I like both MMA and street defense. I always hate it when people predictably ask me "How would this celebrity do in an MMA match?" When I get annoyed at those questions (because of how typical it is to ask,) I have to remember that for the past 7 years MMA has exploded here in America and is embedded highly in our culture. They ask in a way that will give them peace of mind, rather than expressing genuine interest.
MMA is a brutal sport. These guys are paid to be at their best FIGHTING shape. They train for accuracy and power! They train to go for the knock out and submissions.
People respect that. But it's all they tend to see. In a real fight, you don't have rules. The knock out and submission isn't enough sometimes. No rules means, weapons can be used, they can outnumber you, attacks to the eyes, balls, whatever, anything goes. You break an arm, they keep coming at you.
Many people don't respect different sides of martial arts. They think if a Hong Kong actor does a flip in a movie fight that he would try to do it in a street fight. People also forget some people fighting in professional MMA have only started fighting 3-4 years before making it big.
I see it both ways. One person I met kept telling me that Krav Maga (generally considered a street defense martial art) was the best and "number 1 number 1" he kept saying. He had never practiced a martial art and was 2 months into learning Krav Maga, so understandably he was excited. He kept talking saying that a Krav Maga practitioner would crush any MMA fighter. I rolled my eyes. People just don't respect the martial arts as a whole. Donnie combined MMA with other martial arts in Flash Point because he respects various martial arts. Martial Arts is like his life.
Donnie is fast and dangerous. Powerful. Been honing martial arts his whole life. Maybe some people here only watch a few of his movies and think "That's how he would fight in real life." I think those people are crazy. Donnie would trash them.
People can be so close minded these days and only go by what they see on TV (MMA, UFC) and movies (Choreographed fights.) To them it has to be MMA vs. Traditional Martial Artist. Most simplified way their mind can see it. Why not mix both and get the best of both worlds? See the beauty and brutality of both worlds? I love how in the early 2000s MMA fighters in the UFC were seen as invincible..... then as they brought more fighters in the UFC that knocked out the champs, they realized "Oh, MMA fighters are human too." Is it any surprise one of Anderson Silva's idols is Bruce Lee? Bruce Lee taught of having an open mind and wanted to see the growth of martial arts. People here make it the old "style vs style" argument (MMA vs everything else, as if MMA was just a single style.) People forget that Bruce Lee was known as the father of MMA on the UFC site. It's like as soon as someone sees Bruce Lee or any fighter in a movie, they immediately think "How would they do in an MMA match?" We are exposed to the MMA life and culture quite often. The sport is relatively new in the media's eyes so I guess that's why people think this way. I wish people would step back and think about what it's like on the other side of the argument. No body looks at it from a perspective with respect to all fighting styles.
But there's hope. With more people seeing MMA champs getting knocked out by underdog fighters, with some of those flashy knock outs, mixed in with a little overexposure, I think people will understand that MMA fighters are brutal and are true fighters, but they aren't invincible or near that. There's more than one way to win a fight.
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