Should Kung fu be in the UFC?

Question

I keep hearing that Because Certain fighters like Machida for example have a Heavy Karate back ground their different striking makes them Extremely deadly.

This leads me to believe that the Chinese kung fu needs to be used in these fights because it has so many angles, surprises and differences that aren't used in the UFC, since apparently that is such a large advantage.

Answer 1

Any martial artists using any type of style can get in as long as they can win like Machida did. Machida, with the Karate background got in because he kept winning. And so did Chuck Liddell who practices Kenpo.

Answer 2

To the guy that said MMA is to unrealistic to be usefull in real life situations. How about you google Urijah Faber's story about his use of martial arts in real life situations. He's the current featherweight champion of the WEC. He would absolutely destroy any and all c**p-Foo practicioners.

Answer 3

It's not that Kung Fu isn't allowed- it's just that Kung Fu in application is not as efficient as it theoretically should be, and with that, the small number of Kung Fu fighters that have been willing to put their training to use and tried their hands in the MMA world just haven't done all that well.

Long story short, and a dead horse topic further beaten to death, this comes from a few general reasons:

1) Kung Fu practitioners on the whole are generally against cross training, which leaves them extremely vulnerable to anything when it comes to anything from crappling to grappling, which cuts heavily into any theoretical number of Kung Fu fighters that would be able to make it in MMA.

2) A general lack of hard sparring across the board in CMA schools- usually with the same excuse of "our art is too deadly to practice," which again, cuts into the number of viable Kung Fu candidates for MMA.

Now, note that I am not saying that there aren't Kung fu practitioners that crosstrain and spar full contact often, but I'm saying that there just aren't enough in that selection pool that are good enough to go against high end competition.

That being said, I absolutely love my sparring sessions with my hardcore Wing Chun and Hung Gar using friends, so please don't think that I'm just here to try and bash Kung Fu- just providing a little more realistic grip on the subject, which has been brought up a million times before.

*note* - there are Kung Fu-using MMA practitioners, just so you know. Just none that have been good enough to have been signed by the big promotions.

Answer 4

its legal no one uses it not real realistic with soiem of the strikes to land on basis needed for UFc

Answer 5

What makes Machida "extremely deadly" in my opinion is that he's a tactician.  Anyone who's ever read the Art of War will realize quickly that Machida knows his strategies.  He often eludes opponents, frustrating them, missed punches use far more energy than landed punches, as well as sap the morale of a fighter.  He picks his strikes very carefully and when he needs to he'll open up on a fighter in order to steal the round.

His fight awareness is phenomenal, he always seems to know what he needs to do to win a fight and do so with the least amount of energy.  However, this leads him to be a bit boring as there's not much that's as exciting as two guys standing toe to toe trading punches.

Answer 6

cung le has trained in san shou, vietnamese kung fu, and shuai jiao.  Kung fu styles are very efefctive, ive bee using more xing yi lately, kung fu has grappling styles like shai jiao and chin Na, but learning some bjj and having the basic strikes from san shou really compliment a kung fu fighter. Ifa kung fu practicioner goes into MMA and does well, and dana likes him, he has a good shot in the ufc. Jason delucia and charles wilson are two good examples of decent kung fu fighters as well, but its up to you

Answer 7

If it wins the fight it will be in the UFC but most obviously if its entertaining it will also.

can kung fu beat Randy Couture.  didnt think so :)  just kidding of course

Answer 8

karate is notably different from gong fu.

although they have the same origin, most styles of karate are unchanging and the techniques are not revised and adapted from master to student to master to student.

gong fus have been adapted and continue to be adapted since its conception in china as meditative stretching excercises (yoga-like tai chi type movements)

gong fu is not a fighting style but it is a way of life, it is a way of life whose philosophical ideas would never lead a kung fu student to fight in a UFC match.

aswell as that, UFC is wholely unrealistic combat and gong fu is trained for realistic circumstances.

for one, you are trapped in a cage.. this is the first unrealism

secondly, you must both be aggressors, whereas in REAL life you can wait for an attack and take advantage of their opening. (UFC fighters cant do this it is called stalling)

thirdly, (for the idiot who said kung fu isnt effective) grappling and ground fighting can be effective if used right, but against a Gong fu man in real life you would not last

your eyes would be gouged out, your windpipe smashed, the back of your neck smashed, etc etc you get the point

gong fu is about survival in a real combat scenario. going to the ground in a REAL street fight is the WRONG thing to do mainly because if there is one other person coming at you, and yo uare on the ground. its goodnight for you!! stompy stomp on your head you poor MMA boy :-(

Answer 9

Sure, i reckon Kung Fu could get in the UFC...but only if the fighter cross-trained with other arts.

But seeing as Kung Fu practitionors don't like cross-trainiing, then they'd get pummled in the whole GNP techniques

Answer 10

There are probably fighters in the UFC that at some point in their lives trained in Kung Fu, Karate or other traditional martial arts, and do apply some of that knowledge in competition.

Answer 11

chinese martial arts HAVE been in the ufc, namely UFC #2.

jason delucia lost to royce gracie.

google the fight.

the problem back then was that delucia (nor anyone) could compete with the gracies at that time because they did not train in grappling and groundfighting as a result they had no means to effectively defend against it.

it is not unreasonable to say that at some point we will see a practitioner whose striking game is completely made up of CMA, however he would need to have some background in groundfighting and grappling beyong chin na.

the problem also plagues CMA is that many schools are full of it (a disproportionately large number actually) and don't train realistically. this reputation steers MMA hopefulls away from it to more "traditioanlly successfull arts" in the world of MMA.

problem is that there is a decreasing window with which you will see CMA as part of someone's skillset because of this. as more serious practitioners are drawn away from cma because of its bad reputation, then there will be less interest in it and less legit teachers than there are now (and less baloney teachers too).

IMO- cma needs to find some way to "self-regulate" to weed out crappy teachers or aggressively push fighters into the MMA setting to rehab its rep.

EDIT: also there is always the problem of frauds because CMA is so easy to fake in small communities and youth see "wire fu" from jet li and jackie chan and an elevated bruce lee myth and interest comes from there. I practice CMA now, but I came from a different direction after having already trained in other striking arts that I could tell what was c**p and what wasn't- namely boxing, and I didn't even intend to get into it. But IMO if more people took a sportative art first, then branched out, they would be less likely to fall for someone's line of c**p. that goes with any art though not just CMA.

Answer 12

Kung fu is in the UFC, Cung Le trains in the art of San Shou, which is extremely effective :-)