Watch the kicker’s leg after his kick is checked by the defender.

I’ve noticed an interesting trend in the world of MMA:  many fighters are returning to striking as their main area of focus. This is peculiar because Royce Gracie took everyone away from striking and toward Jiu-Jitsu.

What I think we’re seeing now is that the upper-tier fighters now all know Jiu-Jitsu to at least a decent degree. At the very least they are well-versed in submission defense, and they know how to maneuver to a stalemate on the ground if they get taken there.

This brings us full circle to a world where striking matters more than ever. It used to be that the moment a grappler took a striker to the ground the fight was over. That’s no longer the case. All the striker has to do now is defend against submissions and the ground-and-pound and wait to be stood back up.

The trend is for fights to get finished by strikes now more than by submissions. Maybe striking hasn’t caught up to submissions yet, but it likely will soon if it hasn’t already.

This brings us to the question — are striking skills more talent based while grappling skills are more knowledge based? In other words, is it easier to become a world-class grappler than a world-class striker? Is it easier for an average grappler to train in a world-class grappling school and do well against a world-class grappler than it is for an average striker to train in a world-class striking school and then do well against a world-class striker?

I think this may be the case. In other words, I think grappling defense may be simply a matter of knowing what to do (and when), whereas technique alone isn’t as helpful in striking. Even if you know what to do in striking it doesn’t mean you’re able to actually pull it off (think about dodging a head kick or countering a punch).  In short, I think striking is more dependent on physical talent than grappling is.

If this is true it would explain the trend we’re seeing. Thoughts?

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After nearly 15 years of following MMA I’m finally getting physically involved.

I’ve found a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in town that looks really decent. I’ve always wanted to learn the basics of this incredible martial art and the health benefits are compelling as well.

Overall it should be very positive. I’m looking forward to it and will surely have much to say about it as I progress.

I’ve always been a Martial Arts enthusiast, and I used to be obsessed with Bruce Lee. I thought he was God. I’ve not thought much about him in the last 10 years or so, however, even as I have become a full-fledged Mixed Martial Arts fan.

But I realized yesterday when reading some Bruce Lee quotes that it’s an absolute travesty that he was taken from us before he could see MMA become what it is today.

Many accept that he was special in some way, but few realize just how special. I think he was the pioneer of Mixed Martial Arts itself. His own art, Jeet Kune Do, was less of a style of its own and more of a philosophy — philosophy of being eclectic with techniques from any combat system that works.

“Jeet Kune Do: it’s just a name; don’t fuss over it. There’s no such thing as a style if you understand the roots of combat. — Bruce Lee”

What’s amazing about this is that it’s the ONLY approach that works in modern MMA. Mixed Martial Arts took over a decade to figure out what he had already learned in the 1960′s. He respected the classic arts but realized their limitations early on.

I really wish he were here today to enjoy the MMA explosion. He would have embraced it like no other. And I’m quite sure he’d still be fighting despite how old he would be today. Contrary to what many fanboys think, however, he would in fact have many losses both by submission and by knockout. But he would also have the most untouchable record in the world. He would insist on fighting in the heavyweight division at times, he would fight on very short notice, and he’d probably try to convince an organization to let him fight multiple people at the same time. He always pushed the limits.

“Unfortunately, now in boxing people are only allowed to punch. In Judo, people are only allowed to throw. I do not despise these kinds of martial arts. What I mean is, we now find rigid forms which create differences among clans, and the world of martial art is shattered as a result.” — Bruce Lee

I just miss him. I wish he were here to see what’s happening. He deserved it. Half the fighters over 30 are probably in MMA in some part because of Bruce Lee. We should pay our respects to the first evangelist of truly mixed Martial Arts. R.I.P.:

I’m quite worried about what’s going to happen in the sport when someone gets really hurt. All this momentum is behind it right now, but when someone gets truly injured the media outcry might be enough to kill it.

It won’t be enough to literally kill of the whole industry, but they’ll nerf it to the point of not being MMA anymore. Ugh…I hope the sport’s promoters are preparing for this. It’s guaranteed to happen; the only question is how bad it’ll be.

For those of us who are brutal enough to love MMA and geeky enough to use RSS.

• UFC News http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=rss.home
• Sherdog MMA RSS Resources http://www.sherdog.com/news/rss.asp
• MMA-News http://www.mma-news.org/e107_plugins/rss_menu/rss.php?1.3
• The Ultimate Podcast http://www.podshow.com/feeds/theultimate.xml
• Ultimate MMA http://www.woai.com/rss/649.rss

If you haven’t heard of MMA, you should fix that. And if you’ve heard of MMA but are UFC-biased, you should fix that too. There are tons of amazing fighters out there that aren’t yet in the UFC.

But most importantly, if you know of MMA and of UFC but don’t know of Fedor Emelianenko, you are missing out.

Fedor is widely considered to be the best MMA fighter ever. He’s a God when striking or grappling, and can take massive punishment and come back to destroy you. Check out this fight with Randleman where he gets dropped on his neck, rolls over, and submits him like it never even happened.

Then at the end he tries to help him up as if to say sorry. The guy is inhuman. Oh, and he never stares people down in the ring. He looks down and is always respectful. Then he comes out and hurts you. When this beast was asked if he had any pets he responded:

Yes, I have a pet turtle.

Fear any man who ignores being dropped on his neck and has a pet turtle. And here’s a highlight reel:

So yeah, I thought Jackson had a great chance to win (I put it at 45% – 55%), and I knew for sure it was going to be a first round knockout one way or the other. All these people at the sports bar were talking about third round decision, second round TKO, etc.. I told them, “First round KO. It’s just a question of who.” And indeed that was the case.

So now a few thoughts:

Pride has more talent than UFC does. They have better fighters and they fight more often. I think we’ll continue to see the Pride fighters dominate the UFC fighters — not always, but in general.

Secondly, Chuck has a sick offense but I agree that he’s never been pitted against a striker near his caliber. Some people call that overrated, which I guess I agree with now that the Pride fighters are part of the mix. I truly believe that people like Henderson, Silva (Wanderlei), and Jackson have offense as good or better than Chuck’s.

Basically, Chuck had so much success because he can knock people out consistently while defending the take-down really well. The issue is that he’s not faced many serious strikers, and now we see what happens when he does. Don’t get me wrong, I think Chuck has a good chance of knocking out Jackson too; it’s a coin-toss really. But it shouldn’t be if one fighter is that much better than another.

What I’m looking for right now is for more Pride fighters to come to UFC, and a more active fight schedule. I don’t want a boxing schedule for these guys; I want them tuned, like in Pride. And for the love of God — bring Fedor to the UFC. I can’t wait to see him destroy the heavyweight division. I know that he can lose, but he’s 100% real-deal. Tested. Certified. Guaranteed.

65 Million. Holy crap. This is a total dream scenario. Now we get to see the best of both organizations fight each other. Dude, I’m so enthused about this…

Oh, and say goodbye to boxing. That’s a done deal. MMA is the future.