Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Touched on already but like Hoax said, in a one on one, they beat anyone. The only discipline that has a decent chance is a good Muay Tai kick boxer. I studied in S.F. with Ralph Gracie. Brazilian is also known as Gracie Style J.J. Check out all the extreme fighting and you will see their style of submission, aka choke out or break the knee or elbow method. They will fuck most people up.

I'm fairly experienced in karate, judo and kickboxing, and what I have learned from all that is that there is no "master style". All martial arts focus on different styles of fighting, and to be a really good fighter, you need to know all of them. A combination of jiu jitsu and thaiboxing is best for that.

Also, no matter how good you are, physical force remains one of the most important things in fights. I once kicked a national karate champion's ass (in a friendly fight, I admit) with relative ease, just because I had way more physical power than him.

btw, copeira is brazilian fight dancing. it is good for balance and form but it is not a fighting discipline.

but I think it's still fucking cool :thumbsup

choosing the art is easy :)
all arts are good.

training everyday, sweat and pain and broken wrists and flat nose day in and day out.

That is the hard part :)

If you want to learn a martial art you should take Wing Chun Kung Fu. It is probably one of the most scientific martial arts out there. Very sophisticated stuff. It is also what Bruce Lee was trained in and if you look at Jeet Kune Do it is mostly Wing Chun influence.

If you want to learn how to grapple and fight on the ground you should learn Greco-Roman wrestling. I'll put my money on a good wrestler fighting on the ground any day against anyone.

If you just want to defend youself, then buy a gun. No martial art beats a gun.

Based on films I have seen, I can wholeheartedly recommend the following:

Befriend a local handyman, preferably at your apartment complex. Optimally, he should be Asian.

Make sure he sees you get your ass kicked by Johnny and the rest of the Cobra-Kais.

Ask him to teach you Karate and train you...

When he requests you sand his deck, wax his cars, or paint his house, do not be alarmed or think he is trying to scam you.

Most importantly, if you see him doing some kind of Crane-like stance... pay attention.


If you are devoted, you can defeat Johnny and his gang.

Commitment is key: Karate yes, ok. Karate no, ok. Karate maybe? Squish like grape.

When I was younger I took Shotokan Karate and Kung Fu for a few years.

Shotokan Karate was fun but I felt it was too basic. They taught you various punches, kicks and blocks and then just told you to put your own combo together.

Kung Fu was more fun. They not only taught you all the various kicks & puches but they showed you a TON of cool combos using everything.

One thing you can do is take a test class at various schools. Take one class from various styles and see which one you like the most and go with that.

Just my :2 cents:

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Dude when I first saw that movie as a kid (prolly 10 or 11 years old) I totally fell in love with Karate. That movie was waay cool back then.

get into something that focuses on how a real fight would end up. because we all know the majority of fights end up on the ground therefore pick something where you would focus on grappling with the guy, submission moves. unless your lennox lewis or mike tyson and you can knock a guy out in one punch then no need. hehe. :2 cents:

note:

no matter how tempting it may be to join Johnny and his gang - do not.

Sensei Kreese will not teach you true Karate.

His "Mercy is for the weak, your enemy deserves no mercy" mantras may SOUND tempting, but they are not your path to inner balance.

I started with Okinawan Goji-Ru, moved to TWD and then finally to Akido-Jistu.

I enjoyed all three, but Akido-Jitsu was an absolute blast.

Hawaiian Kempo

Your best bets are going to be:

Brazilian Jiu-jitsu - Make sure you find a credible instructor. I studied in a Caique JJ association and it is very good bjj.

Muay Thai - Brutal sport. As far as striking martial arts, it is tops.

Boxing - Awesome striking, and memberships are generally very cheap as they are in inner cities.

Judo - also good ground grappling like BJJ, but also offers high impact throws.

Stay away from McDojos like the tae kwon do and karate schools that are on every corner. There is a reason everyone and their brother has a black belt in those styles... anyone can get one and they dont mean much if you actually want to defend yourself.

My BF trained Shoot Fighting for a while... That's what all those Japaneese dudes in UFC does. Much like Brazilian Jiu Jutsu but without the Gi. (you train in shorts with no T-shirt). It was very fun to watch him peactice. Imagine a room filled with ten sweaty men with toned muscles, wrestling and hugging each other :Graucho

I used to teach shootfighting (Frank Shamrock style). Very good stuff, although Ive found they are not as technically sound as BJJers. The top shootfighters are phenomenal athletes, and the mediocre guys cant hang with BJJers of the same experience.

Good style though

Jiu-Jitsu versus Judo....
dunno which is best....

however, a fight with the world's best Judoka and the best Jiu-Jitsu guy.... and im putting my money on the Judoka...

Since more people practice JUdo... the odds are the the olympic champion (heavyweight category) would kick anyone ass....

LOL

Find out how Judo originated, and you'll have your answer.

Look at what the emphasis is on judo and BJJ. Is it a throwing match? yes, Judo will win... but BJJ is almost all groundwork, and Ive seen BJJ white belts like BJ Penn enter black belt judo tournaments and choke them all unconscious.

well, there's different way you can teach Judo....
one black belt from one place can get his ass kick from a blue belt of another place....

I recently check out a class... where the teacher ( trained, fought and is a good friend with current world Judoka champion Nicolas Gill... )

and he was teaching a more full contact type of JUdo... where you could kick the other in the legs... etc... and let me tell you that he could have break my shinbone in an instant....

I know there are schools that emphasize ne waza alot more, and I have total respect for Judo. I just prefer BJJ, and it has been tested in actual fighting where as Judo hasnt done much yet.

Takada is making waves though!

Good advice. The kickboxing club I trained at would invite people from many different styles to come and train with us, so a good cross-section of moves was incorporated into our skills... from ju-jitsu (in-close fighting) to sikaran-arnis (Phillipine fighting style literally meaning "feet" and "weapons"), all very effective forms of fighting.


Kickboxing is simply the most direct method of disabling/defeating/killing your opponent, period. People can debate al they want, but unless you've actually fought in the ring against (and using) multiple styles of fighting, you really don't know what you're talking about.

True Thaiwanese boxing is basically the shortest distance between your weapons (fists, feet, knee, elbow, head etc) and your opponent. No fancy dramatic flashy bullshit moves, no belts, no nothing. Just quick concise moves and clever combinations that are very hard to defend against. Coupled with skills associated with other disciplines like I mentioned above and you have a style that is very hard to defeat. And any opponent that employs a style that involves "grabbing" their opponent must first be able to actually grab that opponent. A good kickboxer will be quick enough to hit without allowing his/her opponent to grab onto them.


People like xxxdesign can speculate all they want, but I know what I know. I sugges, like Hoax says, to find a place to train where the focus is on learning the best aspects of many different styles, not on belts and trophies etc. Train hard and long enough and you can enter open-style tournaments, your teacher will be able to tell you what level to enter at, and the trophies will come.

Judo means "the gentle way". It was developed from Jiu Jitsu to create a safe martial art, of which the "decisive" moves could be executed at full power without being dangerous. That all to make it fit to be a safe competing sport.

In other words, judo is jiu jitsu's gay little brother.

Actually, as much as I love jui-jitsu, judo is much better than traditional japanese jiu-jitsu. (not brazilian)

Judo branched off from JJJ, and turned it into a sport where they were actually able to test their techniques in live situations, and jiu-jitsu stuck with practice and never developed.

Judo took off as a much bigger thing, and BJJ spawned from that and has become its own thing, taking the ground work of Judo and simplifying and making it work more on leverage than strength.

Why UFC champions are never kickboxers then....?

And ver very very rarely will a fight be won with a kick....

most of the time on the ground.... sometimes with a good punch... :2 cents:

Read my earlier post.... there's different ways of teaching judos....
you have familly classes...
and you have agressive full contact ones....!

Kickboxing is making its mark in MMA, but as a stand alone art it isnt enough. The only kickboxers that have had any success have also trained in bjj, wrestling, judo, etc so that they can try to stay standing, or at least know what to do on the ground when they get there.

The number one kickboxer in MMA right now is Mirko CroCop and its his takedown and ground defense that makes his kickboxing so effective. Same with Chuck Liddell.

Why are UFC champions never small guys either? They're all solid ultra-strong hulking brutes that use a combination of wrestling, various hand/knee/foot attacks used by many different styles including kickboxing, and very little finesse or discipline. UFC has very few rules if any. The question here is "which MARTIAL ART should I take?"..... UFC is not a martial art. You're comparing apples to prunes.

The UFC has many rules now. Almost too many.

They are not brutes either, there are weight classes, just like in boxing. Some of their fighters are 155lbs now, a far cry from the huge streetfighters of the past.

They are definitely martial artists, and they train hard. The difference is they train in REALISTIC martial arts.

Very much truism here. This is why I recomment kickboxing so highly as a "central style" to learn first. Most other forms of hand-to-hand combat can be learned easily on top of it. Kickboxing meshes well with pretty much any other martial art, from my experience.

Sorry but Gracy (im I spelling it right) was a small guy and rellied mostly on BJJ ....

Because Judo originated in modern times it is organized like other major sports with one international governing body, the International Judo Federation (IJF), and one technical authority (Kodokan). Unlike other martial arts, Judo competition rules, training methods, and rank systems are relatively uniform throughout the world.

This guy teaches Hapkido in Toronto and is probably the deadliest man alive. A lot of people here are from Toronto so some of you might know his reputation, or might know of a bouncer who has trained under him. When it comes to martial arts there is Master Hwang and then there is everybody else Master Hwang

BVF take up Muay Thai boxing...you wont regret it..

I have an idea!
Let's all get together on the next convention for some webmaster free-fighting!
Let's see who really know their shit and who are just talking :)

Bringing the topic of UFC into this discussion is useless. UFC in and of itself is NOT considered a martial art. There may be rules, but it still resembles street fighting more than anything.

And this discussion shouldn't be about which guy in which style can crush the next guy with a different style, because it's all relative. It depends on a lot of variables. Pitting a grand master of ju-jitsu against a basic black-belt in tae kwon do isn't going to determine much, even if they are at the same weight class.


Again, the original question is "what martial art should I learn?", and I answered it based on my own years of experience with in interacting with many different styles. That's pretty much where it ends for me.

yes... and this is what I said...
you can be trained for tournaments.... but be teached a more hardcore full contact type.... that you might not use in tournaments...

At least, maybe its unique... but where I went... this is how they functioned.... and the teacher... ( fought with and friend of... the current heavy weight world champ) come up with is own techniques, striking methods, etc....

Thats why it is important. It allows you to see what actually works.

Why study a martial art that is proven to not work?

That's kind of a foolish statement. Fact is ALL martial arts have some merit to them, even the lowly tai chi.


But until there are dojos springing up all over that teach "Ultimate Fighting Challenge" techniques, I'm still going to have to suggest the best all-round martial art that gives you the most bang for your buck.... Thai boxing.



Btw, I'm not talking about the N. American "McDonald's" version of kickboxing. I'm talking the original Thaiwanese style of fighting, including elbows, knees, the axe kick, etc. The rules are vastly different. As a style for self-defense purposes it is virtually unequaled, and meshes very well with ju-jitsu and other in-close styles.

I cant remember names, styles, or what UFC was (either the 1st or 2nd), but I will never forgeth this one match where it was this huge, HUGE fat black guy (sumo) vs this skinny ass white guy... and when they met in the middle, this white guy did a whole bunch of fast hits to the sumo's guys face, I saw teeth flying and all, and the black dude just dropped like a brick.