On this week’s edition of Pondering Thoughts we’re going to go through the pros and cons of each major martial art. In Mixed Martial Arts there are 4 main pillars that everyone must have some experience in. The Pillars are Boxing, Muay Thai (Kickboxing), Wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ).
We’re going to start with Boxing. Some boxers consist of Dustin Poirier, Petr Yan, Max Holloway, and Sean O’Malley. Boxing is great for measuring distance, knockout shots, and punches that can set up kicks or takedowns. However, when you’re trying to keep your hands and box the opponent can take you down or chop you down with calf kicks. An example of this is when Sean O’Malley went against Marlon Vera and suffered a TKO loss due to a leg kick shutting off a nerve.
Next up is Muay Thai fighters. Demitrious Johnson, Edson Barboza, Jose Aldo, and Rodtang are all examples of Muay Thai fighters. Thai fighters try to close the distance and land devastating knees or elbows. They can also pick you apart with leg kicks and spinning kicks and roundhouses. Going up against a Thai fighter you’re going to want to close the distance, do not get your leg kicked from under you and try to wrestle and submit him.
Third up is wrestlers such as, Islam Makhachev, Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington, and Brandon Moreno. Wrestlers want to take you down and maul you and there’s really nothing you can do, as wrestlers have the best cardio and can just spam takedowns. Unless you have good takedown defense and keep the fight standing then you could finish him. We’ve actually seen a recent example of a Muay Thai fighter vs a Wrestler, Alexander Volkanovski VS Islam Makhachev. Alexander stuffed multiple takedowns and knocked down Islam Makhachev with his striking.
Last one is BJJ. Charles Olivera, Renato Moicano, Nate Diaz, and Tony Ferguson are all BJJ experts. In this martial art it’s similar to wrestling where it’s grappling, but they’re trying to get positions where they can take your neck or one of the joints in your body and submit you. The cons of this are if you only know jiu jitsu you’re very beatable as they’ll just keep the fight standing.
This was the Pros and Cons of each martial art in MMA.