Originally Posted by NoWhErE

I think alot of people are forgetting what the essence of Martial Arts are. Most Japanese Martial Arts were created for a specific reason and fine tuned for that reason.

I.E : Karate. Developped secretly by Japanese farmers, it was called the art of the open handed fist. Its nature was to allow a seemingly harmless farmer to defend himself against attackers (bandits, soldiers, etc.) wielding weapons. Every student is taught to block sturdily joints and to strike extremely quickly, thus creating an effective defense against weapon wielding strikers (with more or less training of course).

Kung-Fu : Monks who were constantly robbed and killed in their monastaries by bandits wanting their possessions formed specific defenses against them to effectively neutralize them utilizing everything in their environment. They took inspiration from animals and elements to create their martial art.

etc. etc.


The point is, these Martial arts were created from necessity, not for direct gladiator-like confrontation. Most Martial Arts utilize the element of surprise as their main weapon. Martial Artists seemingly look week at first glance, but are trained to react and overthrow an opponent who is not expecting it.


So when you put these people in a ring where they're both opponents know eachothers habilities, you're elimating the traditionnal Martial Artists basic skill, which, again, is the element of surprise.


Any proper Martial Arts school first teaches its students that what they are learning is to defend themselves, not to engage in all out combat. Any student who ends up in such a situation has not fully understood what they are learning.

So when putting a Martial Artist against an MMA fighter, you're basically comparing apples and oranges. The MMA fighter will always come out victorious because you are basically on their turf. Naked, hand to hand combat is obviously dominated by MMA fighters because they are muscled up gladiators who train specifically for that.

Give them a sword, put them up against an Iaido student, and they will be quickly cut down.

Put them against a weapoin wielding thug, and alot of them will have to think twice about their approach on how to disarm them as compared to a Krav Maga student (I believe they are the ones that intensily study weapon defense).




So what is my point?

These debates are dumb. Its basically all a penis comparing contest that ultimately leads nowhere because anybody with half a brain knows that MMA fighters have the upper hand in no holds barred combat. But no they are not the ultimate evolution in fighting.