The state of MT in MMA..

...still just sad.

You have vets like Lawler thinking it's a good idea to answer knees to the body with rabbit punches.

Standing elbows and knees still criminally underused.

The vast majority of fighters can throw a semblance of a low kick, but don't have the shin conditioning to sustain a low kick attack, even if their opponent is not checking.

Worse still: you have a ton of guys who practice low kicks in the gym but have no low kick defense at all... Ex: Patrick Cote, who has trained at Sityodthong for over 10 years. But really, 99.9% of UFC guys can't check a damn low kick.

Who are these clowns training them? It's embarrassing..
The best Muay Thai in the UFC has to be possessed by Barboza, Jones and Trius. Very crisp technique.
However, the reason it’s underused is it’s really not the best striking art in terms of direct transition into MMA competition.
The rabbit punch thing is disproven by Cerrone vs Alvarez. They are a very viable recourse with 4oz gloves. The reason they aren’t used in MT competition is the fact punches don’t usually score and the large gloves make damage negligible and hitting the intended target very hard. 4oz gloves on the other hand slip through easily and deal lots of damage. When you’re getting punched, it’s not really easy to throw knees, and even if you do, you’re trading knees to the body to repeated strikes to the face...
Standing elbows - agreed. Weidman vs Munoz and Jones vs Gus show that they are very useful. Standing knees... mmmm not so much. Knees are among the easiest strikes to catch, easier than kicks. It’s very easy to get tripped upon an attempted standing knee. Also, they work in KB and MT because there’s less in-and-out movement there and more covering up and eating away at space. In MMA - you move forward, they take a step back. Don’t get me wrong, there’s place and time for them... just much much much less than KB competition, let alone MT.
Low kicks; agreed as well. Guys like RDA and BARBOZA have a good low-kicking game, but most other guys with a supposed ‘kickboxing’ background suck at them.
As for checking low kicks... I think there’s just too many threats to worry about rather than checking low kicks... punches are more lethal in 4oz gloves and are a prime concern, as are takedowns. Low kicks.... you can get away with eating a few usually. Also, low kick defense is good in MMA, e.g: Holloway’s counters to Aldo’s low kicks via catching and coming back with punches is more effective than checking in MMA, I believe.

Just my two cents.
 
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RDA had Lawler against the cage and threw 0 elbows and 0 knees, besides the initial flying knee that is.
He was flurring up top to open the body then coming back up top.

And there were plenty of knees and elbows (for an mma fight ) during the course of this fight.
 
Had TS ever actually stepped into an MMA gym? Cuz most have pro-class muay thai trainers, and most of the major ones have pro muay Thai fighters. Hell, ATT Atlanta just south of me, Roan Carneiro's gym, has Chike Lindsay. Dude's an animal. I think, as many others have said, it has nothing to do with their trainers, and more to do with traditional muay Thai just not converting fully to MMA.
 
The best Muay Thai in the UFC has to be possessed by Barboza, Jones and Trius. Very crisp technique.
However, the reason it’s underused is it’s really not the best striking art in terms of direct transition into MMA competition.
The rabbit punch thing is disproven by Cerrone vs Alvarez. They are a very viable recourse with 4oz gloves. The reason they aren’t used in MT competition is the fact punches don’t usually score and the large gloves make damage negligible and hitting the intended target very hard. 4oz gloves on the other hand slip through easily and deal lots of damage. When you’re getting punched, it’s not really easy to throw knees, and even if you do, you’re trading knees to the body to repeated strikes to the face...
Standing elbows - agreed. Weidman vs Munoz and Jones vs Gus show that they are very useful. Standing knees... mmmm not so much. Knees are among the easiest strikes to catch, easier than kicks. It’s very easy to get tripped upon an attempted standing knee. Also, they work in KB and MT because there’s less in-and-out movement there and more covering up and eating away at space. In MMA - you move forward, they take a step back. Don’t get me wrong, there’s place and time for them... just much much much less than KB competition, let alone MT.
Low kicks; agreed as well. Guys like RDA and BARBOZA have a good low-kicking game, but most other guys with a supposed ‘kickboxing’ background suck at them.
As for checking low kicks... I think there’s just too many threats to worry about rather than checking low kicks... punches are more lethal in 4oz gloves and are a prime concern, as are takedowns. Low kicks.... you can get away with eating a few usually. Also, low kick defense is good in MMA, e.g: Holloway’s counters to Aldo’s low kicks via catching and coming back with punches is more effective than checking in MMA, I believe.

Just my two cents.

Cerrone smashed Alvarez.

Crowd cheering does not equal damage.

How do you know he didn't blow his arms out for the next two rounds?

The average UFC crowd is not exactly knowledgeable.
 
Cerrone smashed Alvarez.

Crowd cheering does not equal damage.

How do you know he didn't blow his arms out for the next two rounds?

The average UFC crowd is not exactly knowledgeable.
Cerrone won the fight... but he lost round 1 where he tried the plum UNSUCCESSFULLY.
 
Cerrone won the fight... but he lost round 1 where he tried the plum UNSUCCESSFULLY.

I am familiar with the fight but I think the crowd and commentary team misinterpreted the first round.

Tough to argue with but I don't think he pulled a Homer Simpson that round, Alvarez could only throw arm punches whilst neck wrestling that did no damage.
 
Had TS ever actually stepped into an MMA gym? Cuz most have pro-class muay thai trainers, and most of the major ones have pro muay Thai fighters. Hell, ATT Atlanta just south of me, Roan Carneiro's gym, has Chike Lindsay. Dude's an animal. I think, as many others have said, it has nothing to do with their trainers, and more to do with traditional muay Thai just not converting fully to MMA.

You can't really make an argument for pro level fighters, when the level of pro muay thai in the states is so abysmally low.
 
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It blows my mind that people online really think the have a better idea of what Muay Thai can bring to mma because they watched some fights on YouTube than pro fighters that train with pro Muay Thai fighters and get the best MT coaches. It’s not worth debating with people like that
 
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