How close do UFC fights come to real life self defence?

[Corporal Hicks]

I saw a UFC championship fight the other and noticed how almost all of the time the fights end up ground fighting of some kind. Is the UFC rules of fighting closer to self defence than to sparring do you think? Or does it depend?

Cheers

 

[INDYFIGHTER]

I'd say it's closer to real world fighting than sparring. Most street fights end up on the ground.

 

[The Kai]

Some aspects were cool, however the hype about street fights all going to the ground .... wrong! But, it hyped up BJJ
Todd

 

[Cruentus]

It's not really close at all. Environment, available weapons, other people, and rules makes a "real fight" completely different then a NHB match. Not to mention that most people on the street are not going to be as well trained as an NHB fighter, so they are going to fight differently and employ different tactics.

That said, NHB fighting is still a great learning tool...

Paul

 

[INDYFIGHTER]

Some aspects were cool, however the hype about street fights all going to the ground .... wrong! But, it hyped up BJJ
Todd

I've heard that from a few of my instructors. I don't really agree with it either but that's what I was told. Personally the ground is the last place I want to go!

 

[tmonis]

UFC is awesome. However I think Karazenpo posted not to long ago about Larry King showing some videos on his show from street gangs that had actually started real fight clubs in California. He was saying that those are the kinds of tapes we need as Martial Artist to see how a real street fight goes down. (I think it was Karazenpo. Somebody did anyway.)

I can tell you from back in my day of street fighting, if you overwelm your opponent, they usually will try to cover up and go to the ground in a ball at first. Then when they see no way out of the fight, they begin to fight harder.

Prof. Todd

 

[Bob Hubbard]

NHB/UFC is in most cases a sport, and sports have rules.
Real street fights don't, beyond "survive".

So, until I see Shamrock pull out a punch dagger or Rus a glock, I'll remain a sceptic.

I don't deny it's a physical competition, but "Self Defence"? Nope.

 

[tmonis]

NHB/UFC is in most cases a sport, and sports have rules.
Real street fights don't, beyond "survive".

So, until I see Shamrock pull out a punch dagger or Rus a glock, I'll remain a sceptic.

I don't deny it's a physical competition, but "Self Defence"? Nope.

Kaith,

That is a very good call. I can remember as a kid I use to love wrestling on TV and thought that they were all true enemies. Until I went in a resturant and saw 4 of the worst enemies eating breakfast together and having a good time. I was crushed. Never crossed my mind it was just entertainment. lol.

Prof. Todd

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Heh, I've got 20+ years of pro-wrestling watching experience (plus a few injuries from back-yarding it....)

Pro-wrestling (especially the older stuff) is a good example of legitimate martial arts used in an entertainment fashion. (old-school wrestling is based on judo and aikido techniques. Modern is based on gymnastics.)

The stuff you see 'might' work, if somewhat modified, but.....it's just not 'street fight' material, y'know?

 

[Kempojujutsu]

It's not really close at all. Environment, available weapons, other people, and rules makes a "real fight" completely different then a NHB match. Not to mention that most people on the street are not going to be as well trained as an NHB fighter, so they are going to fight differently and employ different tactics.
That said, NHB fighting is still a great learning tool...

Paul

I would agree. Also

The octogon floor is nice and padded. The street is not. The UFC early years, the Dog Brothers were to have a stick fight. The Promotors back then, thought that they were too brutal for the UFC. So the fight never happen. Considering the UFC don't have matches that involve multiple attackers, weapons, tight quarters. Look at the NBA fight that happen in the stands. How are you going to grapple there.

 

[James Kovacich]

Everythings been covered already except a NHB will be quick to overwelm their opponent and thats a big plus. The initial confrontation is something that is at times neglected.

I tell my students not to be thinking about what they are going to do. Just stop the opponents initial movement and THEN deal with them appropriately.

 

[shane23ss]

Sorry, but i disagree with some points made here. (Agree with most).

1) I think the early days of UFC were alot closer to a street fight than now because of the rule changes, such as time limits and breaking up a guard position for crowd enjoyment.

2) akja has a good point about the fighters overwelming their opponent. That is probably as close to a street fight as you can get.

3) Tulisan said most people on the street are not as well trained, that is correct, so alot of people will just rush in as fast as possible, trying to do some damage, completely ignorant to what their "trained" opponent is about to do to them. As far as weapons, that is a factor, but not a huge one. Most "untrained" people really don't think to pick up a weapon simply cause they don't see "weapons" the same as a "trained" people, and if they did pick up one they would probably just injure themselves. lol. Also, unless you are trained (or maybe disturbed), it is not really human nature to use a weapon against another human being. (thus the slash wound instead of stab seen so often in knife attacks).

4) Going to the ground: alot of street fights do end up on the ground. some falls, trips over something, knocked down by opponent, etc. or like tmonis said, some one might go to the ground and curl into a ball. In most instances, if one goes to the ground, then the untrained opponent might see it as him winning and jump on you.

O.K. to get back to the topic (sorry) the UFC is fairly close to a real street fight in the way of the fighters rushing one or the other, and a lot of them ending up on the ground.

Respectfully,
Shane

 

[Dragon Fist]

Lots of good issues covered on this thread, I'd have to agree that it is totally deferent. Besides the padded floor, there is also the rules. In a real fight, there are no rules. No cups and eye poking and fish hooking can be used, to mention a few. And this is if the opponent hasn’t already picked up some kind of weapon.

 

[MJS]

I saw a UFC championship fight the other and noticed how almost all of the time the fights end up ground fighting of some kind. Is the UFC rules of fighting closer to self defence than to sparring do you think? Or does it depend?

Cheers

It prepares you to an extent, but not fully. Its better than regular sparring due to the fact that it has nowhere near the rules. However, it does have rules, where the street does not. The first few UFC events had a few rules, but again, nowhere near what they have today.

As for the ground fighting...its important to have those skills under your belt due to the fact that we can't predict if a fight will go down or not.

Better to be safe than sorry.

Mike

 

[BlackCatBonz]

i think any fight that is done for "contest" as opposed to a life saving or protection measure is entirely different. when someone is contest fighting they have time to prepare, view another fighters prior matches, develop some sort of strategy or game plan and finally to mentally prepare themselves to do battle.
in a life saving or life preserving confrontation, none of this prior knowledge or preparation is available, so an entirely different approach to being prepared must be taken.
you cant stand there wondering if the fight is going to go to the ground, with a bunch of statistics that dont matter running through your head.
what are you going to do when that first attack comes?

shawn

 

[auxprix]

I'll admit, I've never been in a fight. But I HAVE been close, and the environment was not a large open space. The encounters were in tighter spaces.

Another thing that's missing in UFC is the sucker punch. Two people go at eachother knowing they're going to fight. But on this side of the TV screen, things can change from an argument into a broken nose in a matter of seconds.

So, no, not very realistic. I have no doubts that the UFC guys could destroy an assailant in a real fight though.

 

[Corporal Hicks]

i think any fight that is done for "contest" as opposed to a life saving or protection measure is entirely different. when someone is contest fighting they have time to prepare, view another fighters prior matches, develop some sort of strategy or game plan and finally to mentally prepare themselves to do battle.


Yeah but surely as Martial Artists who train in self defence we do to an exent train ourselves to do battle with an opponent with somebody who may come to fight us in real life. We prepare through mental prep and physical prep, so to an exent we are pre-prepared!
I dont know i may be wrong!

 

[Dragon Fist]

As Shawn pointed out, in a contest, the fighters have a chance to train and get their self prepared. In a real fight, you have but seconds to prepare. You can prepare your body physically by training, but it is different when you don’t have the time to get your adrenalin flowing. I once asked a doctor why fighters can take so much punishment and not get knocked out or hurt right away. He said it’s because the fighter’s adrenalin is already working. When someone gets caught cold, that’s when they can get seriously injured or even die.

 

[Bod]

The UFC is never going to be 'like a street fight'. Only a street fight is like a street fight.

That said, is the UFC closer to a street fight than boxing? I'd say yes. More than wrestling? I'd say yes again. The UFC is going to be closer in terms of skills that are street effective than most one on one martial sports.

However, like any form of training, there are always limitations, and if you are looking to be street survival effective, then you must know what your practice is missing, and what parts of your practice are detrimental to 'streetfighting'. Examples of these limitations have been given earlier in this thread.

One practice that is detrimental to street survival in MMA training is the tendency to grab the head for a choke when you are lunged at, and then to get a guard position as you fall back. The guard is a poor position to be in a streetfight (though far better than being mounted of course).

Another detrimental practice is learning to fight defensively. Clearly when fighting one-on-one it is most effective to balance attack and defence. But when fighting against more than one person it is better to immediately attack one person very hard to create a gap, and then escape out of that gap.

I think UFC style training is good for self-defence up to a point. It is important to know what that point is though, whatever type of fighting training you are doing.

 

[shane23ss]

Good points made