Worthless. They always get titty-whipped in the UFC against the grapplers, shoot fighters and jiu-jitsu guys.
Dude, UFC is junior varsity. Have you ever seen PRIDE fighting? Those guys are the real badasses. They have more money so they get better fighters. The UFC guys who go over to Japan to do that usually get beat. The standup guys do pretty well. Mirko Filipovic aka Cro-Cop, is a one man wrecking crew, he has to be the greatest kicker I have ever seen. One kick to the head and bam--fight over. Check it out: http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/matchvids.cfm?matchid=5725 Outlaw: Thx, I'll look for it.
Pride sucks. When someone gets beat in UFC, they typically surface in Pride. Pride is the minors for the big guns. There are too many stoppages in Pride and the ring format sucks. Nothing beats the enclosed walls of the OCTAGON.
i was considering taking some muay thai classes myself. anyone know some good places to take these classes?
Why must you be blind to even simple truths? Everybody knows that as far as skill and fighter quality goes, PRIDE owns the UFC. Of the many things you have been wrong about, this may be your most egregious misstatement.
Sam, I've never taken it because it's sooo brutal on the body. Average fighters have very short careers. If you have the will power to train, I'd say go for it. But it's very, hard on the body. My favorite is mixed martial arts.
I remember back in college, a bunch of my buddies decided to order UFC on pay-per-view. Since they were so pumped up about it, I decided to watch it with them. After watching to guys in tight outfits lay on each other for 25 minutes, I was a little bit perplexed as to why they enjoyed it so much. I understand why a male who browses the available males over at Match.com would enjoy it though.
I don't think I'll mind doing light sparring with full pads but I don't think I am going to step into a ring for a full contact amateur fight...I can't show up to work with a broken nose or worse the following monday.
This is where I got my info from for NYC, I'm sure there are places in Houston too: http://www.usmta.com
I have a few friends that took Muay Thai. It will toughen you up like no other, so they say. Personally, I've taken karate(an okinawan form), a limited amount of kickboxing(not cardio ), and some brazilian jiu jitsu. Different styles are better for different people. Yes, some styles are more dominant in competition, but ALL are effective in the real world. From the kickboxing that I've taken, its a great workout. We did a lot of bone toughening on our shins, which hurts at first. I take that back, it hurts for a long time.
I took muay thai and brazilian jiu jitsu. Muay Thai is very strenous. Don't even bother unless plan on putting in the work to get very fit. I know long distance runners that throw up after a hard muay thai workout. I think most people who think jiu jitsu is superior for street fighting either doesn't know too much about street fighting or watches too many UFC's. In a street fight, you try to avoid going to the ground because you don't who might kick you in the head while you are grappling and you can't run when the cops come. For real self defense, I would recommend both so you are prepared for more situations. If you want to get in great shape, take muay thai. If you want to have fun, learn jiu jitsu because you can practice at full speed and not totally hurt each other.
Pride definitely has better fighters. The reason people do Pride is because it pays better. The Japanese are willing to pay the big bucks to see good fighters. Most fighter end up losing in Pride more than UFC. For example, all the Gracies minus Rickson got their butts kicked by Sakuraba. He even broke Renzo's arm.
Yeah, I actually don't mind the strenuous physical part, I would rather concentrate my workouts into a few strenuous ones, I seem to do better that way as far as staying on track. In any event, I got some e-mails back from the guys who run the school/academy that I was checking out in New York and it sounds pretty good, each class is only 20 bucks, so I really don't have anything to lose by trying. I will check it out on Satrday and then we'll go from there
sam, if you have national geographic channel they have a 1 hour documentary called "About Asia: Thai Boxing: A Fighting Chance" airing January 29, 2004, 7:00 pm and January 30, 2004, 1:00 am it's hosted by Brit actor Jason Statham (yum)
My wife did muay thai a while back. She did it through some guy who just had a warehouse gym somewhere around the Astrodome (I think). She was the first, and probably only, woman he had ever allowed in. He, apparently, was a badass. Anyway, he still is in business, but I think he only takes athletes. His name is Saul Soliz - you can do an online search for more, but a start: Patumwadee Muay Thai 2022 Naomi Street Houston, TX 77054 (713) 794-0054 swsoliz@aol.com
