Mixed Martial Arts and Competitive Fighting vs. Reality: How Rules Change Fighting

Summary: Real fighting is very different from competitive rules-based fighting and one should never be equated to the other. Competitive fighting should, however, maintain rules for the sake of fighters' safety.

Many people believe that competitive fighting, particularly mixed martial arts (MMA) is a very realistic example of how real world fighting works. However, reality is extremely different from competitive fighting including mixed martial arts. Fighting with any sort of rule set and prescribed environment greatly alters how a fight would actually happen. I write this post to dispel the myth that competitive fighting = reality.

Key points:

• Fights in real life are almost nothing like boxing matches, wrestling matches or even mixed martial arts fights
• Practicing martial arts will probably help your real-world fighting abilities
• Competitive fighting will help your real-world fighting abilities, despite the two being very different
• I hope this post serves as a good reference point for people who get in the religious debates over just how real MMA is.
• There's a lot of information about martial arts in general, history and other topics in this article. You should read the whole thing.

I'm going to pick on MMA in particular in this post because of its current popularity and because it is, in the competitive fighting world, almost the closest you can can get to real-world fighting.

Fights in real life are almost nothing like boxing matches, wrestling matches or even mixed martial arts fights

I have studied both competitive matches (boxing, muay thai, kendo, escrima, mixed martial arts, judo, brazilian jiu-jitsu, tae kwon do) and real fights.
It is often difficult to make a comparison as most street fights do not have trained fighters involved. It is easy, however, to make the observation that there are certain things that happen in real fights that would never happen in competitive ones that can, and usually do, greatly alter the outcome of a fight.

Two main factors:

• Rules
• Organization and environment

Rules

Here's a non-comprehensive summary of rules you will find in competitive fights that do not exist in street fights:

NO:

• Small joint (wrist, fingers) locks
• Eye gouging
• Fish hooking (finger[s] in opponents mouth)
• Fingers in any hole of opponents body
• Groin shots
• Hair pulling
• Neck or back (spine) shots
• Kidney shots
• Head butting
• Biting
• Pinching or twisting flesh
• Throat strikes or grabs
• Clawing
• Spitting
• Using your surroundings as makeshift weapons
• Elbow strikes
• Knee strikes
• Kicking, kneeing or sacrifice falling on a grounded opponent
• Grappling opponents garments
• Verbal abuse
• Clothing requirements
• Running away

It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how some of these things would alter a fight. Much of these refer to what I call equalization techniques. Pinching, finger locks, biting, groin shots, eye gouging and the like are all techniques that could very easily disrupt an opponents technique or even end a fight. They're techniques that don't require a lot of strength, but can create dramatic reactions. They're techniques that can be performed by 4 year olds and 80 year olds.

"Running away" seems to be a joke, but it's true. If you're comparing a street scenario to competitive fighting you can't dismiss the idea that after you stun an opponent or even before you make contact that you have the possibility of just running away and thus "winning".

I knew a great fighter who won many of his muay thai matches by verbally abusing his opponent before the round started. "Your mom", "your sister", etc. The opponent would get emotionally entangled and his technique would be severely compromised. It sounds like a silly thing, but it's a legitimate technique and I've had multiple instructors teach verbal and psychological training right alongside fighting technique. This isn't just about pissing off your attacker either; one of the best techniques anyone can have is knowing how to stop a fight before it even starts.

Some of these things seem funny, but they're effective. I once had a Kali instructor tell me about old men in the Philippines spitting chewing tobacco at tin cans on fence posts from 10+ feet away as training.

There is also another scenario: In real life, these 'dirty' equalization techniques could have this subduing effect, but there's another, usually unconsidered, possibility: the guy lets you break his wrist, finger, arm. When you're fighting for your life or maybe just to hurt another person people will take considerable risks to their bodies. I have spoken with multiple prison guards who have told me they no longer train small joint manipulation because most prisoners would rather punch you in the face and have some broken fingers than do nothing at all if they have the chance. These guys train exclusively for techniques that allow them to control the entire body, not just make the person tap from pain.

Organization and environment

A huge component to competitive fighting that may not be listed in any rulebook, but is an integral part of the sport is the organization of it and environmental factors such as a ring. Some examples:

• Rounds
• Standardized fighting arena, generally a blank, even canvas
• Weight classes
• One on one fighting
• No makeshift weapons

Again, not much imagination here to understand why it's so very different, but I'll expand upon these anyway.

One of the biggest things here is the place where you fight. There's a ring, a square, a rectangle, an octagon. It's well lit. You've got room to move and you know exactly how much. The floor beneath you is something safe to fall on, not concrete, blacktop, dirt, mud or rocks. There are no obstacles in it.. no dumpsters, no trees, no parking bumps.. not even a change in ground angle. You won't slide, unexpectedly. You won't have to worry about falling and being able to slap the ground to break your fall because there isn't a parking bump you can wrench your arm on.
This is a big deal because it directly affects certain fighting styles, particularly ground fighting. One of the things I hear a lot that bugs me is "ground fighting is the best fighting to learn and all you need to learn because all fights go to the ground". Ground fighting gets a disproportionate amount of attention these days due to its efficacy in the UFC. I don't doubt the efficacy of ground fighting in a ring, but you see a lot of fighters rely on it and willingly drop themselves to the ground because it's where they're most comfortable. Makes a lot of sense... in the ring.

Reasons you don't want to go to the ground in real life:

• Concrete, blacktop, rocks, even dirt ground can cause you serious injury if you roll, scrape, even nudge around on it
• Multiple attackers possible
• There's no "don't kick him while he's down" rule
• Weapons could be involved. This is an expansion on the previous point
• You're in no position to start running away

Certainly there is a lot to be learned from training ground fighting and it will probably be applicable in real life. However, you probably don't want to go to the ground as your first defense in real life.

Effectiveness of martial arts in real life

Many style-mongers and 'experts' will make claims to the efficacy of their arts in real-life scenarios. Most of these claims, very honestly, are crap. However, there are quite a few arts that teach these things:

• Most styles of Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) specifically train to exploit 'dirty' techniques such as groin shots, joint wrenches, eye gouging, biting, pinching and finger locks.
• Dirty techniques similar to the ones found in FMA are a fundamental part of some systems like Krav Maga.
• Silat instructors with whom I have trained often emphasize "stun and run" - the concept of hitting the attacker and then getting away from a fight as quickly as possible as there are likely to be more attackers.
• Tony Blauer's system is a very modern art that trains specifically for real-world scenarios.
• Systema uses dirty technique and extensively teaches about environmental factors.
• MMA fighter Bas Rutten talks extensively about environmental factors on some of his fighting DVDs.

Martial arts training will help you in street situations, so will competitive fighting

Not much to be said here. Training will help you on the street.
Fighting competitively will assist you even more for real fights than training. It's the same as doing vs. learning/teaching. If you've ever had a full speed strike thrown at you you'll be 100% better off than the guy who hasn't.

Maybe you don't train, maybe you just fight. That'll help you too. Kimbo Slice is a shining example of how real-world experience can take you very far.

All that said - beware! Your training can hurt you too, especially if you're partial to one style. In many MMA competitions I have seen many single-style-only fighters get destroyed purely because they had no skills in just one area of fighting. Wrestlers that fail to strike, ground fighters that can't kick, muay thai fighters who panic when they hit the canvas. Diversify yourself.

Rules are good though; Competitive fighting is a sport

Despite all my seemingly myth-busting, anti-competitive-fighting points above, I do enjoy competitive fighting and there's a really good reason for all these rules. Competitive fighting is a sport. Fighters don't want to die or even be seriously injured.

Rules are put in place for three main reasons:

• Commercially appropriate fight lengths
• Fighter safety
• Cultural standards

Not only is competitive fighting a sport, but it is a spectator sport. People want to see a fight last more than 3 seconds but less than 5 hours. An eye gouge would end a fight very quickly. Do you know why boxers wear gloves? It's not to protect the guy getting hit, it's to protect their own hands. Old-time boxing matches could sometimes last for hours because both fighters would injure their hands and thus not be able to strike their opponent with the force necessary to get a knockout. The result was hours worth of soft hits from very worn-out, very injured fighters - more boring than competitive sloth racing.

Some of the rules I listed above actually used to be legal in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and still are in some MMA fights. In the early days the UFC didn't have clothing requirements, weight classes and allowed groin shots. Things actually got brutal during a couple matches. Check out the first two seasons of UFC - they're a lot of fun.

A lot of UFC rules were implemented because of cultural standards. It was more commercially viable to get rid of things like groin shots because people who watch UFC would rather watch without the groin shots. The lack of rules also generated a lot of attention from people seeking to govern the legality of these fights. American Senator John McCain tried to get the UFC banned nation-wide.

Conclusion

So why am I telling you all of this? The point is that competitive fighting is not the same as real fighting. It is a sport and should be regarded as such. There's nothing wrong with it being a sport and it should stay that way. I'm not advocating getting rid of rules. All I'm saying is that it's not the same.

And finally, keep this in mind when training your fighting: In the real world there are no style restrictions, no rules. If you are training for self defense and for reality, not for competitive rule-based fighting, make sure you reflect in your practice.