Mixed Martial Arts Facts
What is 'mixed martial arts' or 'MMA'?
Mixed Martial Arts is a mixture of Martial Arts and I explain it to the people so that they can understand it better. I think always four Olympic sports let say we take the kicks from the taekwondo, we take the punches from the boxing, we take the wrestling from wrestling, and we take the submissions from judo. Those are four Olympic sports, put all those four Olympic sports together and you have the Mixed Martial Arts or MMA.
Is MMA a regulated legal sport in the US?
Right now, Mixed Martial Arts is a legal sport in the United States. It used to not be legal. A while ago, it was banned. At the time when I fought, it was only allowed in three states in all of America. Right now, it's pretty much everywhere legal. There's a few states that still have a problem with it, but I think they are going to turn around real fast because money is involved. Once money is involved, then it becomes bigger than boxing, which it already is. They are then certainly going to turn around and say "Ah, we want you too", because it gives great publicity to the cities.
Is MMA more dangerous than professional boxing?
People say that mixed martial arts is more dangerous than normal boxing, but I don't believe that. Boxing is more dangerous if you compete. You have to understand that in boxing, all the punches, or about 85% of them, land on the head. In boxing you also have an eight count. An eight count is the most dangerous thing that there is in mixed martial arts, or in martial arts, because when you get hit in the head, it's your body saying that it wants you to stop. If you can't stand on your legs anymore, you want to give up. That's your body telling you that you have had enough. No, let's go to the corner, take a little break, and then you can come out to get some more. You don't have that rule in mixed martial arts. In mixed martial arts, fights are won by submission, and there is no eight count. If you can't defend yourself anymore, the referee will stop the fight. For instance, if I take somebody down and I put him on his back and I sit in a mount position and I start raining down punches, if he doesn't improve his position at that moment, and only two or three punches slip through, even before he's going to get hit for real, the referee will put me off.
What are the different styles of fighting in MMA?
Different styles in mixed martial arts - striking. Let's say try boxing, so everything is allowed - knees, kicks, punches, elbows. Then you have wrestling, and you need to know wrestling. Of course you need to know the ground game, and this is very important. Not jujitsu - jujitsu is with the gi. You need to do the ground game without a gi. You're fighting without a gi, that means train without a gi. Fighting with and without a gi is a big difference. With a gi you got a lot of traction, you can hold the gi, you can't do that if they don't wear it. On top of that, of course, we got, well we got the wrestling, I already mentioned that. So, those three major things would be it - striking, wrestling, submissions.
