True...it's what was nice about Pride's judging system's "theory", except that once in a while they still managed to screw up decisions due to bias or whatever.
Conditioning? Wrestling by a good shot. Take downs? Wrestling by a large amount. Positional advantage? Wrestling by a slim lead. Submissions? Ju Jitsu by a huge amount. But I am predominately wrestling with late coming into Ju Jitsu so I may be biased. We do some cross training and bjj guy (who admittedly is not a bb and is smaller than I am) really has the advantage in submissions but I have the advantage in takedowns and positioning.
I would argue that BJJ has a small but definitely not inconsiderable advantage in positioning due to the guard, half-guard (though that's not a fun place to be against a wrestler, boo crossfacing), its multitude of sweeps using the legs as well as those with direct twins in wrestling, and recognition of dominant positions that aren't side control/scarf hold At practice last night my coach was so frustrated with this promising new former wrestler that had so many chances to take the back against a loosely turtled opponent but instead kept stubbornly working turnovers (and getting caught back in guard for his troubles). Conversely, he got his back taken repeatedly. And was RNC'd standing, I'd never seen that before.
While we all love to believe "the bolded," it just isn't true. The aim of the ground game is to maintain a dominant position for 1% longer than your opponent. MMA USED to be about knocking someone out or submitting them... THEN "rounds" were added... padded gloves... stand up rules... MMA IS now a sport and like allllll sports the goal is to win. SOOOO many fighters are content with simply winning. You see it everywhere. When is the last time you heard,"Man there is too many attempts to pass the guard and press the action when on the ground!"? Instead once a wrestler gets a takedown and lands in guard ALL he will do is strike and stay out of submissions. Why? Because he will win.
i know where you're coming from... the gloves making it easier to strike harder without fear of breaking your hand... allowing you to strike more often since you don't have to worry about breaking your hand... and i imagine your right... Though my point was that when the UFC was bought and turned closer to sport... the addition of gloves wasn't intended to cause more knockouts (though some grappling conspiracy theorist believe the management was again them...), they were used to lessen the amount of damage punches would cause... to make MMA look more like (like i've said many times before) a sport... It is just my opinion... but i feel MMA became about "winning" instead of knocking out or submitting your opponent.
UFC rules are responsible. Control is more important than effort to finish the fight in the UFC. One of the big differences making me prefer the ol' Pride rules.
I've always heard that the gloves were introduced to protect hands, not to soften punches. It wouldn't make sense anyway. They don't have enough padding to soften punches. Do you have a source for this?
The biggest problem for a wrestler, at least from my experience, is learning not to give up your back. In wrestling, giving up your back doesn't mean anything. The guard is a foreign concept because the one thing you never, ever want to do is put your back on the mat. But once we get past those points, we tend to control where the fight happens. Or at least that is my limited experience. Please remember that the school I go to only does limited crosstraining in bjj as it is primarily tkd.
All pretty correct. But comparing the positional control of a guy who's wrestled for four years and done BJJ for two to a guy who's done BJJ for two or three (or even four) is not accurate - of course the wrestler would have a definite control advantage. I'd bet than a guy who's done BJJ for six would have control that is better still, from what I've seen of ex-wrestlers in my gym versus pure BJJ guys.
They were added to reduce the damage punches would cause. They reduce the likelyhood of localized trauma that could result in a TKO, allowing more chances for a KO. Now the stand up rules are another matter: They exist to keep people who have no understanding of grappling happy. Facts are that to someone with no experience at grappling it looks like two guys trying to dry hump and you can hear them in the stands booing everytime a fight goes to the ground. That said, when it's turning into a total "lay and pray" situation I see nothing wrong with doing something to re-kindle the action. If no attempts to submit or gain better position for GNP are being made it's time to stand them up. The audience did not pay to watch the fighters take a coffee break.
Again: where is the source for this? I have always heard that the gloves were introduced to protect the hands.
In MMA they're there to protect the hands. 4oz gloves do damn near nothing to reduce impact. In controlled sparring with full sized boxing/MT glove, I really don't care if I get hit unless it's particularly hard and on just the right spots. With MMA gloves, i don't want to get hit, period, light contact or no.
Why is this so? Because they are less protective then 12oz gloves but getting hit with 4oz gloves beats getting hit bare knuckle. The participants have mouth guards so the real danger to the hands is already been dealt with. Nothing will rip your hands up like teeth. Technically the gear does protect the hands of the striker but moreso it protects the face of his opponent. Given the choice I'd rather be the guy who eff'd up his hands punching someone then the guy who's face he eff'd them up on.
only kinda...for a guy like me who is old and competed when the sport was growing. here are a few things the gloves at first were to protect the punchers fist.....most were just bag gloves. i remeber being in the dressing room with jeff ford once. and he was wearing a pair of bag gloves that the leather and padding was about smashed flat....they looked like he had been pounding on a heavy bag with them since he was 15. i was like"they are letting you use these???!!!" now the glove padding had gotten much better and even protects the guy getting hit. and the training ones are even better(and a lot of lower level comps are using them now)
