BoxRec

As much as I like MMA, I will be honest I miss the original UFC format of discipline vs discipline where fighters of one school of thought competed against each other. I also miss the no round, no time limit structure as well because it's more realistic to an actual combat situation.

Would you be down to see an event like this again?

Boxing vs Wrestling
Karate vs Aikido
Jujitsu vs Judo
Wing Chun vs Jeet Kune Do

You could have it broken up into three categories like Men's, Women's and Senior's where the latter category would be like a specialty bout like Dolph Lundgren against Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme against Benny Urquidez.

It would be very traditional, not looking like a cage fight. It would be done basically on open ground on a padded floor (let's say 90x40 similar to a basketball court) where the combatants meet in the center of the arena floor and anytime they were knocked down or taken down the action stops, and they have to restart. Whoever scored the throw, takedown, or knockdown would be awarded a point.

This would continue until one either submitted, quit, got knocked out or injury prevented further action. Of course what I'm describing would be for the senior bouts, showing them as much respect as possible to get as many opportunities as possible.

The standard men and women's bouts would be treated like MMA bouts except when the referee called for a break in the action they would have to get themselves in a specific fighting position (ie, standing right in front of each other) to restart the action.

I'm not entirely convinced that the first few UFC events truly answered the question as to the best singular discipline considering how the events were basically put in the Gracie's favor. It quickly went from an event in theory to determine what was the best discipline into an advertisement for jujitsu.

Something like this needs to be put on again to really give singular disciplines the chance to really demonstrate what they can do and what is truly practical and what isn't. Tell me your thoughts.

UFC is what it is now as a natural evolution of those old days. Back then it was as it had been for years. Where people swore THEIR style was the best, and many found out wrong, and for a few years there it looked like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was the most efficient style, but then it became clear that everyone has it's flaws and it's strong points, and as time went on people learned that they probably need to incorporate pieces of this style and pieces of that style into their game, and that's where we're at now.

I like the early days of the UFC the most too just because of the added brutality, and because it was just vastly different in it's presentation then before we've gotten where we are today.

That being said I don't think it'd be possible to hold a This style vs That style type fighting competition anymore because Martial Arts has evolved primarily due to UFC.

UFC originated those types of competitions you're referring Henry, and time just naturally caused that type of focus for MMA to become obsolete.

I think it would probably be more difficult today to find a professional who was an absolute purist of jujitsu or muay thai, etc because so many martial artists today cross train.

However there are tons of amateur athletes out there who compete strictly in taekwondo and karate, etc and that would probably be the best avenue to go with a concept like this.

There are a few professionals who do come to my mind who do still compete in tournaments in the disciplines in which they originated their martial arts careers like MacKenzie Dern still competes in jujitsu tournaments even though she is a part of the UFC.

So I'm not sure how big of a stretch it really would be to have these people strictly use one solitary discipline in a matchup like this but I think they would probably be too spoiled by other disciplines that they would end up doing something that was outside of the discipline they were supposed to be implementing.

Therefore I would have to say going the amateur route would be the only way to successfully pull this off.

Judo vs. Jiu Jitsu would be interesting to see. I did Judo to a decent level and the Judoka could probably take down the Jiu Jitsu guy fairly easily but then Jiu Jitsu would likely have an advantage on the ground as more of the emphasis in that discipline is on groundwork. Who wins would depend on the scoring system because you often don't win by submission in Judo but rack up points for executing throws.

HomicideHenry wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 13:31 I think it would probably be more difficult today to find a professional who was an absolute purist of jujitsu or muay thai, etc because so many martial artists today cross train.

However there are tons of amateur athletes out there who compete strictly in taekwondo and karate, etc and that would probably be the best avenue to go with a concept like this.

There are a few professionals who do come to my mind who do still compete in tournaments in the disciplines in which they originated their martial arts careers like MacKenzie Dern still competes in jujitsu tournaments even though she is a part of the UFC.

So I'm not sure how big of a stretch it really would be to have these people strictly use one solitary discipline in a matchup like this but I think they would probably be too spoiled by other disciplines that they would end up doing something that was outside of the discipline they were supposed to be implementing.

Therefore I would have to say going the amateur route would be the only way to successfully pull this off.

I mean when it comes down to it. In a fight. A guy is gonna do what works. So even if he comes in there as a Jiu Jitsu expert or a Judoka. He's gonna do what he needs to do to win, and if that includes incorporating things from other disciplines. In the heat of battle I'm sure they won't be thinking of sticking strictly to their style. They'll just go for it.

Hell that's kinda always how it was anyway.

I remember on UFC 6 when a couple of guys come out slugging, and Jim Brown's comment is "I didn't see any discipline there I just saw swinging!"

I'd like to see this again.

gilgamesh wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 13:55

HomicideHenry wrote: ↑22 Feb 2023, 13:31 I think it would probably be more difficult today to find a professional who was an absolute purist of jujitsu or muay thai, etc because so many martial artists today cross train.

However there are tons of amateur athletes out there who compete strictly in taekwondo and karate, etc and that would probably be the best avenue to go with a concept like this.

There are a few professionals who do come to my mind who do still compete in tournaments in the disciplines in which they originated their martial arts careers like MacKenzie Dern still competes in jujitsu tournaments even though she is a part of the UFC.

So I'm not sure how big of a stretch it really would be to have these people strictly use one solitary discipline in a matchup like this but I think they would probably be too spoiled by other disciplines that they would end up doing something that was outside of the discipline they were supposed to be implementing.

Therefore I would have to say going the amateur route would be the only way to successfully pull this off.

I mean when it comes down to it. In a fight. A guy is gonna do what works. So even if he comes in there as a Jiu Jitsu expert or a Judoka. He's gonna do what he needs to do to win, and if that includes incorporating things from other disciplines. In the heat of battle I'm sure they won't be thinking of sticking strictly to their style. They'll just go for it.

Hell that's kinda always how it was anyway.

I remember on UFC 6 when a couple of guys come out slugging, and Jim Brown's comment is "I didn't see any discipline there I just saw swinging!"

Oh don't get me wrong in a all-out fight situation someone in Judo or Jiu-Jitsu might throw a punch or a kick to get out of a predicament even though those things are not allowed in those contests, but my ultimate point is the only way to really put on a genuine discipline versus discipline contest would be against amateurs who never cross trained that way nobody had an unfair advantage with striking or grappling.

I think if MMA legalised headbutts, all elbow attacks, striking when a man is on the knees, ‘soccer’ kicks, stomps, fishhooking, eye gouging, biting it would be a much more real as well as entertaining sport.