TKD in MMA

[auxiliary]

I know this has probably been brought up a lot, but not sure.

If you didn't know, Anthoy Pettis who is in UFC, is a 3rd Degree black belt in TKD.

Here's a highlight real showing him use some pretty good kicks. No super fancy things, besides his off the cage jump round kick.

Here is a quick highlight reel:

And here is "The kick"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Iz-3-raigA&feature=related

Here's a link to his school, hasn't been updated in a while. I'm sure he's put that on the back burner while he prepares for his title fight.

http://www.ataevolution.com/about us.html

 

[jthomas1600]

Anthony Petis is crazy good. I've enjoyed him in every fight I've seen him in. I know that the cage is not the ultimate proving ground for an arts effectiveness, but I still get a kick out of it when I see fighters use traditional martial arts techniques. I agree that boxing, kick boxing, wrestling, jiu jitsu, etc. are excellent fighting styles and of course are very effective in the cage, but I get tired of people who look at mma and say "see, this is what really works, everything else just don't cut it".

Just my $0.02

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Anthony Petis is crazy good. I've enjoyed him in every fight I've seen him in. I know that the cage is not the ultimate proving ground for an arts effectiveness, but I still get a kick out of it when I see fighters use traditional martial arts techniques. I agree that boxing, kick boxing, wrestling, jiu jitsu, etc. are excellent fighting styles and of course are very effective in the cage, but I get tired of people who look at mma and say "see, this is what really works, everything else just don't cut it".

Just my $0.02

I agree. I really enjoy watching the UFC and find it a great up and coming sport. But when people use the UFC as a guide as to what works and what doesnt I get really annoyed. People say that in the early UFC's that tkd was proven unsuccessful, but I dont recall any tkdist with any credibility entering the UFC. I saw some guys who looked to be a half decent coloured belt fighting in the cage, but no one of any real note entered. As I said in another thread recently, I was watching the UFC a couple of months ago and saw a fighter who looked real good. He was introduced and they went through his 'stats' and announced him as a "brazilian jujitsu black belt". After watching his fight I went to wikipedia to find out more about the guy and it showed that he is also a 2nd dan tkd blackbelt. Funnyily enough they didnt bother to mention that before or during the fight, because its not 'trendy' for tkdists to do well.

 

[auxiliary]

I agree. I really enjoy watching the UFC and find it a great up and coming sport. But when people use the UFC as a guide as to what works and what doesnt I get really annoyed. People say that in the early UFC's that tkd was proven unsuccessful, but I dont recall any tkdist with any credibility entering the UFC. I saw some guys who looked to be a half decent coloured belt fighting in the cage, but no one of any real note entered. As I said in another thread recently, I was watching the UFC a couple of months ago and saw a fighter who looked real good. He was introduced and they went through his 'stats' and announced him as a "brazilian jujitsu black belt". After watching his fight I went to wikipedia to find out more about the guy and it showed that he is also a 2nd dan tkd blackbelt. Funnyily enough they didnt bother to mention that before or during the fight, because its not 'trendy' for tkdists to do well.

This is so true. A lot of the fighters are first introduced into martial arts by doing TKD. I just enjoy watching someone that uses kicks wisely and not crazy spin kicks from 15 feet away.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

This is so true. A lot of the fighters are first introduced into martial arts by doing TKD. I just enjoy watching someone that uses kicks wisely and not crazy spin kicks from 15 feet away.

I agree, Im sick of hearing people say "tkd cant possibly be effective with all their flashy kicks". I do tkd, and very rarely, if ever, use flashy kicks. I doubt any reputable, experienced tkdist would jump into the cage and start throwing tornado kicks or jump spinning kicks. Actually some of the best tkdists I know probably couldnt even tell you what a tornado kick is. The way some people carry on, you'd think all we do in class is jump around doing fancy kicks. In any reputable club that couldnt be further from the truth. Surely if you broke it down, out of the hundreds of techs taught in tkd a very small percentage would be considered 'flashy'.

 

[IcemanSK]

The list of MMA folks with TKD backgrounds is pretty extensive. Bas Ruttan is another guy who studied TKD before he got into MMA.

 

[andyjeffries]

The list of MMA folks with TKD backgrounds is pretty extensive.

Dan Hardy and Anderson Silva are two other names that have a Taekwondo background.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

Cung Le is another great MMA fighter that has a quite extensive TKD background. His scissor kick, back pivot, and back wheel kicks are very effective and very impressive!

 

[Dragons TKD]

Even Joe Rogan has a black belt in TKD.

I train at Roufusport where Pettis trains. He's a pretty cool guy and very approachable. I actually had a conversation with him about making the transition from TKD kicks to Muay Thai kicks. After nearly 20 years of TKD experience kicking with the instep, the switch to kicking with the shin and the distance involved was very difficulty for me.

Also, I don't know what happened with that TKD school or who is associated with it now. I heard that school was a joint thing with the Pettis's and Roufus and Evolution recently came in and bought it out.

 

[punisher73]

David Loiseau was also a TKDist that did well in his early UFC days. Most of the people he lost to were contenders at the time.

He had wicked kicks and was very popular for it. His main highlight was doing a spinning back kick to the liver and the guy crumpling against the cage.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

Speaking of the early days of the UFC (1, 2, and 6), Patrick Smith was awesome! He holds black belts in TKD, Hapkido, and Tang Soo Do.

 

[andyjeffries]

A few others I've just found:

Stephan Bonnar - Blackbelt in TKD
Dennis Siver* - Blackbelt in TKD
Ben Henderson - Blackbelt in TKD

* His back kick knockout at (I think) UFC 105 was incredible!

 

[wisemanrax]

You should also keep track of John Makdessi. He won his last UFC fight and will fight again at UFC 129. He apparently competed at the junior level (blue belt) in Canada's nationals at one point. I don't know how far he got but you can definitely see the Taekwondo when he landed his axe kick, back kick, jumping back kick, step in jumping back kick, and a final 540 spinning hook kick on his opponent Pat Audinwood.