What is Mixed Martial Arts?

You've seen it on TV, but what's it really all about?

You’ve probably heard people talking about Chuck Liddel, Randy Couture, Fedor Emelianenko, Tito Ortiz and other popular MMA fighters. Maybe you’ve caught a glimpse of the UFC® on Spike or you caught the highly publicized Kimbo Slice EliteXC fight on national TV, but do you really understand the sport?

What the heck are those guys (and sometimes even girls) doing out there in that cage or ring? At first glance you may mistake these skilled competitors as a bunch of barbarians clubbing at each other until one goes down, or employing street tactics to get the better of their opponents.

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As the popularity of the sport soars, the rewards offered to champions quickly grow. This makes the dream of becoming a champion mixed martial arts fighter more palatable for someone with deep athletic talents. In other words, there’s now enough money in MMA to lure top level athletes away from traditional “major league” money sports such as baseball, football, and basketball.

This brings a whole new caliber of athlete into the sport that must spend years perfecting their techniques and strategies to compete at a high level. No longer can an untrained street fighter survive in the UFC® on strength alone. He must learn to fight on the ground, to avoid submissions, to take opponents down, to avoid their takedowns, to strike with many parts of his body, to lock his opponent’s joints, and to choke them. Without at least some experience in all of these skills, a fighter cannot hope to win at a high level in MMA competition.

There are many forms of training used to obtain these skills, including Muay Thai (thai kickboxing), Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Japanese Judo and Ju-jitsu adapted to focus more on ground techniques), Wrestling (takedowns and pins), and many other traditional martial arts. Fighters are able to employ striking and other techniques from Western Boxing, Karate, Kung Fu, and other arts, but today most fighters are training in the big three… Muay Thai, BJJ, and Wrestling.

From the outside it may look like a street fight, but top-level fighters are operating more like chess players than cave men with clubs. A simple move doesn’t usually work on a well-trained opponent. This means that move must be set up in some way. It could be a fake, a counter, an unorthodox surprise, or even moves of attrition. The reality is that fighters must be thinking several moves ahead of their opponents to succeed.

As with most things, fighters are usually better in one style of fighting than others. The classic example is the grappler versus the striker. The grappler is very good at controlling an opponent on the ground and submitting them (causing them to tap out and quit due to an impending injury such as broken arm or being choked into unconciousness), whereas the striker’s main talent is inflicting damage with hands, feet, knees, and elbows that result in knockouts, cuts, or cause the referee to stop the fight when the opponent is not intelligently defending himself.

Let’s walk through a simple example to illustrate my point. We have two fictional fighters. We’ll call them Joe the grappler, and Bob the striker. Joe’s primary objective in the fight is to get in close to Bob (avoiding his strikes) and to take him to the ground. There he will control the fight on the ground, attempt submissions, and probably try to inflict some damage with strikes.

Bob’s overall strategy is the complete opposite. He hopes to keep distance from Joe, stay on his feet, and land powerful punches, kicks, knees, and elbows to stop Joe in his tracks and knock him out cold. These are both legitimate strategies, but as with any combat situation, strategies must shift almost constantly once the fight starts.

There are so many nuances of what goes into these minor strategy shifts that it’s difficult to even explain without going on for volumes. But continuing our same example let’s assume that Bob the striker employs a good sprawl followed by quick knees each time Joe tries to close the distance and take him down. This causes Joe to adapt his strategy. Perhaps instead of going for a low takedown (a wrestling shoot) he changes to a high clinch and tries to use more Judo or Greco-roman wrestling takedowns instead.

At that point Bob the striker may find that he’s unable to regain the distance he wants, so he shifts from big haymaker punches to short elbows and foot stomps. As he lifts his foot to stomp Joe, Joe seizes the opportunity of the lifted leg and sweeps his opponent's opposite leg using a Judo throw… this could continue for a long time, but hopefully you get the idea. The fighters must be prepared for virtually anything, and in fact have a plan for even the most unthinkable (such as getting pinned and punched repeatedly).

The strategy in MMA is practically unlimited. The rules are open, but they do exist and they are strictly enforced. The rules limit certain strikes to sensitive areas, and to places such as the spine or back of the head that could inflict lifelong damage. Likewise rules don’t allow competitors to hold onto the cage/ring to prevent takedowns, nor do they allow knees or kicks to downed opponents. All of these things are for the safety of the fighters.

I’ll leave it to each reader to form an opinion on the sport of MMA. But, despite the hype, when you compare it to other sports like American football and boxing, it is quite safe. The open rules allow for a highly intellectual sport for the competitors and the fans as well.