Does the UFC Really Produce Better Figthers for Street Fighting?
Published Dec 14 2010 by: Rich Thomas | Follow us on Facebook & on Twitter
UFC Mixed Martial Arts Versus Boxing, Krav Maga and More for Real Fighting:
When James Toney became the latest high profile boxer to be humiliated in a mixed martial arts (MMA) octagon, he provided yet more ammunition for everyone from Unlimited Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White to the lowliest fan forum denizen to crow that the UFC’s style of mixed martial arts is “better than boxing.” The linchpin of that claim, based as it is on a UFC champion beating a boxing champion, is that the UFC’s particular style of MMA is a superior style for street fighting than boxing.
That claim has some truth to it, but only in the sense that having more training in hand to hand combat is always better than having less training. However, the claim that the UFC’s particular style of MMA (and it is just that -- a particular approach to mixed martial arts suited to a particular system of rules) is better than boxing gravely misunderstands what actually transpires in the octagon. The sort of fighting seen in the UFC octagon leans heavily on grappling, sometimes known in MMA as “the ground game,” yet many street fighters see going to the ground as something to be avoided.
Hand-to-Hand for Real
Krav Maga, the Israeli mixed martial art that has become popular in both military and law enforcement circles, takes a dim view of grappling. Although grappling techniques are studied in Krav Maga, Krav Maga DC General Manager Al Chicarella explained that “Krav Maga's philosophy is to avoid going to the ground where possible.”
In both the UFC’s octagon and a boxing ring, fighters enter unarmed and face off in a one-on-one engagement governed by a set of rules. In real life the situation is usually more fluid, and a fighter can never know if his opponent is armed, with what, or if more opponents might be lurking in the wings. Once on the ground, a fighter is less able to defend himself from multiple attackers, less able to retreat, and less able to see whether the opponent who is on the ground with him has produced a weapon. In any situation that is not strictly one-on-one and unarmed, a fighter grappling on the ground is vulnerable, a situation amply illustrated by Krav Maga masters Ran Nakash and Avivit Oftek Cohen on the Discovery Channel program Fight Quest.
Boxing’s Virtues
Boxing is not a complete martial art, but it has many virtues, among them its grueling training regimen. Many martial arts, including Krav Maga and the UFC‘s version of MMA itself, borrow heavily from the traditional training program of professional boxing. If the work outs in jeet kune do, krav maga and MMA schools all look a lot like something out of a Rocky movie, it is because few training programs prepare a fighter for the rigors of actual hand-to-hand combat the way the boxing regimen does. This is no small complement to the old fashioned virtues of the sweet science, because as Ned Beaumont makes clear in his book Championship Streetfighting, a big part of real hand to hand combat is physical and mental toughness.
Another point that Beaumont makes in his book is that boxing becomes a viciously effective form of street combat once all of boxing’s dirty moves -- fouls like thumbing the eye and following through with the elbow -- are thrown in. Yet from its earliest days, when Royce Gracie was popping joints on pay-per-view, UFC rules have favored some of the more brutal, crippling aspects of grappling while banning similar striking moves from boxing.
While the UFC bans “small joint manipulation” such as breaking fingers and toes, it encourages the snapping of wrists and ankles. However, many equally brutal, yet fundamentally non-lethal boxing moves, remain fouls under the UFC’s system. Head butting is the very first foul banned under UFC rules, while certain elbow strikes used in muay thai boxing -- easy strikes for western boxers to employ as well -- are also banned.
Stacking the Deck
When former middleweight champion James Toney or one-time heavyweight contender Ray Mercer made forays into the world of MMA, it was rightly pointed out by boxing pundits that both men were middle-aged and well past their best, and no one in the boxing world expected them to win. In boxing parlance, Toney in particular was a shopworn, hand-picked “name” for Dana White’s UFC to feast upon. Yet beyond the question of who fights who, White stacks the deck even further in favor of the MMA vs. boxing argument, an argument only he and his most ardent boosters seem to be truly interested in. The UFC’s rules permit grapplers to engage in some truly brutal fouling, while boxers/strikers must remain squeaky clean.
No such rules apply on the street, which is truly no-holds barred. In a situation where anything goes, going to the ground to inflict those brutal, UFC-favored grappling moves effectively chokes off a fighter’s ability to respond to the unexpected. A fighter who stays on his feet and makes proper use of space and movement, on the other hand, can respond to a fluid situation as necessary. Few techniques teach a fighter how to do that as quickly or effectively as boxing.
As a boxing nut and contributor to this site and a practioner of submission fighting for 5 years, I have formed a very solid opinion on this matter.
If I was involved in a one on one fight in the street, I am going to the ground. It eliminates the chance of a lucky punch and I can be 99.9% confident I will be able to beat anyone untrained on the ground. I would however only use the positional aspects of ground fighting to strike my assailant. No submissions.
If I become involved in a group confrontation, I want to be knowledgeable in Muay Thai and running away.
Coming from a background that is rooted in boxing, but with some experience of wrestling, TKD and muay thai added in, I understand your statement. If you are good at grappling, that is what you ought to focus on – that is the jeet kune do philosophy in a nutshell.
However, you never really can tell when you might get into a group situation. What happens if that guy you’ve got on the ground has a buddy or two who decide to join in only after you’ve got the original assailant on the floor? That is something that a lot of Krav Maga instructors drill into their students.
True Rich!
I’ve trained some JKD and I have to say, a solid right lead is a very useful weapon to have!
Thats why I said, no submissions. I think that’s a stupid game to play on the street. The knee on belly position is the best in such a situation, that way if a group of his (or her! lets not be sexist) friends arrives you can be up and away quickly.
as boxing fans, you should realize that dana is a promoter selling tickets, hes gonna talk a bunch of sh*t to get people turned on, dont take it personaly, hes a boxing fan too.
but lets look at the facts here, the ufc started out as a NHB competition. people would headbutt all the time, randy couture sure did! look up the steve jennum vs joe son fight, jennum drills son in the NUTS like 5 times and its totally legal (at the time). with all this going on (open weight classes too), royce gracie won the tournament 3 times and may have won 4 but was gassed after winning a grueling war with kimo leopoldo and couldnt fight again THAT NIGHT!
obviously the ufc needed regulations in order to become a real sport instead of a sanctioned street fight, but the real truth is that when one is engaged in any sort of martial art, the last thing they want to do is get in a street fight. theres no need to size up the douche next to you when you have that discipline, and should you be attacked, its usually gonna end ugly for the other guy re: Roger Huerta’s street fight a few months back
i forgot my point, point is royce did it ALL with jiu jitsu. beat everybody back in the day ON THE GROUND in NHB competition, but royce lost to matt hughes in a MMA bout not an NHB. james toneys dumb ass was just an easy way for the ufc to make a buck and for MMA to grow, somewhat at the expense of boxings credibility and should not be compared to a street fight. watch rio heros vale tudo in brazil if you want street fighting competition.
[...] one is for those who contemplate MMA’s use on the street. While the UFC bans “small joint manipulation” such as breaking [...]
I had a female student come in for classes and described the situation her boyfriend got into recently. They are at a bar, he gets into an altercation with someone (I didn’t ask the details) and he ends up on the ground. The other guys entourage begin stomping and beating the piss out of him. She stood there paralyzed with fear watching him get beat up. Three key points from above are that a) you should NOT go to the ground unless you have to and b) there are almost always other opponents to deal with and c) if you don’t train for those scenarios, no matter how well you *think* you will do, you will not know how to respond. Only Krav deals effectively with these. MMA and boxing are wonderful fighting systems, and will be effective in many scenarios, but they are completely impractical for most people.
It’s instructive, isn’t it? The important thing to remember is that boxing is the sport version of a bare-knuckle martial art. Other MMA styles, including Krav Maga, borrow heavily from it. If you spin boxing back to its bare-knuckle roots, it has some very useful, very practical lessons to teach.
The only elbows that are illegal in mma are 12-6 on a grounded opponent. Other than that, any elbow is good to go. The whole argument of this article is fallacious. It assumes boxing is better for a street fight than mma because Krav Maga teaches to keep the fight on the feet. Not getting into a street fights is probably the best self defense technique. If that’s not an option, just buy a gun and get a permit.