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I understand very well the skill involved in intelligent Western boxing but I've always had almost zero interest in watching it it other than being enthralled by Ali when I was a kid (and still an admirer of his....also, I sometimes surprise myself with how compelling 'boxing movies' can be, even if a good number of them share many familiar plot points). I never wanted to learn how to box, either, although when I first sparred against a skilled boxer and he bloodied my nose I realized that my martial arts training to that point hadn't prepared me so well to face such an opponent.
I can't stand MMA as a subculture -- as a concept it's okay because it's no different in base philosophy, style-wise, than what Bruce Lee was saying in the '60s and what the Shaolin and other fighters were doing thousands of years ago, which is basically taking what worked and mixing stuff up. The reason I have a fairly visceral reaction to MMA is twofold, I think: (i) I first saw it emerge in something like its current form with the first UFC bouts, and was disgusted by the attitudes on display and (ii) I'm a traditional martial artist, primarily in Chinese styles. The second informs the first, really.
I have no doubt that many MMA enthusiasts are great fighters, but I have long resented them being lumped in with martial artists because it seemed (and here I admit that my views on this are based in the '90s MMA explosion, and for all I know now MMA types tend to be less objectionable in this respect) that they tend to be at odds with the most important aspects promoted by traditional martial arts of the Asian traditions, basically the majority of what people understand as 'martial arts' that can ultimately trace its origins back to Shaolin, Wudang, or older sources. There were practical reasons why those old dead Chinese dudes codified a system of behavior and philosophy to go along with the physical form of their martial arts, and without that tradition (humility being a big one) it's just fighting. As I said, some loudmouth braggart of a UFC type may well be a fearsome fighter, may well be more formidable than many true masters of traditional martial arts, but being a blowhard meataxe who can rip the beating heart out of an opponent has little to do with martial arts -- traditional martial arts evolved from practical necessity but, ultimately, what the fighting arts became had less to do with actual fighting than might be expected. That's especially so now when, for a great many situations in which you'd actually have to defend your life or somebody else's, traditional martial arts have little or no direct relevance (physically, I mean...the mental and emotional, and even spiritual, benefits of martial arts training could still make all the difference and, of course, in a hopeless situation in which you're literally outgunned, it's perhaps better to have a minuscule chance than no chance at all).
So there you go. Basically, I'm offended by the attitude of a great many MMA practitioners. Again, I may be mired in a misunderstanding based on the early days of the movement here in the US, but because of my job and where I do it I've had a lot of recent contact with MMA fans and exponents and the predominant vibe seems to be a hyper-testosterone-charged egofest based on the ability to cause physical pain (I have to say, though, that I've met some actual fighters and for the most part they do seem pretty decent, at least 'offstage'). The braggadocio fit Ali well, but I have a problem with it being applied to disciplines with roots in arts for which such behavior was anathema (yep, when Gracie jiujitsu was all the rage the BJJ proponents were every bit as bad, and led the way in establishing the tone). It's an extremely American thing -- as in Ugly American -- and it just makes my skin crawl. 'Regular' martial arts, beyond the MMA realm, has suffered enough in this country in terms of too many 'karate' (usually Tae Kwon Do) schools being belt mills, where you pay your money and you get your pretty colored belt and an unearned boost to the self esteem (ego), and in terms of instructors -- usually of spurious lineage -- who set themselves up so as to feed their egos and wallets in similar proportion while promoting the new, Americanized, anti-humble martial arts in which it's survival of the fittest, baby. No mercy.
One thing I think MMA did in the '90s (well, UFC, anyway) was hint that a lot of fights end up on the ground. That's likely true, despite the fact that those events tended to be skewed toward a BJJ win. I've never been very adept at groundfighting -- wrestling, anyway -- even before I started formal martial arts training. I could probably benefit from exploring that aspect of fighting more but, really, it's never interested me at all and I never did get into martial arts in the first place to become a fighter or adept at self-defense. I've since spent a lot of time training to fight, of course (I mean, beyond the basics...specialized fight training, and so on) but the emphasis has always been on staying off the ground, takedowns and the like aside, and using angles, strikes, and chin na (nerve attacks and the like, and grappling). Basically, my strategy in a real street fight would be to explode and knock the hell out of the bad guy as quickly and efficiently as possible, relying on speed to not let him get a grip on me, and then flee the scene. I'm strong and fast, with long arms and legs, and I have a lot of advantages because I'm big but learned how to fight like a small person, infighting included, with my prime weakness being not much in the way of defense against a wrestler other than hoping I'm fast enough and elusive enough to avoid their grip. Wrestlers are my Kryptonite, my only consolation being that if you don't go near a wrestler you're not going to get locked up by one....again, proof that the ultimate martial art is either not to be there at the time (tai chi's central tenet, if you ask me) or to get really good at running. I'd likely be at a significant disadvantage on the ground, against a dedicated wrestler or very good MMA fighter (and, by the way, I DID end up on the ground in a real fight, and almost lost the advantage I'd pushed that took the mofo down in the first place because he was one strong SOB and it took a lot of additional pain infliction before I could get him to loosen his grip and let me get back to my feet). But, again, that's not the point...self-defense ability is a decided bonus of what I've studied, and I'm arguably equipped to handle more than the average person, but if I really wanted to defend myself in this day and age I need to be toting a gun rather than relying on my Fists of Fury. Besides, I have had cause to use my martial arts skills a good numbe rof times in this town, as a result of my work here, and every time the end result was defusing a situation without anyone losing blood or body parts. Again, I'm not denying the proficiency of well-trained MMA types in a fight, I'm just far from being a fan of the kind of attitude that seems too prevalent in those circles, at least in this country.
Given that I've gone on about this way more than intended, I should probably additionally note that I'm not only not averse to MMA but have trained in mixtures of systems that, although not organized under the MMA label, are essentially the same. For example, one of my prime teachers taught me five-animals style kung fu as the core of my training but along the way he also taught me at least some of the elements of mok gar, wing chun, seven-star mantis, and related styles, and in the special fighting classes he included inputs from many other martial approaches (boxing included) assimilated by him and by his teachers -- basically, it wasn't JKD but it looked a lot like it, yet another example of inevitable convergence. Same with another teacher I had who primarily taught me Fukien white crane but also threw in a bit of the very complementary hsing-i, pakua, Chen tai chi, and Wah Lum mantis. Yet another instructor taught me northern Shaolin (the Ku Yu Cheung tradition) but included Wah Lum mantis, older Shaolin forms, and - in the fighting classes that were perhaps the most intense physical exercise I've ever endured (anyone who's studied martial arts at all might appreciate what that means) -- a personal style that drew heavily on the Goju-ryu and other hard-core karate that he'd originally done and that was the style of his local associates but that basically mixed up everything into one pretty amazing mix. One of his senior students also taught us some of the basics of Israeli krav maga, a MMA if ever there was one. Heck, look at my own martial arts résumé and (unfortunately, in that I tend to move to another part of the world just when things start getting interesting in the style) it's a fairly eclectic mix that includes everything from tae kwon do and tang soo do to white eyebrow (nasty stuff!) kung fu, and if I have a personal fighting style it's inevitably informed by everything I've learned...it's a MMA! And, yeah, I love training to fight and light- to full-contact sparring, even if there're an awful lot of things that really are (some MMA types seem to scoff at this kind of assertion) too dangerous to roll out for anything but the literal fight to the death. But, to me, fighting's a series of high-speed problem-solving exercises (when you get the answer wrong, you get whacked) and not something to be sought in 'real life,' and it takes a definite back seat to the empty-hand and weapons forms that are the heart and soul of traditional martial arts. Then there're all the intangibles, the parts of it all that count the most (internally), and to some extent that may be perhaps best understood by training in martial arts yourself.
As I said, conceptually I think MMA is not only eminently sensible but is inevitable and the only real way to maintain an effective fighting system (or non-system). 'Traditional' does not and should not mean fixed, or static. I kind of appreciate having a relatively entrenched starting point, in the forms and so on, but the martial arts are and always have been dynamic and even in the most 'traditional' styles you'll find considerable drift and divergence from what was taught hundreds or thousands of years ago. You just need to look at Jeet Kune Do (and Jun Fan, or whatever) to see the inherent difficulties in systematizing an open-source personal fighting approach though, and JKD has been afflicted with some of the factionalism that's particularly apparent in wing chun and in the remnants of the late, great Ed Parker's kenpo system (in most cases because ego or profit got in the way...good luck to martial arts instructors in making ANYTHING from their efforts, fiscally, but we all know some are in it for the money and engage in predatory practices to realize that goal). Even 'traditional' systems like those I've studies ultimately lead to a personal style within each student that, if they ever start their own school, will result in differences from the source being amplified with each generation of students, even if only as a natural consequence of emphasis on the parts of the art that fit the individual instructor's temperament and body (and, of course, sometimes THEIR teachers change what they teach as they grow older). Bruce Lee, as one example, merely accelerated this natural process within his own life by consciously mixing styles that, although hardly fixed (as revealed by the insistence of a multitude of Yip Man's students who claim to hold the keys to the only true wing chun style, all of them noticeably different), were evolving very gradually. He didn't come from nowhere; he came from a background of traditional arts. And if his is essentially a MMA system, or set of systems (concepts, really), I think it's interesting how his students are not known for being self-aggrandizing blowhards who loudly proclaim their superiority. Going back beyond Bruce, Wong Long, the alleged founder of the original mantis style, was adept at Shaolin kung fu (not a very specific term, I hasten to add: Shaolin, even within the original northern temple, was analogous to a university of martial arts and family and regional styles from all over China ended up there and were mixed and refined...MMA!) and was said to base his mantis style on the footwork of apes and the handwork of the mantis. Similarly, further back in the mists of time, Yue Fei mixed ancient military styles with other source, including a monk's style named faan tzi, to create for the battlefield the eagle claw system that's still practiced today. MMA is old news. It works. And if it doesn't, it adapts to work. I just don't like the concessions that've lately been made to Americans' apparent need to loudly proclaim how 'bad' they are...even if they are.
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