No internal martial artists in ufc?

I respect internal martial arts, i have sparred with a guy who fights with hsing i, and i got my ass handed to me(In africa)

But why dont we see any of these warriors in the UFC or other full contact fights?

 

I think it's a bit of a combination. The IMA community tends to look down on people who are too flashy in their IMA teaching/ability - the culture is people should know you are a great fighter.. if you advertise yourself too much you're obviously no good. Also, there isn't a hugely competitive culture in the training of IMA. There are no belts (although there are some indoor/outdoor traditions) and the atmosphere in class is usually a cooperative one.

That may be a good or a bad thing. Because there's no freestyle sparring in traditional IMA training, the schools tend not to compete in these competitions, and many students of these styles don't get as confident of their abilities as they may do in an external style (especially if they don't have any fighting experience before).

If there is free sparring, it tends to be where both students are trying to use IMA techniques. That's not a good training method for open competition. Also, because there's a bit of a stigma among IMA stylists about external styles (and the other way around), there's not much opportunity to try your style in a friendly sparring environment (unless it's with a friend who happens to do an external style).

Also, the IMA teachers will say it's because IMA has a health/healing philosophy behind it, and no "real" IMA practitioner would go into these competitions.

Oh, and some folks say that once someone becomes an IMA master, they're serenely confident in their abilities and "don't need to prove anything to anybody".

 

I agree with almost everything you said except for the above.This, in my experience is a modern misconception promoted for various reasons.Schools of the early 20th century China regularly had full contact training.I would go so far as to say that any school serious about improvement and function had regular full contact training.

 

Where I train at some guys do internal while others do external styles but when it comes to sparring everyone spars together. In effect I would say those internal guys do have full contact sparring.

 

Where I train at some guys do internal while others do external styles but when it comes to sparring everyone spars together. In effect I would say those internal guys do have full contact sparring.

Well, i also guess its 'maturaraty' or a clubs 'atmosphere' counts. I mean, if you look at the first ufc, nobody was in there in any karate or kung-fu style that was above 3rd dan.
Also most of these guys were from north america,the best internal martial artsits are from thier home countries are they not?

 

Let me add my two $$.

In my Taiji group (Chen style) we always finish our lesson by applying the art to fighting.

Anyway in mainland China there are regular SanShou Boxing competitions on stage where Taiji fighters compete. There are also open competitions to all MA regardless of style.


Regards.

 

Maybe not the UFC, but Tim Cartmell who is a very accomplished Hsing-I, Pakua and Tai Chi Ch'uan Instructor is also a very highly ranked Brasilian Jiu Jitsu practioner and regularly competes at World Level.

 

DISCAIMER: I use the quote purely as an example and not as a slight on anyone.

I get the impression that any internal martial artist that would enter UFC would probably have a background in another style, a more 'external' style. So the question would then be, does he follow the principles of his IMA training? Or just mash the guy with his other knowledge? How could we tell?

there is a story, not totally unrelated to this.
In Taiwan there was a taiji student who entered a competition (taiji push-hands I think). He lost, very quickly. He asked his teacher why.
The teacher's response was along the lines of the following:
As soon as you entered the competition, you gave up your fearlessness to suffer loss. This made you tense up mentally/physically. That is why you lost.

Well, I thought it was related anyway!

 

Because the UFC is only for meatheads that can hit hard.

 

I wouldn't say that! They might beat me up!
*sound of someone running away to hide under the sofa*

 

I don't really think "meathead" is a term I would use for polite discussion and open-minded sahring of ideas.

 

Stop trolling please.

 

Jeez. I'm not trolling, I'm just stating my views, how does someone with almost 1000 posts just troll around. Have some faith.
I don't think internal MAists are interested in competing in the UFC, because the UFC is mainly targeted at external martial artists it seems. You can see most of the UFC competitors are heavily muscled.

 

Yes - you can give your opinion. But please do so without referring to dedicated athletes as "meatheads."

 

Me neither.

 

I was called "nerdy", ... I mean I wasn't a dedicated student by any means ... but I never took offense ... guess you just never know what offends some people

 

There are a couple things going on. As people suggested, may IMA schools have all but totally eschewed any form of sparring beyond stylized push hands. I think this is one of the unforuntate legacies of Cheng Man-Ching.

However thereare people like Su Dong Chen and Peter Ralston who actively used IMA in full contact fighting. It can be done. The UFC, at least back in the day, was a pretty hand picked event. I would be surprised if they thought to approach any IMA folks (notice the fact they also failed to approach Judoka... hmmm I wonder why that was).

- Matt

 

Remco Pardoel? UFC2?

 

Yes all MMA fighters are 'meatheads'.

Funny, because the guys in the lower weight classes usually have very little muscle and rely more on technique. BTW, small guys don't fight 'meatheads', they fight other small guys. That's the point of weight classes, so people don't use size as an excuse like it seems you are.

Also, this internal vs. external debate is getting severely annoying. All they mean is where they were developed. Internal= inside China. External= either outside of China or inside China but with external influence (shaolin styles supposedly had Indian influence, etc). It just so happens that the 'internal' styles are all taoist in nature (because if they were Buddhist in nature, they would be considered 'external' lol).

You guys should know this better than me, but internal styles aren't all meditation and qi gong. They have stances. They have footwork. They have strikes. Those things allow you to fight, don't make excuses about how "UFC is mainly for external stylists". MMA isn't racist, it allows Chinese styles too!

Oh and all this stuff about how internal stylists don't care about competing because they have nothing to prove is BS. The style doesn't change the persons personality. "Meatheads" can do tai chi, too.

I'm sorry to say this, but some of the replies so far have sounded like excuses.

 

Yeah i agree, UFC fighters ARE skilled fighers, ALL of them.