MMA is really a sport of a specialist (always has been )

Some guys are just better in one area than the the others. Most of them have been training all aspects forever now but they will always strategize and game plan for their best skills. Some guys suck at free throws, some are slow running the bases, but it's not like those guys in other sports don't train them.
 
Laza cds mma said:
How many pure MMA guys have succeeded at high levels ?
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It's mma now, pure specialists don't do well in modern mma. Every successful mma fighter cross trains other martial arts. It's still in the specialized part of the sports/mma evolution where you are still learning individual styles and mixing them together instead of having hybrid styles. That's the future of mixed martial arts and martial arts in general. Hybrid styles is the future. Because specialized styles still all have to be adjusted to mixed martial arts because each separate art is catered to that specific art/sport. That's why people still have a bunch of different coaches/trainers or go to different gyms in order to cross train each of the different styles of martial arts for their striking/grappling. In the future successful hybrid martial arts styles will offer everything you need in one dojo/gym. Instead of having a separate boxing, muay thai, kickboxing, wrestling, bjj, tae kwon do, judo, karate, etc coach/trainer and then trying to figure out how to get it to work in mma.

There are also techniques/strategies specific to mma that isn't trained in other martial arts, like ground and pound and striking while grappling/scrambling, fighting against the cage, etc. So there is still a lot of evolution left to do that is mixed martial arts specific.
 
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JJ, DJ, GSP, Amanda, BJ, Marco Ruas, Frank Shamrock, I mean they all have a "pure" background in some sort of Martial Arts but that's because you tend not to put your 5 year old in an MMA gym, and 20 years ago that didn't exist. It will be seen more and more in the future as MMA gym's open.
 
MMA is usually about being good at one thing, and then being competent enough in other areas so that they aren't exploitable weaknesses. That's the goal for most people.

The top guys aren't most people. Very few people can get really good at everything, but that's why the people who do get good at everything are so highly lauded.

You can't call Jon Jones, GSP, or DJ specialists. They had high level submissions, they had great wrestling, but they were also some of the top strikers in their division.

So no, I wouldn't say that MMA is a sport for specialists, unless you want to argue that the top guys are specialists in everything, which by default no longer makes them specialists. It's much more accurate to say JJ or DJ is a "pure MMA guy" rather than a specialist.

In conclusion, MMA may be a sport for specialists but the non-specialists stand on top.
 
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I remember when Rory was considered the first true complete mixed martial artist. Guys like BJ were well rounded but started in BJJ. Rory was one of the few guys that walked into an MMA gym, learned it all at the same time, and lacked a single backing discipline like karate, boxing, etc. Many more guys are like this now a days but he was the first that I can think that succeeded at a high level.
 
Hoist The Flag said:
I remember when Rory was considered the first true complete mixed martial artist. Guys like BJ were well rounded but started in BJJ. Rory was one of the few guys that walked into an MMA gym, learned it all at the same time, and lacked a single backing discipline like karate, boxing, etc. Many more guys are like this now a days but he was the first that I can think that succeeded at a high level.
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Yeah i remember everyone talking that he is the first pure MMA guy to get to the top.
 
Specialist is a cooler word for a one trick pony. There is none at the highest level.
 
Baba Ghanoush said:
That had to be one of the funniest fights I've seen a long time. The amount of hype for this "BJJ Wizard Prodigy" getting derailed in such an embarrassing fashion by a club fighter was awesome lol.
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I was one of them, It was a very upset, but yeah, A very funny match
 
Hoist The Flag said:
I remember when Rory was considered the first true complete mixed martial artist. Guys like BJ were well rounded but started in BJJ. Rory was one of the few guys that walked into an MMA gym, learned it all at the same time, and lacked a single backing discipline like karate, boxing, etc. Many more guys are like this now a days but he was the first that I can think that succeeded at a high level.
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He got far and could have been UFC champ with the right match up (Tyron), but we saw against Lawler he wasn’t quite good enough at wrestling and he just wasn’t quite good enough at striking/brawling to get over the line. He had a similar issue against WB: he didn’t have the wrestling to get WB down and wasn’t on WB’s level when it came to striking. Rory was good at a lot of things but lacked an elite skill in one area.
 
SteveColdStone said:
He got far and could have been UFC champ with the right match up (Tyron), but we saw against Lawler he wasn’t quite good enough at wrestling and he just wasn’t quite good enough at striking/brawling to get over the line. He had a similar issue against WB: he didn’t have the wrestling to get WB down and wasn’t on WB’s level when it came to striking. Rory was good at a lot of things but lacked an elite skill in one area.
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Rory went backwards, I think he was like 16 years old when he fought Condit and he had the fight won, but he gave up a sub in the last round.
 
SteveColdStone said:
He got far and could have been UFC champ with the right match up (Tyron), but we saw against Lawler he wasn’t quite good enough at wrestling and he just wasn’t quite good enough at striking/brawling to get over the line. He had a similar issue against WB: he didn’t have the wrestling to get WB down and wasn’t on WB’s level when it came to striking. Rory was good at a lot of things but lacked an elite skill in one area.
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I dont know, man. Like you point out, a match here or there and he is champion. The greatest fight ever was his 189 title fight. It was so good because he was so close to the UFC belt and Robbie took it last minute. To me, when you are in the 5th round of a UFC title fight and up on the cards: you are top of the food chain and had success. Robbie was just a bad match up for him. After that fight, he was never the same again, and I do not blame him. I do not think I have had a more visceral reaction to watching a fight stoppage ever - it was like he was killed in front of our eyes.
 
you have a MUCH larger universe of athletes who transition to mma after training another art in their younger years than athletes who grew up simply cross training. it makes sense to compete in other related sports when you are younger, since they can't compete in mma.
 
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Never forget what got u to the dance. A lot of fighters leave their base behind due to injury, like rampage and fedor, who almost abandoned their grappling completley. Others like maia, embrace their base and add weapons to it.
 
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