MMA FAQ

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

UFC usually "cycles" their fighters/champions, but there isn't a consistent pattern. They usually have 2 belts defended on one show, and the other 2 belts defended on the next show. So yeah, exactly, they spread it out. 2 big matches, and the undercard is used to build up challengers.

 

For introductory shows, these 4 are top-to-bottom very good shows, centred around the lightheavyweight title.

 

UFC 43 - Chuck vs. Randy I, Edwards vs. Ruiz, White vs. Freeman, are three very good matches. Tra vs. Rizzo, Sims vs. Mir are solid. Builds nicely towards the next show:

 

UFC 44 - Randy vs. Tito as the big fight. Uno/Franca is a good bout under it. Thompson/Strebendt, Arlovski/Maty, Sylvia/McGee are all explosive. I haven't watched Rivera/Loiseau in a while, but it has its moments.

 

UFC 49 - Randy vs. Belfort III, Chuck vs. White, Parisyan vs. Diaz - two of these fights were MOTYC in my opinion. Plus you get Edwards/Thompson.

 

UFC 52 - Randy/Chuck III, Trigg/Hughes II (tremendous), St. Pierre/Miller. Great show.

 

Actually, I think UFC 43 to 53 tells a pretty compelling story. You get Randy Couture's Lightheavyweight Title Story. You get Chuck Liddell's story. Yves Edwards figures prominently. The Heavyweight division is kinda like Star Wars, in that it starts off looking very bad for the jedi, and a new hope comes in the form of Andrei Arlovskiwalker to bring balance to the division. Rich Franklin: Destined to be champion. Evan Tanner: Fighting against all odds. Matt Hughes and his reign as champion, and Georges St. Pierres rise. It's very fascinating stuff.

[AboveAverage484 0]

I think UFC 40 is the best intro show. Two guys in the main event that the average viewer has probably heard of; Shamrock and Ortiz, plus the fight quality is pretty high. This show began a new era in UFC.

[Lei Tong 0]

A couple of things addressed:

 

- UFC's biggest problem in regards to judges is the fact that they're mainly people who may have taken a karate class or two earlier in their life, and are now considered adequate to judges MMA bouts. They've never really taken to training their judges in how to properly score an MMA fight, and never bother to correct them when horrible scores are given in a bout, assumedly because it might reflect bad on the UFC if even they have to acknowledge that their judges are inept.

 

PRIDE's judges seem to understand the game a bit better, but often play favorites (I'd say arguably moreso than UFC judges, because frankly, their judges should know better), and to this day Matt Hume still sounds like he's trying to explain astrophysics as opposed to their scoring system.

 

And, not to toot their horn again (well, maybe), but SHOOTO has by far the best scoring system in MMA right now. Half points are used (9.5, 8.5, etc.), plus close submission attempts ("catches") are given nearly as much weight as clean knockdowns. Fighters can often win or at least tie a round from the bottom if they're outworking the guy on top of them. Of course, the standing 8 count on knockdowns and abundance of draws (though not nearly as many as Pancrase, certainly more than anywhere in the States) would turn a number of people off, not to mention the mostly undersized Japanese fighters.

 

- Weight classes differ a bit from the US to Japan, which though not that different on first glance, actually leads to a large size disparity between the fighters, especially when combined with the fact that not as many Japanese fighters cut much weight or even cut at all.

 

US weight classes

Superheavyweight: 266lbs and up

Heavyweight: 206-265lbs

Lightheavyweight: 186-205lbs

Middleweight: 171-185lbs

Welterweight: 156-170lbs.

Lightweight: 146-155lbs

Featherweight: 145lbs and less

 

- Examples of good teams in MMA:

 

Miletich Martial Arts

Notable fighters: Matt Hughes, Tim Sylvia, Jason Black, Jeremy Horn, Spencer Fisher

 

Purebred Tokyo/ Killer Bee

Notable fighters: Norifumi Yamamoto, Akira Kikuchi, Koutetsu Boku, Atsushi Yamamoto, Shinsuke Shoji

 

Team Quest

Notable fighters: Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, Matt Lindland, Cael Sonnen, Matt Horwich

[Lei Tong 0]

Also, nuthugging aside, Oleg gets a thumbs up from me in regards to MMA Legend status from me.

 

 

Hey, I just love me some overachievers.

 

*playfully nuzzles Matyushenko's ear*

[Lord of The Curry 0]

What the fuck is the butterfly guard?

[Guest Brian]

Butterfly is where you have your feet on the inside and your legs outward like butterfly wings. I find it to be better for standing back up then an upa (basically pushing yourself off your opponent's leg) and it's good for sweeps, but I don't think you can do much offense from there.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

It's like a regular guard, but rather than having your legs wrapped around your opponent, you have your feet tucked in underhim, so your legs make the impression of a butterfly.

 

[Lei Tong 0]

Butterfly guard:Basically, instead of wrapping and locking their legs behind an opponent's back like in a closed guard, the user places both of his legs in between his opponent's, or if you can handle the terminology, presses his feet or shins against the opponent's taint, or their feet on the opponent's hips. It can used from varying distances (IE- with the opponent pressed up directly agains the user or standing a foot or two away), but with the upper body held close. Used primarily for sweeps.

 

[Lord of The Curry 0]

That's probably the first time the word "taint" has been used in this forum. Congrats.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Who are the most influencial fighters?

[AboveAverage484 0]

Who are the most influencial fighters?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm going to have to go with: Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, and Kazushi Sakuraba.

[Guest Brian]

Royce Gracie: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and the UFC

Mark Coleman: Ground & Pound and wrestlers

Randy Couture: Dirty Boxing and wrestlers

Sakuraba: PRIDE (and pro-wrestling?)

[Guest J-Man]

I'm new to MMA - I watched the Ultimate Fighter 2, plus a "Best of" old UFC with no weight classes and a couple of UFC current PPVs, plus one Pride PPV. What I would like to know is: do the judges count someone who is on top while on the ground as being the "dominate" guy, even if everything he tries to do fails? Because you could argue that Joe, while being on top, during his match with Luke at the Ultimate Finale was dominating, but everything he did was blocked.

 

Also, Seth was given a split decision against Brad on the TUF, even though he was losing on the ground, but he was on top. So it seems to me, that (what I think is called "lay and pray") is good in the UFC judging. Is this the case?

 

If it is, I think they should change it, because taking someone down and just holding them there does not make for exciting fights. Note:

 

Joe vs. Luke was exciting, not saying that one fits in this category, was just using it as an example from my limited knowledge.

[Guest Brian]

The guy on top gets a lot of credit, unfortunately at times, for being in control.

[AboveAverage484 0]

The guy on top gets a lot of credit, unfortunately at times, for being in control.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's pretty easy to judge who won a fight in UFC. Take the amount of time spent on top, and there's your winner.

 

It's a little harder in Pride, where they give more balance, but generally speaking the top is where you want to be most of the time.

[razazteca 0]

So I guess nonstop punching but not connecting > attempting submissions.

[Lei Tong 0]

So I guess nonstop punching but not connecting > attempting submissions.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Invariably.

 

Hell, doing nothing from up top usually scores more than effective guard work, as in...

 

...Charuto giving a textbook example of what should have been a 10-8 round due to effective submission attempts from the guard.

 

Charuto would lose a unanimous decision, which included two scores of 30-27 for Hughes.

[razazteca 0]

More points for getting out of submissions?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Yep. Getting out of submissions means more than apply the submission. See, the person who applied the submission FAILED to get a tap out, and the person who was in the hold SUCCEEDED in getting out of it.

[starvenger 0]

It's pretty easy to judge who won a fight in UFC.  Take the amount of time spent on top, and there's your winner.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe it's me, but I think that being seated right at ringside is not the best place for judges to watch the fight. They're looking up at a slight angle, so it's hard to see some of the work from the bottom that you can see on TV.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

That's why they also have moniters.

[starvenger 0]

Glimpses of the judges seem to indicate that they don't use them.

[Lei Tong 0]

Since the move is still miscalled in pro wrestling...

 

Toe-Hold: Most often used from a "kneebar" position (the opponent's head facing the opposite direction as the user's, with one of their legs caught in between the user's along the front side of the user's body). The user will grab the side of the opponent's captured foot along near the toes (on the side opposite of their big toe) with the hand opposite of the attacking leg (right for left, left for right). Meanwhile, they'll wrap their other arm around the leg near the opponent's achilles tendon, eventually grabbing their own wrist. From there, they'll twist the foot away from themselves while trying to keep the rest of the leg and body stabilized, OR, they might allow the opponent's leg to bend naturally away from them, following it and eventually pressing the leg down towards, and eventually a bit off to the side of the opponent's back.

 

The opponent's non-trapped leg can also be attacked, with the attacking and wrapping arms being reversed. Like many leglocks, the move is most often started from half guard, though it can also be combined with an omo-plata.While it can be used from standing position, it is nigh impossible to finish from that position unless the opponent's legs are at least somewhat grapevined (like in Doerkson/Inoue).

 

Frank Mir begins to lock a toe-hold on Tank Abbott.

[starvenger 0]

Let's not even get into the physics and nomenclature of wrestling here...

[AboveAverage484 0]

I think the reason why people get the toe hold confused with other moves is because it isn't really an attack focused on the feet but on the lower shin.

[KingPK 0]

Define for me the different types of guards. I hear about half guard, open guard and full guard. What's the difference?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Full Guard is when the guy on the bottom has his legs around the guy on the top and the feet are locked together. Open Guard is when the feet are unlocked. Half guard is when both legs are grapevined around the opponents one leg. Then there is the butterfly guard, which was mentioned before. There's the guard where you triangle the body. And there's the rubber guard where you put your legs way up on your opponents back/shoulders.

[Lei Tong 0]

Technically, raising your guard high up on an opponent's body is simply called "climbing."

 

Rubber Guard: Usually done from full guard, the user will usually use their own hand(s) to raise one leg very high up on an opponent's body. From my limited exposure to it, the guard seems meant to combat those who play a very tight game in opponent's guard, where usually an active open guard is shut down due to a lack of space usually needed for "climbing."

 

There's also a "meathook" variation, where the high rubber guard leg is hook behind the knee with the user's own forearm, and there's also a half-butterfly variation that I have seen.

 

Eddie Bravo demonstrates the Rubber Guard.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

So the rubber guard is open? I used to think it was just a high guard as well.

 

Not everyone can do it though, you have to be pretty flexible.

 

Quick question for the BJJ practitioners; I like wrestling and I'm gonna start kickboxing soon. I've been doing BJJ for half a year, but I've come to realize that gi jiu jitsu, while more technical, doesn't seem as realistic. Should I stick with gi to learn all the techniques and try to adapt them to no gi? Or should I just stick with no gi? The thing that I don't like about no gi is that there aren't nearly as many techniques involved, so it's not nearly as technical and you can't use as much. In other words, your book of knowledge isn't so vast, since when most people teach no gi they teach a limited number of things. I just figured that if I learned gi I can have the best of both worlds, in that I learn a ton but apply it without the gi as well (and you can too, rather than just grabbing the collar or sleeve grab a wrist or neck). Any info is appreciated, I'm probably gonna ask about this elsewhere as well.

[Lei Tong 0]

Most people agree that gi training is very useful in regards to no-gi competition if for no other reason than gripping. Very often, competitors end up using force and/or sweat to escape from bad positions or submissions. Since the gi offers an often solid grip for people to use while rolling, you pretty much HAVE to learn the proper escapes and reversal techniques.

 

Also, learning to fight "clothed" opponents is very useful from a self-defense perspective.