It's quite simple really, two reasons:
1) First of all, there's still a fuck load of rules and regulations in MMA that do hinder your ability to do max damage and finish your opponent. You'd agree with that right? Even if you take out eye gouges and biting (which are viable, but uncommon in real fights) you're still left with a shit load of stuff you can't do. Headbutts, stomps, knees or kicks to head of grounded opponent, hits to the back of the head, groin shots, spine shots, spinning piledrivers. That's a load of handicapping, that puts MMA at some distance from a real fight.
2) If you watch 100 street fights, probably 90 of them are going to resemble a bare knuckle boxing match between two scrubs, more than an MMA match. That's how most people fight, that's most people's fighting instinct, to just throw down with fists. That's what most "real fights" are. And in real fights, when someone goes down, the opponent usually either waits for them to get up and continue fighting, or fucking stomps them and kicks them in the head. Neither of which resemble MMA. You don't generally see people circling, leg kicking, and going for flying armbars do you?
I mean, maybe you have a slightly fictionalised view of real fights, where the fighters are superhumans like Tony Ferguson, with all these skills and weapons at their disposal. But the reality is most them look like a scrubby bare knuckle boxing match like I said. Also, most "real fights" are shit anyway compared to boxing and MMA
I use to get so nervous watching those early events. It shouldn't even have the same name because those early events were a totally different beast. Honestly, I'm glad they added more rules, but I can't deny the adrenaline of watching them.How can you not love UFC 1?
For a bit of nostalgia, I rewatched UFC 1 and some other early UFCs, for the first time since I was a kid in the 90's - they still seem fucking exciting, even after all these years.
It's great that MMA has evolved in the manner it is, basically to a discipline in itself, but there was something special about the original run of UFCs - the style vs style nature of it, the sheer unknown factor, and lack of rules and regulations.
I often laugh at people who say MMA is more of a real fight than boxing - but original UFC rules and Pride rules undeniably were.
OK no eye gouging or biting - but headbutts allowed, groin shots allowed, kicks to the face of a downed opponent allowed, shots to the back of the head allowed and no rounds - all that is a game changer. I can't help but love how raw and mental early UFC was. The open weight nature too, seemed fun after all these years.
Seeing UFC legends like Don Frye come out to that classic UFC walk out tune is still goosebump inducing.
Put it this way, the very first UFC fight involved a sumo wrestler's teeth getting lodged into the foot of a 6'5 kickboxer, and one flying into the crowd, within about 20 seconds
Couldn't be a more appropriate start for the UFC.
And given Royce's success in the tournament, Jim Brown said it best with simply "Fighting's not what we thought it was".
My opinion back when I was a kid, and still now, is it was basically like an 80's martial arts film, like the sort of worldwide fighting tournament you'd see in those films - but real
2) If you watch 100 street fights, probably 90 of them are going to resemble a bare knuckle boxing match between two scrubs, more than an MMA match. That's how most people fight, that's most people's fighting instinct, to just throw down with fists. That's what most "real fights" are. And in real fights, when someone goes down, the opponent usually either waits for them to get up and continue fighting, or fucking stomps them and kicks them in the head. Neither of which resemble MMA. You don't generally see people circling, leg kicking, and going for flying armbars do you?
