Three New Styles of Striking in MMA

Striking in MMA has traditionally been based in Muy Thai — Wanderlei Silva and the Chute Boxe academy — or Kickboxing — Bas Rutten, Maurice Smith, Igor Vovchanchin, Chuck Liddell. Many have used boxing as the basis of their striking styles — Don Frye, Randy Couture — but few of them have been professional caliber boxers.

Now we’ve got Jeremy “Half-Man Half Amazing” Williams coming into MMA. So far he’s 3-0 but I’ve yet to see the dazzling boxing technique I was hoping for.

Then there’s Karate. Much maligned during the early years of MMA (Fred Ettish, anyone?) Now we’ve got the undefeated Lyoto Machida. He’s been deemed too boring for PPV by the UFC but I’m hoping to see more of him soon. He really makes a case for Karate as an effective weapon in MMA.

Then there’s San Shou Kung Fu, the official martial art of the Chinese military. Cung Le is the big exponent in MMA so far.

Nate Wilcox

Nate Wilcox is the founding editor of BloodyElbow.com. As such he has hired every editor and writer to work for the site. Wilcox’s writing for BE is known for its emphasis on MMA history, the evolution of fighting techniques and strong opinions. Wilcox developed the SBN MMA consensus rankings which were featured in USA Today from 2009 to 2011. Before founding BE, Wilcox was a political operative working for such figures as Senators John Kerry and Mark Warner and an early political blogger. He is the co-author of Netroots Rising, a history of the political blogosphere from 2003 to 2007. Wilcox also hosts the Let It Roll podcast on music history for the Pantheon Podcast Network.

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