What Is The Most Effective Style For MMA?
MMA stormed to the fighting scene in the early 90s with a mission to find out which fighting style is the best in the world. It didn’t matter if it was karate, boxing, or Muay Thai, all fighters could come in and use a martial art they are good at to win a fight. Or they could mix together various styles to increase their chances of winning.
Matching various styles against each other has given us a lot of interesting answers. Over the years, many styles proved better than others, and some even proved useless in MMA. Of course, in this article, we will focus on the group of styles that have emerged as very useful inside the cage.
But after all those years, we still can’t point out a single martial art and say it is the best fighting style for MMA. The vital question is still up in the air, and it doesn’t seem we are going to find an answer soon.
For now, we have to accept that “the best fighting style for MMA” is a group of martial art styles every fighter needs to be good at to succeed. We are going to explain each fighting style one by one and what makes them so effective.
What are the best fighting styles for MMA?
If we want to find out which fighting style is the best, we have to look closely at the concept of MMA as a sport. First of all, MMA is a sport that includes all three elements of fighting:
👊🏻 Striking/Standup Fighting
💪🏻 Takedowns/Clinch Fighting
🔒 Submissions/Ground Fighting
As we can see, MMA fighting is the closest you can get to legal street fighting. This means they must master only the best striking, grappling, and ground fighting styles. Being a master in a single martial art simply doesn’t work in modern MMA.
You can be the best striker in the world and have elite Muay Thai skills. But the lack of ground game and BJJ skills will backfire on you at some point and vice versa. You may win one or two fights, but the next rival will easily take you down and destroy on the ground.
The thing is, all MMA fighters have a strong background in one particular martial arts style that represents their “Fighting Base”. Once they start training MMA, they add more martial arts styles to their fighting base. For instance, a fighter with a wrestling base must add striking and BJJ skills to his game and vice versa.
Without further ado, let’s look at what are the best fighting styles for MMA and what makes them so useful.
Boxing (Standup/Striking)
Boxing is, perhaps, the most famous fighting style that people often see as the purest form of fighting. When it comes to MMA, some people may think boxing is not so useful as it includes only hand strikes.
What they do not know, however, is that there are many reasons why boxing is also known as the “Sweet Science.” No other fighting style will ever teach you how to punch and move like boxing will.
One of the best things MMA fighters can learn from boxing is footwork. All boxers have great footwork they use to keep the distance, stay out of trouble, or attack the rival. No matter if it is boxing or MMA fighting, good footwork skills can make a ton of difference.
Further, boxing teaches you a really good head movement which is crucial for MMA. Head movement allows you to avoid strikes, create angles, and counter the opponent’s attacks.
And let’s not forget how some “simple” punches like the jab can help a fighter to keep the distance or set up punches. Just ask the former UFC and boxing champ, Holly Holm, how that’s done.
Some of the best MMA fighters actually have a strong background in boxing. Of course, we are speaking about big stars like Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, and Cody Garbrandt.
Muay Thai (Standup/Striking)
Thai boxing is a martial art with perhaps the highest damage per strike ratio. Also known as the “art of eight limbs”, Muay Thai teaches you how to use all limbs to deliver powerful strikes. This includes vicious elbows and knees in the clinch as well as hard kicks.
These strikes can do much damage, especially the elbows that can produce nasty cuts. Further, MMA fighters can also lock their hands around the rival’s head (Thai clinch) and unload with vicious knees to the body. I mean, those knees are very powerful and can empty the opponent’s gas tank very quickly.
Yet, the most useful Muay Thai techniques are, of course, the notorious kicks. A Muay Thai masters in MMA like Edson Barboza usually focus just on chopping your legs until you can’t stand anymore. Just look at how he destroyed Dan Hooker in their bout at UFC on Fox 31. I mean, it’s painful to watch.
Muay Thai is a great base for MMA as well. We saw many great Thai fighters making a transition and enjoying great success. We dare to go even further saying that it is the most important fighting style in modern MMA when it comes to striking. Don’t even think about fighting in MMA if you don’t know how to, at least, defend against the Thai moves.
Wrestling
Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in the world that consists of various takedowns, holds, throws, and many other useful techniques. It also includes a method of hard training and top wrestlers are perhaps the toughest people on the planet.
For many fans and pros, wrestling is the best fighting style for MMA or at least very close to receiving that title. Though this stays open for a debate, we just can’t escape the fact that wrestlers are ruling the modern competition. It is by far the most useful fighting style and here is why.
Wrestlers are experts in bringing the fight to the ground and setting up a strong top position. This is crucial for MMA as it allows you to take total control over the fight and the rival on the bottom. Some great wrestlers can hold their rivals on the ground for the entire fight with ease. And this very important when it comes to how judging works in MMA as well.
Inside the cage, the one who has better wrestling skills can decide where the fight takes place. This is crucial as wrestlers can break the moment or neutralize the skills of their rivals by scoring a takedown.
Further, wrestling also matches well against some other styles like Muay Thai. Their kicks simply don’t work because wrestlers can easily catch or time their kicks and bring them down.
Let’s not forget all wrestlers have cardio for days and how exhausting it is to play their game. It takes a lot of energy to find the way back to your feet, just so they can take you down once again in seconds.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
BJJ is a grappling martial art that is the most useful tool you can use when the fight goes to the ground. Once the fight hits the ground, BJJ fighters use various chokeholds and joint lock to submit the rival or defend. The entire concept behind BJJ is amazing as it allows you to fight and defeat much bigger rivals.
So, it’s not a surprise that BJJ legend Royce Gracie dominated the MMA scene during the early days when there were no rules or even weight classes. From UFC 1 to UFC 5, Royce used BJJ techniques to defeated rivals who were much bigger than him.
Royce put BJJ on the map, and he established it as one of the MMA basics. Today, BJJ still plays a key role in modern competition, and you just can’t expect to succeed without it. Sooner or later, the lack of BJJ will backfire on you.
There have been many world-class BJJ fighters in MMA like Demian Maia or Gilbert Burns. These fighters are simply amazing to watch as they only need to grab a single part of your body to place the submission.
In modern MMA, it’s very hard to find a fighter who doesn’t have BJJ skills or at least don’t attend the classes.
Judo
Judo is a modern, grappling based martial art and Olympic sport since 1964 (men) 1992 (women). Judokas enjoy a lot of success in MMA since their takedown techniques like throws or trips are very useful. Also, Judo is one of the hardest styles to train, and its students are among the strongest people on the planet.
Judo on its own is not that useful in comparison to other similar styles like wrestling. But it is a great technique to mix it with other striking styles or even BJJ.
Let me put it this way; MMA fighters usually don’t attend the judo classes at all. But, judo is a great base for MMA, and judokas can make a quick transition and enjoy great success.
Taekwondo
Admit it or not, Taekwondo is a very useful fighting style for MMA and its fighters are among the most exciting ones. Like Judo, Taekwondo on its own is not that great for MMA. I mean, you can’t step into the MMA match with your hands low and bouncing around. You will get smoked in the opening seconds.
But Taekwondo kicking techniques are, without a doubt, the best out of any other standup martial art. And let’s not forget Taekwondo teaches you how to fight from both sides, which is very important in MMA.
If you still doubt, just take a look at the list of best taekwondo knockouts in MMA we have created. I mean, those are the best in the history of the sport if you ask me. And also, you can find out more about the fighters behind these KOs in our article on the “Best Taekwondo Fighters in MMA” here.
Karate
Karate is one of the most popular styles for self-defense. But when it comes to MMA, people are often arguing whether it’s useful or not. But we can’t deny some of the best fighters have a strong background in karate.
The most famous one, of course, is Lyoto Machida. Lyoto was, in fact, one of the first fighters to use a proper karate stance in MMA and succeed in it. Also, Stephen Thompson is another fighter who fights out of the classic hands’ low karate stance and has amazing footwork.
The thing is, some elements of karate like footwork and movement are great for MMA. But overall, karate isn’t something MMA fighters train along with the four main styles presented earlier.
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