Originally Posted by Uke

Looking back though, when the shit hits the fan like in the first couple of UFC's, karate looked like judo which looked like boxing which looked like kung fu which looked like muay thai which ALL looked like toughman brawling.

What does that tell you?

It says that if a man isn't proficient at what he does, it all looks like the same shit on any given day. In the beginning of NHB events, guys didn't know what to expect. They ran off adrenaline and the idea that they might actually get to kick some ass and win some money doing it. We saw ninjitsu, JKD, karate, kung fu, muay thai, savate, and TKD. These guys all started out using their so-called "styles" but like Mike Tyson said: "Everyone has a plan until they get hit". And how true that is!

Once they saw that their "style" wasn't working for them they abandoned what they'd learned and went back to school-yard brawlin'.

Seems to most people that in every instance that happened except for BJJ. And the only reason that it was different there was because the flailing and brawling wasn't happening once you tied someone up on the ground. That doesn't mean that it required any more skill. It just means that there aren't two way brawls from the guard. The guard and mount do a good job of smothering punches and hand strikes, but nothing against a blade. Every good BJJ man would prefer to end a fight quickly IF and I mean IF he could. But we see them consistently flop to the guard once they get hit.

What does all this mean?

It means that whether you're a kyokushin fighter or a BJJ player, you'll fight like you've trained. I'm sure you can try to make some adjustment on the fly, just like Nogueira tries to box guys he can get away with trying it against, and kyokushin fighters may compete in K-1 and hit in the face. But when it all comes down to it, when they get in the thick of it, they'll fall back on the core of what they know.

I recognize the parallels that this debate has to the "MMA lacking RBSD qualities" debate. It seems that this is drifting towards that direction. Seems that some people still want to give a cow balls and call it a bull. Good luck.