Introduction to MMA
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A sport that began with an uncommon amount of early resistance, mixed martial arts has evolved from fairly messy brutality to a combat-sport that’s more than the sum of its components; the “which combat-sport is best” period of MMA (its early tournament days, where Royce Gracie showed the merits of jiu-jitsu to the masses) has given way to an era where every truly skilled competitor has some competence in every area, and the most unique exchanges in the sport are the ones that don’t reside purely in striking nor in grappling but as a mixture of the two (which is impossible to witness in other sports, at least legally). While purists of any individual art might be shocked at the low level of most disciplines in MMA in a vacuum (and that’s a legitimate criticism), MMA also allows development of certain areas in a way that both pure-striking and pure-grappling sports do not.
An interesting lens through which to view that development is the clinch, an area that is used in a number of sports with different contexts; wrestling features the underhook/overhook and the bodylock more prominently than a sport like Muay Thai does, for instance, where Muay Thai uses more collar-ties and frames to create opportunities for knees and elbows in close quarters. The best parts of MMA aren’t just watching these conflicting philosophies challenge one another (a great example being much of dos Anjos against Covington, where a relentless American wrestler’s attempts at consolidating control positions faced a crafty Thai-style clincher’s strikes on the inside), but also in how one fighter can meld both schools of thought together to create something more viable than each part; Jon Jones’ clinch game, for instance, has the influences from his base as a wrestler, but also has elbowing from an infighting position more reminiscent of boxing than anything else, and each component informs the other. That level of interplay is unique among combat sports, and creates a metagame that’s similarly different. There are very successful fighters who have structured much of their games around striking-to-grappling and grappling-to-striking transitions (such as the great Frankie Edgar and current top contender Leon Edwards), a sort of style that cannot exist in a sport that isn’t MMA.
As a fairly young sport (at least in an organized fashion; the Ultimate Fighting Championship only came together about a quarter-century ago), MMA doesn’t have the centuries-long history that a sport such as boxing does, but arguably the most exciting part about following the sport is that genuine leaps are happening all the time. Not only are there talents coming up who are training specifically for MMA as opposed to its sub-disciplines (creating a more broadly skilled field better-versed in using MMA’s unique quirks), each individual discipline is also gaining more skilled representatives. Even a fighter like Jose Aldo, truly and deeply skilled in every area of fighting, eventually found a nightmare matchup in Max Holloway (one of the best boxers in MMA), and Holloway found a man to beat him just a few fights later in Dustin Poirier; even the greatest are consistently finding equals, and that can be ascribed to the sport itself exploding in talent like few others (even with crossovers from other sports, such as elite-level kickboxing import Israel Adesanya). Even the strongest crossovers find issues in imposing their game due to the aforementioned nature of MMA, where striking and grappling bleed into one another (such as Olympic Silver medalist Yoel Romero getting outwrestled by Robert Whittaker), but the bottom line is that the skill level of the sport is increasing consistently, both in terms of individual components and in terms of being a cohesive unit. There is no better time to follow this sport.