Why are Muay Thai and BJJ the go-to martial arts for MMA?

Discussion in 'MMA' started by Vinny Lugo, Nov 6, 2016.

  1. Vinny Lugo

    Vinny Lugo Valued Member

    Why is that 99% of the time when you hear the term mixed martial arts it seems that they mix Muay Thai and BJJ? Why is it almost always these two styles?
     
  2. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    Why do you repeatedly start threads stating things like they are facts when they are not?

    I do not accept your premise for this thread.

    MMA has other styles commonly in the mix as well. Boxing and wrestling come to mind. Many other styles are often a regular part of MMA. As discussed before, there are prominent Karate and TKD guys. Judo would be in the mix as well. And when I say wrestling, there are several different types of wrestling included in that.

    Add to that that you will see common moves that are in many many martial arts. A roundhouse kick belongs to most striking styles that have kicks at all. There were a couple of amazing KO's with a simple front snap kick a few years ago. I think Rogan said something about that being the first kick most people learn in a MA.
     
  3. Vinny Lugo

    Vinny Lugo Valued Member

    Look at the vast majority of MMA schools. The most commonly mixed styles for MMA are MT and BJJ.
     
  4. Simon

    Simon Administrator Admin Supporter MAP 2017 Koyo Award

    Are you sure.

    As aaradia says many of use kicks borrowed from Thai and it's the same for the elbows.

    Just because an art has these two components doesn't mean it's Muay Thai.

    I get annoyed by arts that think they teach boxing because they have punches in their syllabus.
     
  5. Vinny Lugo

    Vinny Lugo Valued Member

    But boxing and wrestling are also very common
     
  6. Vinny Lugo

    Vinny Lugo Valued Member

    Okay maybe it's not 99% of the time, but the with the majority of MMA schools I have come across these are the go to styles to combine
     
  7. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    Styles practiced by Current and past UFC champs- just from wikipedia to be able to do a quick search. So it may not be a perfect list. And not a complete listing of everything they study for sure, but to give you an idea of the various styles that UFC champs study and have studied.

    Not saying MT and BJJ aren't an integral part of MMA, they obviously are. Just that MMA is more encompassing than those two arts as you are claiming.


    Dominick Cruz- Boxing and Wrestling

    GSP - Kyokushin (karate), BJJ,, Wrestling, Boxing Muay Thai

    Jon Jones- wrestler and Judo

    Ronda Rousey - Judo (olympic medalist)

    Stipe Miocic- Boxing and wrestling

    Joanna Jedzejczyk - Muay Thai, boxing and kickboxing

    Daniel Cormier- former Olympic Wrestler

    Michael Bisping- Karate, Wrestling, BJJ, Jujitsu

    Demetrious Johnson- Pankration, Wrestling, Catch Wrestling, MT

    Shogun Rua- MT and BJJ- now trains in boxing and wrestling

    Anderson Silva - boxing, MT, BJJ, Judo, TKD, Cappoira, Wrestling

    Conor McGregor- BJJ,TKD, Wrestling (just listed having a "striking" coach too- no style)

    Lyoto Machida - Shotokan Karate, BJJ, MT , Cappoira, Sumo

    Chuck Liddell - American Kempo, Koei- Kan Karate, Wresting, kickboxing,

    Cain Velasquez - Kickboxing, Wrestling, BJJ

    Matt Hughes- Amateur wrestling, Submission wrestling, Catch wrestling

    Do I need to go on?

    MMA is NOT just BJJ and MT- two of the biggest influences, yes. Not disputing that. Just that it is more than those two for sure.
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2016
  8. Vinny Lugo

    Vinny Lugo Valued Member

    Ok then we are in agreement.
     
  9. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    If you have changed your mind from your original post, then yes.

    To remind you of your original assertion in your OP

    Note- your whole original post was about MMA being "TWO styles." I am glad you see that was incorrect now.
     
  10. Vinny Lugo

    Vinny Lugo Valued Member

    So I agree that it's not 99% of MMA schools. That was an extreme exaggeration. But I still cling to the belief that out of all the combos, it's the most common mix.
     
  11. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    Boxing, Thaiboxing, wrestling (Greco/freestyle/folkstyle) and 'BJJ are the most common base arts for MMA because they are proven effective and because there is already a significant skill base in those arts amongst competitors, meaning you need to know them in order to deal with them.

    In addition to this people bring in their own flavours and training backgrounds due to their own competitive history such as TKD, sanda, Catch wrestling, karate, JKD etc. In addition to this, people like to branch out into other areas to develop an edge.
     
  12. bassai

    bassai onwards and upwards ! Moderator Supporter

    Training methodology , Mt and bjj both train primarily for competition , so fit right in.
    Though , as others have pointed out , pretty much any ma can be made to work with the correct training focus.
     
  13. Vinny Lugo

    Vinny Lugo Valued Member

    I guess what I'm talking about is that sure there are people that have trained in other arts that have mixed those arts together and now fight in the ring with those arts. However, I think it would be quite hard to find for example a Tae Kwon Do and BJJ gym or like a Hapkido and wrestling school.
     
  14. Matt F

    Matt F Valued Member

    I think it's not so much about the name of the style, more about how humans move and what can and cannot be done during a specific rule set.
    So when it comes to Muay Thai, what you see is what works and how best to move when striking to almost any target with feet/shin , fist, knees and elbows and being able to clinch and standing grapple, hand fight (with gloves) etc.
    All over the indochinese area in places like Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam , Laos they fight under the same or similar rules and have all come to the same conclusions. It all looks and is trained similar. It's just how humans move in that context.

    If any other style decided to change its competitive ruleset to to allow the same thing, it would, over time come to the same conclusions and look similar.

    So because MMA is allowing all that striking,plus grappling, it is better to take reference from the most evolved and effective style or styles in their specific areas, than try to spend a ton of time catching up and finding out through trial and error what those styles already know.
    Want the best?
    Go to the best.
    Even then they have to be tweaked and tactically combined for MMA.
     
  15. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    The pillars of MMA are BJJ, Muay Thai, BJJ, Boxing and Wrestling.

    They are the base for a lot of fighters. There are no two ways around that. However, that was done out of necessity. Those were the arts that were very well proven and people knew worked in an open format.

    Now it is a different story. People know better how to mic their styles and you could potentially have none of these as a base art. Karate and Sambo for instance, or JKD and Catch Wrestling (a popular combination).

    I myself consider CSW and JunFan kickboxing to be more relative a base for me than muay thai and BJJ in the context of MMA for instance.

    Now I've been thinking about starting a blog on these subjects as they interest me.
     
  16. raaeoh

    raaeoh never tell me the odds

    Reality is most mma fighters don't claim a specific art any more. They go by mixed martial artist. The best Bits and peice from all aplicable arts.

    At my gym most who start have no experince. They do karate aimed at mma. 1 x a week. Mostly kicks. Boxing for mma 1x a week and a mix of grappling aimed at mma one time a week. None of these people have trained in any style but some will go on to fight at least once. In a styled called mixed martil arts.
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2016
  17. icefield

    icefield Valued Member

    Whilst this is true back in the day when mma was NHB there was no dominate art it was a free for all, boxing and Thai became the striking arts of choice, wrestling the stand up grappling art of choice, and bjj the overwhelming choice for ground work becuase they, well proved they worked.

    Other arts fell by the wayside because they clearly were inferior to the above.

    My pet peeve is when someone lists a champ as having done tkd or karate or such and such in their youth as validation that art works in mma and thus is useful, nope when they were growing up that's all that was available the vast majority of the time they have extensive experience in Thai and boxing now and use the occasional technique from their old arts but that's it. It's not where they come from when there was nothing else available that's important it's what they spend their time in training to get good for the cage now that's important
     
  18. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    Yeah I completely agree.

    I just meant to say that despite the disparate twist flavours and backgrounds everyone trains the staples for a reason.
     
  19. icefield

    icefield Valued Member

    Yep sorry wasn't really aiming it at you! Was agreeing with you and then speaking to others on the thread
     

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