why does ufc promote brawlers and not skilled martial artist?

Question

Alot of the rules are set up to cater to brawlers - ground and pound is a loud but no kicks to the head when someone is done.
Why not hype up the grappler , the submission fighter, the martial artist that can knockout an opponent from any position with a kick .
I know they have talented martial artist but why build a company on brawlers is that really what they feel sells in the US.
Why not have a black belt fight like a black belt against a skilled martial artist isn't that what MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts not brawling

Answer 1

Well in the minds of americans what sells is the ground pounding over sized people fighting and think that if a martial art style doesn't do "this" then it is not a real martial art. There are different fighting leagues such as K-1 which do have skilled martial artist who some even come dressed up in there Taekwondo "Gi" and black belt and all and use the moves they were taught such as high kicks. But K-1 isn't as famous in america cause some people believe oriental martial arts are useless or fake or only for movies and there for don't want to look at it.

Answer 2

Anyone no matter the gender starting martial arts at 5 and being 20 does not make them an expert or a professional. The best fighter wins. The best prepared or the luckiest person wins. Yes a woman or female can easily beat a male especially if she has been trained correctly. If she was in a mcdojo maybe or maybe not. I had a teenaged female student that 2 adult males tried to attack with the intent of rape. She beat them up pretty bad both had to go to the hospital. One had to kept in the hospital for a while before going to trial. While I hate that she had to experience this. I'm glad she was trained well enough to survive. I'm amazed at how many people that say they study martial arts talk about or mention dirty fighting. There is no such thing as dirty fighting in a real fight. All is fair in a real fight. There are no rules. That mean sand or saw dust thrown in the eyes or fine. Mace or pepper spray are great.Biting, scratching and even the gross spit in your face are okay to do. Whatever it takes to get the advantage and survive.

Answer 3

Yes no kicks to a downed opponent in UFC. However, that's allowed in Pride FC. Ground and pound is a fight strategy that works esp well against opponents that stall on the ground, it's not brawling. Brawling is something you see on the corner of the street - often unskilled, raw, unregulated, dangerous situations that ends up getting someone hurt, killed or locked up in jail. The fighters in UFC are all skilled martial artists, so I'm not sure what you are talking about. To you, the untrained eye, it may look like just ordinary brawling on the ground. To the learned individual, they can recognize a lot of skill and technique at play.

Answer 4

Exactly which brawlers are these you refer to? The guys winning everything and knocking people out or submitting them? MMA is a sport so of course there are going to be rules which try to avoid fatalities. Exactly how skilled is any martial artist who can claim to have lost because he wasn't allowed to kick someone in the head when they were down?



MMA isn't perfect and god knows UFC isn't but your question seems to come from fantasy land. The atheletes who compete at that level have an amazing amount of self discipline and dedication to be able to get in there and do what they do.

Answer 5

While I disagree with your assessment that the UFC promotes unskilled martial artists, ground and pound is something that I do not like to see in contest. I think it is best saved for a real fight, and even then it is risky because if you are grounding and pounding one opponent, you will not be able to see his brother coming up from the side to kick you in the face. That was a painful lesson I learned as a teenager, and while I "won", it took me a long time before I could chew without my jaws feeling crunchy.



Not only that, I don't like it when they let the fight keep going after someone is severely bleeding.



So skill level: yep, it's high. I just could do without the ground-and-pound and massive blood loss.

Answer 6

Even as a martial artist myself, I prefer to watch people pounding each other than grappling. I appreciate both but striking is just more exciting. To the majority of fans who don't have the training to appreciate technique grappling must be especially boring.



I think that a lot of brawling takes a lot of skill. If you can pound a guy in to the ground then how is that any less skilful than submitting him? If you can end a fight, you're a good fighter.

Answer 7

Hmm...



You mean like they could financially reward people for the best submission of the night?

Reward people for the best knock out of the night?

Oh wait they do that...



Have champions who not only have multiple blackbelts, but have won the vast majority of their fights by finishing opponents via submission or knock out?

HW: Cain Velasquez: 9-0, (8 wins via KO)

LHW: Jon Jones: 13-1 (Gaidojitsu Blackbelt)(8 wins via KO, 5 of which in 1st rnd, 3 wins by submission)

MW: Anderson Silva (holds 3 Blackbelts) (21 of his 28 wins have come from ko or submission, 14 of which in the 1st rnd)

WW: Georges St. Pierre (holds 3 blackbelts) 8 KOs, 5 Submissions.

LW: Frankie Edgar, not a brawler but a grinder, wins mostly via decision and boxing footwork.

FW: Jose Aldo (BJJ Blackbelt) 14 of his 19 wins via finishes, 12 KOs, 2 subs.

BW: Dominic Cruz: Another grinder, (BJJ Blackbelt, TKD Blackbelt).



Point is mostly skilled Martial Artist at the top, certain guys might get more attention at times because they are more charismatic, but that is the nature of the beast of the public spotlight.



Phillip Seymour Hoffman can act circles around Tom Cruise. Yet who gets more attention and more money?



I think if you look with an open mind, and understand what is going on in MMA, you would see a lot of skill, tactics, angles, footwork, strategy going on in MMA, both standing and on the ground. The problem is there is a lot of parity, and a ton of skilled guys. If a guy is just as good as you on the mat, then submitting him is a lot harder, and you end up with more stalemates and position jockeying then you do finishes.



"Have a black belt fight like a black belt".. I think you might have a misperception about what fights look like in general.



Here's the two top Wing Chun masters in a fight with each other: http://youtu.be/szdF1nIAfpk



The truth is when you put two skilled people in a fight against each other, it typically ends up with a lot of feeling out, sizing up, and engagements. Skilled opponents generally don't make it easy to get knocked out or submitted.



Just my two cents.

Answer 8

A lot of the best guys are black belts or experts in their fighting style.



Without going the championship route that Judomofo went with, think of all the guys who were considered some of the best.



Chuck Liddell-Black belt in Kenpo Karate and Koei Kkan karate, and purple belt in BJJ

Randy Couture-Was getting ready to join the USA Olympic team before deciding to join the UFC.

Mauricio Rua-Black belt in BJJ, came in fifth in the Mundials, Muay Thai has no belt system so he just has lots of experience.

Frank Mir-Black belt in BJJ and Kenpo

Nate Marquardt-Black belt in BJJ and Gaidojutsu, expert wrestling

Lyoto Machida-Black belt in Shotokan Karate, BJJ and has lots of experience in Sumo wrestling

Forrest Griffin-Black belt in BJJ, top notch wrestling.

Dan Henderson-He was getting ready to join the Olympic wrestling team as well.



The point is a lot of guys are top notch fighters with a plethora of experience in many different martial arts. When you see Lyoto Machida, Martin Kampmann, Anderson Silva, Belfort, or Shogun and guys they respect each other's abilities to be able to finish the fight at any moment because they're all just feeling their opponents' rhythms, timing, reactions, etc.



Guys who are just brawlers will never be able to get to the top of the food chain because top guys will know how to react much better to them. The funny thing is when you have someone like Forrest Griffin who don't look like they're actually skilled and they just look like brawlers they are top notch fighters.



Forrest Griffin has been considered to be a brawler but the guy trains at Xtreme Couture and has a black belt in BJJ. His movements don't look as fluid as kampmann, Silva, or Machida's but he has the practical experience needed to be a champion.



Paul Daley is considered a brawler and the guy refuses to use his BJJ skills (I've read that he does train in BJJ) or wrestling or even practice it so what ends up happening is that he was a one sided fighter and Koscheck was able to use his wrestling to take out Daley. Nick Diaz almost got knocked out by Daley but Diaz was able to beat him to it because Diaz was more well rounded.

Answer 9

The top martial artists that I know of feel no need to prove anything to anyone. I worry about the guys that always have something to prove. Those types come and go. The true masters just train. They train for themselves, not to prove anything to anyone else.



....

Answer 10

The UFC has nothing to do with the rules.



The rules are set by the state commission, if the UFC does not abide by the state commission, MMA would not be legal.