Why won't anyone take Karate, Taekwondo or Japanese Ju-Jutsu to the Octagon?

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StarvroTheVanillaFace

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Dec 23, 2010
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It doesnt make sense.

Some MMA fighters do have a strong Karate background (Lyoto Machida, Georges St Pierre) but none will use some very effective moves of their original style. Likewise, I have never seen a Taekwondo fighter or a Japanese Ju-Jutsu one. Im a practicioner of MMA for 2 years now, did Karate for 7 years and Taekwondo/Judo/Pankration/Differed Krav Maga for 6 months each (seperately).

My MMA class mainly consists of Muay Thai and BJJ. I often use all the other martial arts I learnt in sparring, and it is damn effective. MMA is supposed to be Mixed Martial Arts, but they cut out so many effective ones!
 
To be honest, if guys I know took their Karate to the octagon they'd wreck the other guy in a few seconds. Most of those fighters have some experience in a lot of stuff and not a focus on anything in particular so the fights end up being more diverse, which is what the organization wants for money. It's about the show. That's not to say MMA can't be practical, but you fight and train the same (so training for fighting with rules...) plus once you get to the guys on TV it's all about money, looking cool, and having big muscles that look good.
Effective is you, not the art.

EDIT: Pugpaws! You're back!
 
because people would rather see grown en roll around on the ground hugging eachother tather then taking up a real style of martial arts
 
There are a few more karate fighters in mma/ufc, and GSP doesn't practice karate anymore, he now does muay Thai kickboxing.
Lots of people have some background in judo, acctuly, bjj comes from judo, wich comes from jap. JJ.
Lots of fighters know some TKD, like bas rutten and Anderson silva.
Krav maga has like... Three moves that would be allowed in the octogon lol.
 
Have you forgotten Cung Le from Strikeforce? He has a black belt in Taekwondo and is one of the most effective kickers in MMA. The only person in the UFC who I know has traditional Ju Jistu in his background was Carlos Newton from the Welterweight division.
 
There are karate/TKD moves I notice all the time. For instance spinning back kicks or crescents (occasionally). The problem with japanese jujitsu is that joint-locks aren't very good pins. You can usually get out of them by spinning, but in the street they aren't meant to be pins. Joint-locks would be a quick rip or snap to break the joint. Also the whole thing about how little time mma fighters have. You have to be the best fighter possible in a short amount of time, and arts like jujitsu take a LOT longer to become proficient enough to fight with.

On another level, I blame the lack of knowledge of the arts. If you watch Bas Rutten on Aikido, he talks about catching a punch like it's something magical. You catch a punch the same way wrestlers catch kicks, with a wrap. Lots of people don't get it and just assume that in the street you reach for the punch and try to grab out of thin air.

Not only that, but many joint-locks focus on the wrist, which is taped. Once a wrist is taped, it's not moving. The other thing is that elbow locks generally aren't good against wrestlers when only trying to subdue them. While a quick snap and the elbow is gone, i you leave it their long enough a good wrestler can get out of it. There's also the gloves which make it hard to really grab onto the other guy to take control.

I do think that some joint-locks can and SHOULD be used in mma, like a folding elbow lock and a figure-4 (it's not a kimura no matter what you say) from standing positions. It's just that mma fighters either don't really commit to strikes or they're to afraid to try the locks.
 
Traditional martial arts are designed to be for life threatening situations. The things they teach are designed to crush throats, poke out eyes, break fingers, wrist, elbows, ...etc. Either you do those things or you don't. If you don't, what you have left (sport), is not nearly as effective. It ends up being two guys pounding ion each other, or rolling around on the ground, trying to get a submission, ...etc. MMA has rules that make it illegal to do the most effective techniques of traditional arts. Trying to compare real traditional arts with MMA or sport martial arts is like comparing a gun fight with another that uses toy dart guns.
Much of the belief that the traditional arts don't work is due to the mma style of sport. But you must also realize that none of the so called traditional martial artists that compete in such venues, are even close to being masters of the arts they studied. Realize also that my definition of what a master is, is of standards that are way beyond what most people think is a master.


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Machida's fighting strategy has point sparring karate written all over it and he was pretty effective with that. Well that is until Shogun figured out how to stop him...
You won't really find JJJ in the Octagon, despite some players possessing training in it (i.e. Carlos Newton). Still that shouldn't exclude it from ever being used in the Octagon. David Loiseau, Stephen Bonnar and Anderson Silva have TKD backgrounds and have used them successfully with their MMA game.
You're expecting traditional looking fighters using a single style and that's not going to happen. MMA fighters blend any number of styles and aspects from various disciplines together. You'll have to spot them really closely

You do have a point, a lot of people cut out the other styles and go with the common ones in MMA. Still it doesn't mean the other styles are not effective. There are so many out there. All it takes it someone with the courage to step up to the plate and use it in their MMA game. That's when the wall of preconceived notions about the style come crumbling down and people take notice and say "wow".
 
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