MMA Brawl

At the beginning, fighters were coming from different martial arts and were obliged to learn the most effective shots from other sports to be as complete as possible in a MMA contest.

However, whatever they did, a BJJ artist who tried to learn some boxing or Muay Thai was still a BJJ player with really limited striking skills. Depending of their original style the fights were still one style oriented, peppered with some weak technique borrowed from other sports.

Nowadays, fighters start right away by learning MMA as a single sport. They are not Kickboxer who must get some grappling or vice versa.

They are MMA players who just know the drills that work in a cage, picked from different styles, without knowing the original style at all. They are more natural MMA artist, but have tendencies to all look the same.

Today there are two major styles in Mixed Martial Arts:

• fighters who prefer the stand up game and have the minimum ground skill needed. Escape and defensive ground technic in majority. i.e.: Wanderlei Silva, etc…

• fighters who prefer the ground fighting and have limited striking technique. Normally, fighters with big BJJ influence, like Nogueria, Mir, etc.

The best combination style combo seam to be Muay Thai with BJJ and wrestling.

Muay Thai for a complete stand up game, BJJ for the guard and joints manipulation and Wrestling for the strength, throws, takedowns and body slam.

Up to now there is not a single fighter that is using all the aspect of the game. Even Fedor Emelianenko, the best MMA fighter up to now, have limited kicks and rely “only” on dirty boxing and outstanding submission techniques coming from Sambo. His hands are powerful but he doesn’t have a crushing knock out right hand.

I don’t know if it’s possible to have a fighter having the flexibility of a BJJ champion and at the same time the strength of a wrestler and the power and speed of a Muay Thai fighter.

That rely more on genetic structure than talent and according to the way a fighter is built, he will be advantaged in a special aspect of the game.

To stick to the subject of the article, the most pain grinding techniques in MMA are elbows, Muay Thai kicks and knees, because they deliver impressive knockout and blood bath, especially elbows in ground and pound fighting, but it doesn’t mean they win most of the fights.

Fedor Emelianenko is not the heaviest pain inflictor in MMA, neither B.J. Penn nor GSP, they are simply the best at following a game plan and are almost unfeasible to submit and virtually impossible to Cath with a Streight punch.

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The Most Pain Grinding Styles of Mixed Martial Arts