think they need to spread out their fights a little more, but fighters also need to be active and the larger the roster grows the more opportunities that are needed for fighters to fight.

[grzegorz]

Back in 2002 when I left the States I thought the same thing. I figured MMA peaked and it was just downhill from there.

Boy was I wrong!

As long as there are strong top notch fighters MMA will still be going strong. Sure we train but most fans just watch and that's where the money comes from.

Just as Pacman has people keeping up with boxing the future of the sport is in the hands of the fighters. Although I have to say watching this season's Ulimate Fighter I have to wonder if the quality of the fighters is improving...

[yusuf]

Dude, don't dispair...there are still some certified bad asses in CMA. Yesterday I had a private class with Sifu Mark Cheng and he slapped me around, and I had a great time. The funny thing is, is that the best CMA guys are going to be guys that cross train. I think Sifu Cheng is one of the most complete Martial Artists I have ever met. You can converse with him about virtually any martial art and he has personal experience in that art or is at least very knowledgeable about about the art.

hey

Thanks dude, it is good to hear of real teachers..and agreed, good martial artists will cross train or cross hands with people from other systems and especially MMA'ers. I have met four or five teachers who can hold there own with pretty much anyone. And then there are guys like Sam Chin who would probably kill, cook and eat most of the UFC guys. But just seeing some 'CMA teachers' talk about fighting and then me being able to bitch slap them makes me want to drown myself in Mao Tai... ah well...

yusuf

[Chris McKinley]

yusuf,

I went through a phase where I had a few of those same kinds of experiences, touching hands with guys who were supposedly outstanding examples of martial functionality. Some were "okay" from a fighter's standpoint. Some had one or two things they could do particularly well, but didn't have anything close to a well-rounded ability, and usually those types lacked the "eliminate the sumbitch" mindset necessary to using it "4 realz".

Some guys you could tell weren't used to dealing with someone who could do all their tricks just as well as they could, nor with people with even a general degree of fighting experience. One particular guy was utterly confounded by a combination of hiding my center and applying just basic ringmanship that I learned in my TKD days. We were just touching hands in the sportsmanlike manner so there was no need to get hurtful with it, but I owned every exchange and it was obvious I could have taken this guy down and out nearly at my leisure.

This stuff and my personal experience with actual combat is why it's kinda hard to get impressed with supposed CMA "fighters" these days. Most of them turn out to be nothing more than skilled exhibitionists with very little behind the curtain. Some still do, but just as with the RBSD world, the scariest guys are no longer clanging their own gong and hanging out their shingle on Youtube. You could know them for years in daily life and not ever know what they were capable of.