Karate blackbelts in MMA

Last edited:
Hotora86 said:
So... does this further fuel the Karate vs Muay Thai debate that has been going on here... or just an obviously better fighter facing a lesser one?
Click to expand...

Let's not start another style vs. style argument. It's more about the actual fighter and his level of training (and coaches) + how he performs on the day than it is the martial arts he trains in. I thought everybody knew that by now...

1 fighter getting caught by a punch in a fight doesn't make the martial arts he trains less effective. Otherwise what would you say about Karate when Machida got punch KO'd by Shogun?
 
Tayski said:
Let's not start another style vs. style argument. It's more about the actual fighter and his level of training (and coaches) + how he performs on the day than it is the martial arts he trains in. I thought everybody knew that by now...

1 fighter getting caught by a punch in a fight doesn't make the martial arts he trains less effective. Otherwise what would you say about Karate when Machida got punch KO'd by Shogun?
Click to expand...
Of course, I didn't mean a "Karate > MT" argument. In the previous pages we've discussed MT vs Karate tactics (like in this post), though the counter-argument was that top level MT can be just as elusive and counter-based as Machida's / Wonderboy's / Nelson's Karate.
 
NEW FIGHTER ADDED !!!

NAME: Duda Yankovich
COUNTRY: Brazil (of Serbian descent)
STYLE: Shotokan
RANK: Black belt (1st dan?)
RECORD: 1-3 (11-4 boxing)
WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duda_Yankovich
SD: http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Duda-Yankovich-110821

Involved in martial arts since the age of 11, Yankovich was the youngest black belt in the history of Shotokan karate in Serbia. In 1994, she competed in the European Championships in Prague, winning a silver medal. That same year, she won bronze at the Junior World Championships in Zakopane, Poland. She also became involved in kickboxing and became Serbian Kickboxing Champion in 1996-1999, and Balkan Champion in 1998 and 1999. Yankovich moved to Brazil in 1999, as a result of the Yugoslav civil war, and became Brazilian Kickboxing Champion in 2001-2003.

In 2005, Yankovich represented Brazil in the First Pan-American female boxing amateur championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She took third place and a bronze medal in the 138 lb division.

On 23 July 2005, she made her professional boxing debut against Argentinian, Wilhelmina Fernandez. She won on in fourth round by knockout. Then she brought three more fights, winning all by knockout. In 2006 Yankovich became the Women's International Boxing Association (WIBA) light welterweight world champion.

 
AndyMaBobs said:
Firstly, I like your avatar, Dio is the man.

Secondly, I'm glad too see this pop back up again, I read it back in my lurking days. While it may sound like I'm making a jab at karate when I say this, I do find it interesting how many karate black belts in MMA don't really seem to use much karate in their style at all. While you get the Machida's and Gunnar Nelson's and of course Kyoji Horiguchi who really look like they're doing karate, you then later find out that Bigfoot Silva is a shotokan black belt.

I'm always really impressed when guys still look like they're doing karate, especially when it's that more side on type of karate that doesn't just look like kickboxing. I'm not a karate guy myself, but it's always really cool to see the movement of some of the more "karate" guys out there actually get pulled off in a real fight.
Click to expand...

Nice post.

I think every and any martial art has value but, in a point system, you must adapt it to fit the style it is intended for. This goes for Akido, Wing Chun or whatever we see come up in the future. It must be adapted.

I think Bruce Lee could use JKD in MMA. I think he would have won fights in MMA but, I think he would have lost too. I think he was onto the right mindset with the best system being no system.

If you look at Machida, he adapted Karate to ideally fit and work in MMA but, he had Wing Chun (saw sticky hands in the video), he had Karate, Sumo, boxing/kick boxing etc. Now, people will say he was figured out but, he slowed and was older for winning the belt. Imagine if he got to UFC when much younger?
 
Hotora86 said:
Will be adding this guy to the list as soon as I get to my main PC.



7-0, fighting in the UFC in 2 days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_Fight_Night:_Gustafsson_vs._Teixeira#Fight_card
Click to expand...

Nice, ends with some basic but crucial NeWaza!

Guy's a counter striker so he's going to have to pick his openings better against the MMA flat foot paw and stall that seems to be the popular answer to guys who can pop your lights out if you MMA Muay Thai aggress too much.

Great movement and defensive timing.

Thing with most "traditional" styles is under the setting they all look like what they are full contact sparring in a ring with a finite start time and rules. Most styles will be paired down to the same "effective" techniques.

I was thinking Oliver looks like he's coached in TKD...But under sport fighting rules good movement and lower body techniques combined are going to look like TKD where limited emphasis on defensive movement and lower body technique will look more like MT or stand and bang art.

Deffinatly looking for his fight Saturday!
 
CFGroup said:
Nice, ends with some basic but crucial NeWaza!

Guy's a counter striker so he's going to have to pick his openings better against the MMA flat foot paw and stall that seems to be the popular answer to guys who can pop your lights out if you MMA Muay Thai aggress too much.

Great movement and defensive timing.

Thing with most "traditional" styles is under the setting they all look like what they are full contact sparring in a ring with a finite start time and rules. Most styles will be paired down to the same "effective" techniques.

I was thinking Oliver looks like he's coached in TKD...But under sport fighting rules good movement and lower body techniques combined are going to look like TKD where limited emphasis on defensive movement and lower body technique will look more like MT or stand and bang art.

Deffinatly looking for his fight Saturday!
Click to expand...
His background is Shito-ryu (WKF) + Sanda:
http://www.oliverenkamp.com/

And he's the brother of Jesse “The Karate Nerd” Enkamp:
http://www.karatebyjesse.com/about/

Props to @Jimmy H for telling me about the guy. :)
 
Hotora86 said:
His background is Shito-ryu (WKF) + Sanda:
http://www.oliverenkamp.com/

And he's the brother of Jesse “The Karate Nerd” Enkamp:
http://www.karatebyjesse.com/about/

Props to @Jimmy H for telling me about the guy. :)
Click to expand...
Just watched Enkamp's fight.

The most obvious point is what happened to me transitioning from TKD to Kickboxing and starting to spar Muay Thai and Dutch based KB. It took me a while to subconsciously target the legs anytime I was in range. Enkamp missed countless opportunities to slow Taleb down or make him think twice about advancing. When I trained it hard, it got so instinctual that I could be focused on center mass and sense when the leg weight load up came for the signature MT step forward to time the leg kick to land when all the weight was on the forward leg. So in Enkamp's case after Taleb was ether hurt or gun shy moving forward that's when all the high head hunting and spinning body shots can land clean on a more stationary target.

Classic point fighter or TKD mistake is going high on a close range trained fighter.

The stuff Enkamp impressed my on is that first take down where he trapped the leg to break Taleb's balance. Plus all the extreme flexibility and position changes to constantly be looking to land a sub.

If I was going to bet from just the size differential Taleb is cutting down at least a weight class to fight smaller lighter guys. Enkamp will probably need to exploit that cheat or face the same type of fight day weight disadvantage.

Excellent first UFC fight, the Karate kid can hang with the big boys!

...Just go after the legs before the head hunting!
 
CFGroup said:
Just watched Enkamp's fight.

The most obvious point is what happened to me transitioning from TKD to Kickboxing and starting to spar Muay Thai and Dutch based KB. It took me a while to subconsciously target the legs anytime I was in range. Enkamp missed countless opportunities to slow Taleb down or make him think twice about advancing. When I trained it hard, it got so instinctual that I could be focused on center mass and sense when the leg weight load up came for the signature MT step forward to time the leg kick to land when all the weight was on the forward leg. So in Enkamp's case after Taleb was ether hurt or gun shy moving forward that's when all the high head hunting and spinning body shots can land clean on a more stationary target.

Classic point fighter or TKD mistake is going high on a close range trained fighter.

The stuff Enkamp impressed my on is that first take down where he trapped the leg to break Taleb's balance. Plus all the extreme flexibility and position changes to constantly be looking to land a sub.

If I was going to bet from just the size differential Taleb is cutting down at least a weight class to fight smaller lighter guys. Enkamp will probably need to exploit that cheat or face the same type of fight day weight disadvantage.

Excellent first UFC fight, the Karate kid can hang with the big boys!

...Just go after the legs before the head hunting!
Click to expand...
I think he should train some western boxing to clean up his punches. They were a bit slow. Also he should of set up his kicks with punches. I agree though he showed alot of potential and should cut down to 155.
 
Hotora86 said:
OK, finally found the time to add Oliver to the list. Some details:

NAME: Oliver Enkamp
COUNTRY: Sweden
STYLE: Shito-ryu
RANK: Black belt (2 dan)
RECORD: 7-1
SD: http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Oliver-Enkamp-122281
UFC: http://www.ufc.com/fighter/oliver-Enkamp

It's a shame he lost his UFC debut but I think he'll stick around and prove his worth in the long run.



Seems like a really nice guy. ;)
Click to expand...

I read he took the fight on short notice, so my question is did he have a full camp or was that representative of his base line walk around skill?

As I said above, he'd do well to focus on lower body attacks and defends per MMA rule dictates. Jeez a guy with that much skill can spend 6 months drilling with competent Muay Thai fighters and advance a ton. Then incorporate that back into his regular camp regiment. It's great when you have a high level skill and are just adding to the wealth of knowledge.
 
CFGroup said:
I read he took the fight on short notice, so my question is did he have a full camp or was that representative of his base line walk around skill?

As I said above, he'd do well to focus on lower body attacks and defends per MMA rule dictates. Jeez a guy with that much skill can spend 6 months drilling with competent Muay Thai fighters and advance a ton. Then incorporate that back into his regular camp regiment. It's great when you have a high level skill and are just adding to the wealth of knowledge.
Click to expand...
Yep, he came in with 12 days notice.
http://mmajunkie.com/2017/05/stockh...-meek-vs-nordine-taleb-at-ufc-fight-night-109

There are Karate guys like Wonderboy who never trained any MT and still did pretty well. I don't think it's a must. Give Oliver time and a full camp and he'll shine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,308
Messages
55,482,049
Members
174,789
Latest member
loverich

Share this page

Back
Top