Yea I mentioned Machida in my post, and he is my favorite UFC fighter
. Of course he also trained in BJJ which goes back to my previous point. Both karate and jujitsu are both TMA, but when you "MIX" them together you get MMA. Most MMA fighers often train in Mauy Thai, BJJ, and wrestling, all of which are TMA in and of themselves, but when you mix them together what do you get? MMA. So I think the debate about TMA vs MMA is sort of missing the point. I think what is really meant in most cases of the MMA vs TMA debate is does this one style on its own (TMA) stand up to a mixture of various styles (MMA). Well of course the person who is cross trained and more versitile is going to have the advantage, but keep in mind that person is trained in several TMA.
Someone who trains in only striking regarless of the style (karate, kung fu, boxing, ect...) is going to be at a severe disadvantage if the fight goes to the ground, simply because their fighting education is more one dimensional. Train that striker in some form of ground fighting as well, and now you have a "Mixed Martial Artist"
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On the other hand if you have someone who is only trained in ground fighting, they are also not a MMA fighter, and if a striker who also is cross trained in ground fighting goes against them, and especially if the fight stays standing up, then in the ground fighter only is going to be at a disadvantage.
I was watching "Enter the Dragon" staring Bruice Lee the other night and in the opening fight scene, Bruce Lee makes the other guy tap with an arm bar, and this movie was made back in 1973. Lee had it figured out, that a good martial artist is a mixed martial artist, which is why he cross trained in so many various styles.
I get tired of MMA people talking smack about Kung Fu. I do not train Kung Fu, but do respect the art. I believe that a truely proficent kung fu practitioner would be fully versed in not only the striking aspects of kung fu, but the chin na, ground fighting, take downs, and submission aspects of kung fu as well. So in essence a truely knowlegable kung fu fighter would be a mixed martial artist. I know and have seen the you tube videos of the Gracies handing kung fu guys their arses on a platter, but I don't think those fighters were good representatives of real kung fu, for if they had been where was the chin na? Same goes for those early UFC's where just about all the pure strikers were slapped around like little school girls.
What I think a lot of people forget is that the TMA were developed on battle fields, and what didn't work didn't usually survive (litterally), but as the transition was made from battle field martial arts to sport martial arts I think something was lost. Example, a lot of people do not know that true Okinawan karate has take downs. The original high kicks of TKD were developed to knock a rider off his horse on the battle field,but as these arts were modified for sport I believe something was lost. The Chinese government intentionally modified sport wushu to be more of a sport than a true martial art. Tae Kwon Do entered the Olympics and had to be modified so that it could be a sport, and not a battle field, and so on and so forth. Then MMA came along and held more to the rationale which developed the TMA in the first place which is "use what works, discard what does not".
So in conclusion I don't believe the TMA that MMA guys talk smack about are really the TMA's, which their MMA is built from, but the modified sport martial arts from which they evolved.