Sigh, another guy to knock out.

Aleksander Emelianenko Vs James Thompson. So, your opponent is 6' 4", 264 lbs and absolute pure muscle. Are you worried? Aleksander Emelianenko is downright bored. His expression and demeanor are classic.
gorillamansays...

Upvote for buzdos' comment.

I went to Pride's Wikipedia entry to try to work out why that was a knock-out and frankly I'm none the wiser. I was amused by the list of fouls, which reads like How to Win a Real Fight.

rembarsays...

Yeah, um, Gorillaman, I'm pretty sure the Pride guys can take care of themselves, seeing as how they are, y'know, the best fighters in the world. All jokes aside, head butting, eye gouging, and all that other crap goes out the window when somebody's kneeing your head from side control. (If you don't believe me, go look at the old UFCs where many of those rules didn't exist and people tried groin strikes and stupid stuff like that without knowing the basics....KTFOed like no other.)

And Gvf, it's known as a Technical Knock Out (TKO), and is a rule used in basically all MMA matches to prevent fighters from getting the same kind of brain damage pro boxers get. Basically, since MMA has no standing 8-counts since fights are allowed to go to the ground, allowing a fight to go on after the flash KO caused by a big hit will only result in more damage for the already-doomed fighter. So, the ref stops the match after it becomes obvious that a fighter is about to get wailed on.

The Emelianenkos are not fighters, per se, because the term "fighter" implies having to fight to win. The Emelianenkos are more properly called "terminators".

bamdrewsays...

Woo! He takes four big hits to a completely unguarded head. Third big hit is really rough; after knocking him down with a big right, tattooed dude is able to, with a push from his left hand, set up the big dude's head for another big right-hand punch that clobbers him, then follows with the big left that pushes the dazed big-guy off his feet and prone for more brain-massaging.

Very fast and very impressive brawl fight. Turns around the kids momentum with three big rights and toppling left. Thanks for sharing!

Chaucersays...

thompson looked a bit nervous for this. Which he probably was since it was his first fight. Then he made the mistake of charging like a bull against a more experienced fighter.

Baquetasays...

I gotta disagree with you on your first point, Rembar. Even the first UFC tournament banned biting and eye-gouging, so we've yet to really see the effectiveness of the really vicious stuff like that against grappling. No disagreement that it's no good if you're already on the ground grappling, but the point is to avoid getting in that situation in the first place.

I'm not trying to start an argument over what's better, cos we both know it depends on the situation to a large extent anyway. I'm just saying, in the war against bullshido we gotta be vigilant at all times!

rembarsays...

Baqueta, check up some of the history of the UFC and watch some of those fights. Although they banned biting and eye-gouging, there was still a lot of those shenanigans going on. I could cite you some examples from there, but the best one I know of is Yuki Nakai, outside of the UFC.

Nakai was a Shooto fighter who competed in Vale Tudo Japan 1995, where during his first fight his opponent, a fucker named Gerard Gordeau, eye-gouged him, causing him to temporarily lose vision in both eyes and permanent blindness in one of his eyes. Nakai still won by heel-hook, due to Gordeau not having competent grappling ability.

Using your own example, if one were to try to avoid ground grappling, then one would have to learn and practice hip-stops, clinchwork, sprawls, and positional ground escapes. No amount of eye gouges and genital-kicking is going to help my opponent when I come in, swim for underhooks, then move to his back and suplex him on his neck.

Anyways, I'm not disagreeing with you totally - I'm not saying biting and eye-gouging and all those little tricks can't be effective when used as a supplement to the MMA skills set, I was objecting to Gorillaman's implied assertion that those tricks are the key to winning a real fight. As Nakai's case showed, one needs to know the basics of combat in standup, clinch, and ground, before one can even begin to think about using dirty tricks. Learn to fight, then add dirt. That's why MMA training is effective in fights, ring-side or on the street.

MMA - my anti-bullshido.

rembarsays...

Dag, the Pride Fighting Championships is a pro mixed martial arts organization in Japan, and is generally considered to have the best fighters in the world. (Well, past tense now, Pride was just bought by the owners of the UFC and combined the two.)

The general consensus among MMA fighters and fans is that most of the top MMA fighters, even the sprawl-and-brawl specialists, would get wiped in boxing matches against the best pro boxers, because MMA fighters can't afford to perfect their boxing to the same point boxers do. There has been movement, however, to improve striking in MMA, and the latest round of champs has been mostly strikers.

There is also some truth in that boxing striking, although it is often considered the best base standup art for MMA, needs to be adapted for MMA. For example, the more sideways stance has to be squared up to protect against single and double leg takedowns. Also, the use of the smaller 4 oz. MMA gloves means many types of boxing guards, like the peekaboo guard and crab guard, don't work so well because it's easier for punches to slip past.

Since MMA is such a new sport, there is much debate as to how much of the difference in striking styles between MMA and pure boxing/kickboxing/Thai boxing is due to poor technique on the fighters' part, and differences in the games caused by the wider range of attacks available in MMA.

For example, take head movement. Boxers are well known to have great head movement for defense, in bobbing and weaving and slipping. MMA fighters tend to keep their heads relatively still and high up. Some people say this is due to the fact that boxers train more head movement, and point to Couture v. Sylvia as an example of good head movement in MMA giving an advantage to the better slipper (Couture). Other people say boxing-style head movement is dangerous in MMA because a bad bob, weave, or slip could easily bring a fighter into the path of a round kick or knee or open them up for a takedown, and point to Anderson Silva v. pretty much anyone else, as well as the lowered amount of head movement in Muay Thai matches.

There are examples and counter examples of both sides, but I don't think a consensus will be reached until the next generation of MMA fighters arrive, a generation that no longer consists of specialized fighters with a strong base in a single art, but fighters that have been training since Day 1 for MMA with strong bases in striking and grappling arts. It's pretty exciting to watch the sport evolve in small ways like this.

Personally, I don't give all the discussion much thought, and am content to just block punches with my forehead.

Discuss...

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