Now everyone in mma uses pretty much the same style. Muay Thai like stand-up, with BJJ like grappling (submission wrestling/sambo and others). Do you think there will ever be a name for the style? MMA doesnt explain it any more because there are only a few styles now in use. When it is no longer considered a mix, and has evolved and considered its own style, what do you think it will be called?
Vale Tudo.
You already see the amount of argument over 'what is what' at the moment, ie Bjj is just judo etc.Every style is going to claim parts of MMA as 'their own'.
I don't believe your first post anyway... Take the champions at the moment. Fedor, Silva, Mir, Couture - Seem pretty different to me.
MMA sums it up beautifully, has a bit of mystique for the common folk and is a catchy sellable name for our sport.
pulsar, point taken that their individual fighting styles are different. However when it comes down to it, they are punching like boxers, kicking like muay thai, and grappling like bjj/sambo/sub wresling. I feel like it is a fight using the same system, but with each fighter making the system their own. Each fighter uses that system differently.
I thought it was already dubbed "freestyle".
Fetal-Fighting-Systems
MuayJiuSamThaiJitsuBo
tae kwon dork
Pankration!!!
Chick son do.
Didn't the orginal ancient Pancracean sport basically include all of the mma elements? If so,it's too bad the Japanese Pancrase events were often... Pancrase would have been a great name,'reviving' the ancient art- striking, takedowns,grappling/submissions.
How about Nielson-do.
WupChi.
The problem with "MMA" is that like a lot of acronyms, while technically
accurate, it doesn't actually mean anything. I think the idea is to make
the sport sound "official" and respectable, because what's more official
these days than a vague acronym?
This has an unintended consequence, though: because the name itself
has no content, people writing about the sport have to come up with
their own definitions for it before they can talk about it. This is why
every article you've ever seen starts with something that either goes,
"Mixed Martial Arts, a blend of fighting styles including wrestling, judo,
karate, kung fu, and boxing..." which makes it sound like the cross-
dressing karate guy someone mentioned, or the writer goes for, "Mixed
Martial Arts, sometimes known as No Holds Barred or Ultimate
Fighting, is a brutal bloodsport in which competitors punch, kick, lock,
bite..." which makes people want to ban it or at least dismiss it as
being for the WWF crowd.
imagine the same article instead starting, "John Smith is an avid fan
and competitor in Pankration. The name refers to the original Greek
Olympic sport that combined boxing and wrestling, as well as kicks
and joint locks. Today, Pankration...etc etc." you see what happens?
the name itself dictates the way talking about the sport is framed.
Instead of karate kids or human cockfighting, you get an impression of
people who are at best athletes, and at worst slightly eccentric
hobbyists.
besides, MMA is just stupid as hell, it'd be like calling baseball BHCS
for Ball Hitting and Catching Sport or something.
Pankration at least sounds cool and intriguing to people who don't
know what it means, and gives it credibility (olympic sport!) to
educated law-making types who do.
other good names:
shootfighting has got to be the sexiest name around, as well as being
sort of descriptive. maybe the name is too corrupted by pro-wrestling
associations and specific company names, which is really too bad.
because a shootfighter just SOUNDS like he could take a boxer, no
problem.
sportfighting is also pretty good, because it's probably the most
accurate name out there, and sounds at least halfway legit. to me it
still sounds kind of low-brow and sketchy, and not especially cool, but
it's a million times better than MMA.
Vale Tudo is ok, but it's too linked to 3rd world bloodsport imagery to
take the sport very far; and also it kind of unfairly makes it sound like
brazilians have a monopoly on fighting knowledge. I think the
Russians are doing at least as well these days, maybe we should adopt
whatever Fedor calls it...
finally, has anyone ever considered calling it just "fighting" and letting
people draw their own conclusions? if the idea is to dissolve all the
artificial system distinctions and end up with two guys who just use the
techniques that work and are good for their body type and abilities to
win, why does there need to be a new style name? Not many people
have realized it yet, but this is the end of fighting styles.
I saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel about martial arts. They used the name Free-fighting to refer to MMA. I really like that or Pankration alot.
No Holds Barred (Vale Tudo) doesn't apply anymore because their is now alot that is barred. I still think headbutts change the whole game.
I always thought MMA didn't sound right. I believe the best names would be Ultimate fighting or Shootfighting but copyright reasons niether name could be used. The other names I liked are submission fighting, free fighting or free style fighting.
I dont like Pankration, it sounds like a disease.
200 years from now when the legend of mma is told, they will talk about vale tudo, the gracies, the UFC, Pride, etc... They will talk about how martial arts were revolutionized into a system. Maybe just "sport fighting."
Rex-Quan-Do or Cagefighting