Felipe Carvalho said
This is really interesting man.

Karate become a kind of must know for MMA fighters isn't that right? Why in your opinion is it so effective on the sport (more than other styles perhpas), or am I wrong here?

I'm just curious and ignorant about this, please never mind if I said some nonsense haha.  

Actually karate and MMA don't go together. When MMA first started and was bare knuckle the only people involved were grapplers (judo, jujitsu etc) and strikers which at the time were boxers and karate guys. In the beginning it was more of an anything goes thing and it was a war between styles. "My karate is better than your Jujitsu etc. Eventually they began using gloves and the sport evolved into a better mix of grappling (wrestling, judo, jujitsu and anything else) combined with Muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing and to a lesser extant karate.

But this is "sport." That is kind of the point of my book. Because of commercialism karate became sport and "modern karate" was born. Personally I don't mess with that nonsense. True karate and what it was designed for doesn't work as a sport. It is meant for self defense and self defense only. It doesn't work as a sport. A "self defense" guy isn't trained to last 3 or 5 rounds. His job isn't to "win" it is only to "not lose." He just needs to defend against an attacker, not get hurt then get home safely. Even if he has to run! Sport guys are trained to go the long distance and there is a ref there to step in if things get out of hand. Karate doesn't work there and pure karate would get its ass kicked there.

Listen, you can buy an expensive and beautiful car and it drives better than anything else. But that doesn't mean it can work in the indy 500! Two different things. It's complicated. This is part of why I wrote the book. I believe in old school karate that is strictly for self defense. I don't do or teach "sport karate. That's something different and something I know nothing about these days. As far as other sport combat methods? I have boxed, I have trained a bit in Muay Thai, and I have trained in and fought MMA as well as being an MMA coach. I have also fought bare knuckle full contact karate. But all of this was just to enhance my knowledge so that when I teach "fighting" I know what I'm talking about and not just spouting crap from behind a desk that I learned on the internet or from someone else who never had a fight in their life either. ( you know...kind of like singing forums...lol). It was also so I can know how to defend against these things. And again...teach it.

My experience is somewhat different from a lot of the guys with all the info but no hands on experience. I come from the mean streets of the Bronx N.Y. and have been involved in some real hands on crap. So I know how things happen in the real world and "That" is what karate was designed for. Not a game of tag in a ring. It's complicated.

This post will only become another book....so I'll shut up....lol.

Tommy

Of course people do take techniques of karate and use them in MMA but they have to be modified from their original form and purpose. Also only certain techniques...mostly kicking and punching or certain power generating theories. But it is highly modified and obviously the targets are altered because in sport these things are illegal.

Tommy