Who are the best kung fu fighters in the UFC?

[SuperNerd]

GSP's snake style

Khabib's bear style

Jones' tiger claw

Lyoto's crane style

Ngannou's ford escort style

 

[Iron Skin]

Bruce Leeroy

 

[superpunch]

This goes back to the Tai Chi vs mma from the other thread. Their traditional styles don't work because they never tried it in a full contact/combat setting vs other styles. Zabit and the others are using it in a full contact/combat setting in sambo/mma, so they are able to make certain techniques work through practice and combat.

Their traditional kung fu styles absolutely did work. They used them in combat all the time. They just got retooled for entertainment, kind of like what's happening to TKD and Judo in the Olympics. And decades went by without anyone actually training them for combat, and now you have what you have. 400 years ago, though, there were actually people using stuff like mantis style in real fights. Imagine if no one boxed for 50-100 years, and there were only boxercise classes though. Or boxing choreography performances (wushu). And this happened before boxing matches could be recorded on camera. How to actually box for combat would be lost knowledge, and people would claim that boxing never worked, and that it was never used it in combat. It'd be what kung fu is today.

 

[SuperNerd]

Derrick Lewis bringing back the once mythical toad style back.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

Their traditional kung fu styles absolutely did work. They used them in combat all the time. They just got retooled for entertainment, kind of like what's happening to TKD and Judo in the Olympics. And decades went by without anyone actually training them for combat, and now you have what you have. 400 years ago, though, there were actually people using stuff like mantis style in real fights. Imagine if no one boxed for 50-100 years, and there were only boxercise classes though. Or boxing choreography performances (wushu). And this happened before boxing matches could be recorded on camera. How to actually box for combat would be lost knowledge. It'd be what kung fu is today.

They did work in the past, key word in the past. People don't fight like that anymore and they never adjusted the techniques and style to make it work with modern martial arts/mma. That style of fighting and techniques were developed to the way people were fighting back then, not the way they are currently fighting present day.

Zabit and modern practitioners are adjusting the styles to work vs modern styles/mma, not the fighting styles from the past. The mantis style of old will not work vs western boxing of new - if you don't adjust the techniques for western boxing attacks. Are you going to go for an open hand vs a closed fist punch from western boxing? That's the adjustments that need to be made and without the experience in full contact/combat vs the modern styles/mma you will not be able to develop a modern version of that style that can be effective.

 

[SuperNerd]

There is no Kung Fu in combat sports because it's significant characteristics are illegal attacks, and cannot be implemented safely, like eye gouging, throat and crotch attacks.

Once you remove that, you're doing something else, basically.

And Kung Fu is mostly entertainment.

 

[pulling guard]

Roy Nelson , Belly style.

 

[zr1vette]

He doesn't really train kung fu.

He is listed as a kung fu fighter when he fights

 

[superpunch]

He is listed as a kung fu fighter when he fights

He's also 300 lbs and funny. He's a funny fat guy. Could have been a champion. But chose to be a fat guy.