Subscribe to the Martial Arts Journey newsletter for a chance to win the official MAJ rash guard! www.martialartsjourney.com/newsletter If you don't want to leave your chances for luck, get the rash guard here now: www.xmartial.com/products/martial-arts-journey-rash-guard?ref=MARTIALARTSJOURNEY And use code "ROKAS" for an additional 10% discount!
As I understand it, Bruce Lee saw that there was a problem with martial arts. To be doing a recognized system you have to train and move within a rigid framework. Get outside of that and you're doing something else. It's called style. Bruce called style "vertical death". It took me some time to understand that. But, I get it. I spent most of the decade of the seventies in the street. Every fight I've been in was a real one. I've had people try to kill me. After I learned how to fight by fighting, I learned the elements of boxing. The only formal martial art I trained in was Chinese Kempo Karate. I told sensei "this isn't what I do". He understood. I left the club. I told him that I'd come back when I can appreciate the "art" aspect of Kempo. It didn't happen. Sensei died. The club closed. Many years later I met a man that has many detractors. Nevertheless, I trained with him, and he knows a great deal about this. You might want to talk to Christophe Clugston. His method is not attribute driven. It is performance driven. You don't have to drill this stuff for years to become a "technician". After a few hours you'd be amazed at how fast you ramp up to speed. There are streetfighters out there that say "martial artists have had their day". They're right. It's called technology. And yes it has advanced. Contact Chris and get his version of it. And the detractors? Yeah, I've heard it all before. So has he.
Where do you guys find catch wrestling? It's hard enough finding judo let alone adult wrestling. But I can't throw a rock without hitting another bjj gym.
@@punteroism it's almost impossible to find indeed. So I started going to Wrestling in an MMA gym. And I bought a bunch of Catch instructionals by Billy Robinson and Josh Barnett and I try to incorporate as much of it as I can. Also next month I'm flying to UK for Catch world championship (as a spectator). But I'll visit Wigan Snake Pit and for the first time have a few classes of proper Catch. Grappling is grappling... and doing something is better than doing nothing. Get some instructionals... get a grappling dummy... and find some people willing to roll with you. That's a start ;)
i dont even think MMA should be included as martial arts on this list. Because MMA simply took the best things from others martial arts and was not developed the technique/style itself. While the others martial art was developed over centuries or even millennia of experience and effort to get its technique and style as we know it today.
Taekwondo at B- and not F? Are we finally exiting the 20 year long era of internet critics relentlessly hating on Taekwondo without even critically analyzing it? Hope so.
Man taekwondo and karate are overhated especially by the mma crowd. I agree there are better martial arts for mma than these two like muay thai,bjj,boxing,dutch kickboxing,judo,sambo etc but even taekwondo and karate are good As a taekwondo player,i can say you should go for other martial arts but taekwondo improves your kicks,fitness(mainly flexibility),reaction time,mentality,etc. and will definitely improve your health Karate,my god finally people are understanding it is actually helpful but it just needs a little tweaks.
There's nothing like a professional fighter to tell us what works and what doesn't in a fight as long as there are no more than two individuals involved, and yet making it clear that other martial arts have their positive points in training the body in some aspects. I'm with him. BJJ for the win, but you have to learn some striking as well.
I disagrees with him when he put kudo below bjj. If you're a kudoka you could go into anything really and move up quiet quickly because you already have a grasp of the movements while in bjj you have to basically start from scratch in wrestling and striking then get the skill to transition between them into groundwork. For street fighting its a no brainer which one is better
He speaks from experience, and he’s correct in all he says. Kudo is fine but the use of a helmet allows for risk taking that cannot occur when you take the helmet off. He’s got it nailed.
BJJ, Judo, Krav Maga, Systema, Aikido are all nearly identical with Aikido being the more complete of them all. The only thing that Aikido doesn't train is the guard and some of the chokes and sweeps, other than that it has everything from BJJ plus 10,000 more techniques and weapons and multiple opponent training. Aikido is superior to BJJ for street self defense and survival and weapons, but not for fighting, they aren't the same thing (fighting and self defense.) They didn't rate Daito Ryu, I wonder why? Urijah Faber MMA/UFC/Muay Thai/NCAA Wrestling/BJJ WORLD CHAMPION almost died in a street fight, Aikido black belt never would have got in that situation and would have been better prepared against multiple attackers, known not to clinch, go to ground in a street fight: ruclips.net/video/k-oCew_ef94/видео.html Rickson Gracie starting his BJJ seminar with Aikido drills made famous by Tohei Sensei (Aikido's former head instructor) a long time ago then saying that BJJ guard has nothing to do with self defense. Professor Rickson is basically teaching Aikido basics in this seminar. Put an Aikido gi on him and its an Aikido class. ruclips.net/video/Jh3K4ttwuyg/видео.html Here is some of the Gracie family members at "Gracie Jiu-jitsu Academy" recounting how a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu purple belt student got beat up in a street fight and felt that his BJJ was useless. The student pulled guard but was getting hurt with punches that he never learned and he was a purple belt. The BJJ purple belt was disallusioned with BJJ and act why haven't I ever learned this in BJJ. ruclips.net/video/e864iZ4sB8Q/видео.html
Why do most MMA fighters forget that (real) Judo is all about newaza (ground fighting) too? Maybe they don't know that BJJ is a subset of the original Judo (Kano Jujutsu).
Rokas had an interview with one great Judoka like a year ago and he said that ground fighting in Judo is pretty basic compared to BJJ and some wrestling styles. And from what I've seen with my limited grappling experience- it looks right. In our judo dojo every black belt student there does BJJ on the side (they wanted me to join but it conflicts with my tkd lessons)
Well, if the dojo focuses on competition, you'll only have 30 seconds of ground fighting tops. But I wouldn't call it "basic" when compared to bjj. Actually, there's absolutely nothing new on bjj, they didn't invent anything, it's all present in the kodokan canon. In Brazil, where I live, there are even judo newaza competitions. There's this great coach here called Moacir Mendes that would yield a great interview, Rokas. Kudos on your channel, brilliant stuff as always
BJJ took judo ne waza and improve it, that's it.. ahh but some coach bla bla bla, much respect to them .. ok, good for him, but nothing changes the fact that bjj is an upgraded ne waza.. you can do it in judo classes of course, but it's different. It's simple.
What I've seen in the two dojos I've been to, up until the brown belt (to get black you need a certain amount of points in competition), it's mainly newaza in randori (70%) bc it's just safer for beginners to learn and it's only in a competition that the fight often stops after the throw. I guess it shows how much variance there is between teachers around the world.
For the question of "will there be one day only MMA?" I think the "sport" martial arts, like judo and taekwondo and other will stay. The pratice of these are far safer (less risk of hurting yourself) thanks to their narrower set of autorized moves Nowadays, they don't claim to be self-defense training, they are a relatively well internationnal federation that guarantee a certain stability in what is taught and an active competitive scene
The sad truth about taekwondo is that like Karate, it was meant for true combat, but the olympics made them to be just sports-based styles. If trained correctly, it is an hybrid system of kickboxing, with a little of judo and japanese jujutsu. I think the biggest problem of taekwondo, apart of being a modern martial art, is that it have lost its purpose with the explosive popularity it had back on 80s and 90s that set it almost exclusively to sport fighting
@@andrebarros4936 encyclopedia of taekwondo (15 volumes) doesn't include any grappling techniques, so I don't know what you base that knowledge on. Taekwondo's main 2 roots are Taekkyon and Shotokan karate, both of which include close-to-zero grappling. I love my itf taekwondo, but it cannot be compared to proper kickboxing. It's greatest achievement in martial arts history is "it's better than shotokan karate". And I cannot in a clear conscience say it's better than another improvement over shotokan- kyokushin karate. It is superior in many ways to kyokushin karate, but you don't spar nearly as much in taekwondo as you do in kyokushin. And there is no substitute for sparring. At the end of the day it's diet kickboxing + some very good kicks, a great supplement to muay thai dudes who want to kick some more. Taekwondo doesn't need to be anything more than that. It's a great balance training, awesome stretching, it's hard to do and beautiful to look at. And way more effective in a fight than 95% of kung fu. I like that this MMA fighter doesn't have any bias against tkd like many other people Rokas interviewed. He knows what it is.
@@VenturaITPretty useless having any hand to hand combat skills in war though. You’d probably have to go back to before homo-sapiens first appeared where people fought conflicts without some sort of weapons….
@@westington1Real martial art include weapons training. The techniques without the weapons are for if you lose your weapon during a battle. The "martial arts" without weapons are really not "martial" at all, unless they are used in a battle in a war... this is just the definition of words, but people have all kinds of false beliefs not supported by facts.
Ive been practicing Japanese jujitsu for for 20 years. 100% agree. In principle it is an S tier marital art. In jujitsu we spar, we grapple, we throw each other, and in randori, you dont stop until you submit or theres a clear stalemate. I will stand by S tier in principle. Thing is, there just isnt enough time to be in the elite level of what it practices. It is a great foundation if you want to move to more specialised training for conpeting as it covers a lot of bases. But the average jujitsu goer will not do amazing in specialised competitions. However, it is good, great in fact, for self defence. Seen it myself in real time. It all depends what youre training for
If you see what he says he talked about yes you do everything but you only end up mediocre. It’s like mma in that regard you do a lot but only get ok at everything unless you spend yearrsssss doing it
@daygenhall6126 for most people, like myself, its a hobby. So training for 4 hours a week, trying to cover throwing, grappling, striking in a non-professional setting is simply impossible to be at that standard. If a Japanese jujitsu class had the training regime of mma, it could produce great fighters. But sadly that doesn't exist. But it does mean we can look after ourselves with most of the population
@daygenhall6126 I'm happy to admit I am not an s tier martial artist. I'd be delusional, even with the 20 years. Plus, the last 5 years I've been plagued with unrelated knee injuries. So I'm definitely not s tier XD
@@joe94c no no you’re exactly right I think Japanese jujitsu is up there for sure one of the better martial arts. Personally I really wanna get into sambo
To me what he said about karate was mixed. There are styles that are more fighting oriented and some less so. Karate is not a monolith. Schools like Kyokushinkai, Uechi ryu and others produce good fighters. Some schools less so. @@alessandrocattaneo4810
The problem with BJJ and grappling in general is the it's totally useless if you're faced with multiple opponents. In this situation then you're f*cked.
Not always true. Tell that to Mike Tyson. :) who grew up in the harsh streets of Catskill, NY. Striking, cardio, and footwork is very important. Especially, when it comes to a very bad mass attack situation. And to top it all I definitely say Filipino Kali weapons training as well. Besides, most Goons don t know how to fight. That s why they will band together to fight you. Now I don t encourage to fight mass people. It is very dangerous fight them all. But when crap really hits the fan. It s all about surviving, and getting the hell out of there with situational awareness and good judgement
@@christophermarkee5445 , Actually if you're a very very good striker, then it's likely that you can handle 3, 4, or even 5 average people, and I've seen it first hand in real life. On the other hand, no matter how good a grappler you are, there's no way you can handle that many people, simply because with grappling you can only focus on 1 person at a time. I'm not saying that grapping is useless, not at all, as a matter of fact it's an absolutely essential skill to have in the ring, you really need to master it to reach to the top.
@@JeffreyParker-ok5ed , the fact is that there's too many variables in real life situations, it's often very very risky to fight anyone. Actually, the best martial art of all is track and field😀 A fight avoided is a fight won😁
@@BrianWang-dg8gl I would not disagree. But I m just saying if you dont have that option. And no, I m not going to say. Let's go get a gun! Anyone behind the computer can say that
Could you make videos where pro fighters pick the most valuable/effective technique from each martial art? this way we can see what is the best thing that each martial art can offer
I’d say you basically are seeing that as MMA continues to evolve. I went into MMA from a kickboxing background (Dutch style first, then thai for a couple of years), plus boxing when I was younger. You adjust a lot when grappling is introduced - stances being maybe the thing that is most interesting there: Boxing stance is out, as it makes you venerable to takedowns especially , but also kicks (just the transition from that to any sort of kickboxing is a big adjustment). Thai boxing is probably superior to most other kickboxing style (even though you’d usually find the same ruleset in most places nowadays), but Dutch combo’s and stance transitions much better to MMA in my experience. Training style too - Dutch is waay too hard in sparring, and that isn’t good for you. The Thai way of training is better for all combat sports I’d say, as the focus on technical sparring (rather than kicking the shit out of each other each training session) is better for learning, and much better for avoiding issues associated with concussions etc. . I’ve seen MMA evolve in the gyms I’ve been in - in terms of training approaches and fitness approaches especially - and you can see fighters refining techniques from other Combat sports down to what is most effective, most often (so low risk, high reward shots), as well as fitness training definitely giving an edge at the highest level. GSP is a great example of all of the above. Perfect martial artist imo
Sanda is like nogi judo with striking allowed, pretty great, A-. Combat Sambo is basically MMA, should be S. Combat Sambo world champions turn into mma world champions
I study ninpo taijutsu, I like it I think it’s effective if practiced not just told it works. We do randori not every day but every Friday basically putting the waza we were shown during week to a controlled environment test. 4 on 1 randomly attacked. I hope it works
I thought kudo should have been ranked higher in self-defense situations in Northern environments or people were heavy jackets you could still use those grips like in judo kudo is well rounded you're not going to be walking around in just shorts and with no shirt on all the time
The thing is is that Muay Thai obviously as you know is ring rules. But the Art of War itself, has a history to it. Obviously you probably know that when the thai the burmese, muay Boran ❤ the soldiers of ancient Thailand wrapping their hands dipping them in glass using their bodies As Weapons hence the art of eight limbs, that's why when you learn from the true Thai , it's a whole different ballgame than learning in america. America teaches it in a barbaric way, I know it sounds contradictive but at the same time, I was always taught actually by Russians that were trained in the Belarusian military, once you get hit you calm down, you get hit again you calm down even more, you let your energy build up let them waste their energy, and then that's when you start to strike, I love the music the Sarama, how beautifully it starts off so slow after obviously you perform your why crew, if you fall off and are not up to par with the rhythm, you will fall you will lose balance you will lose concentration it's like Charming a snake, and a lot of people specially americans, when they fight or train, they think that kicking a pad with a monitor that measures their kick power means that's how hard they are going to kick their opponents LOL not realizing that they are not conditioned enough and that if they do throw the kick that hard, their Shin bones will snap. They don't condition enough, and it's kind of upsetting because all of these videos on RUclips show them throwing these kicks against these pads with monitors saying oh yeah I have the hardest kick, it's like yeah go ahead throw that against a real Muay Thai Fighter that actually is conditioned enough to check your kick, it's like go ahead throw you are shinbone as hard as you can and see if you can withstand it LOL another thing is that they don't understand that the more weight that you have on your calf muscle the heavier and harder to kick along with the hip twist, but also keeping eye contact with your opponent, Americans seem to not understand all of the physics when it comes to Muay thai, they just think that you have elbows knees and kicks and that's it but realistically, the clinch is a whole nother art in itself, and they definitely do not master that a lot in America it's kind of upsetting, because I've seen them practice here, I am american, don't get me wrong second generation my family is Greek and sicilian, but at the same time I learned from russians, who learned from thailand, and they teach it completely differently than you would if you were to go to some cko kickboxing gym or some run in the mill American kickboxing gym, sometimes they think kickboxing is Muay Thai and it makes me cringe LOL I'm like you guys really don't understand the difference but you did great in this video seriously I love the way you labeled all of the martial arts and the levels to everything, I just love how you explained it all absolutely amazing brother❤❤
I was talking to John Wayne par recently and he was telling me about his fight with sombat, and he told me that his style was just something that was out of this world. The way he adjusted and adapted to any type of change that John tried to make, it was not matched. He could not keep up that well with sombat, this is why I Honestly Love buakaw, but in America he is totally underrated he's not mentioned everybody mentions Saenchai, and that is fine because he's a legend as well, and there are a lot more Legends out there, but sombat is not mentioned enough in America these guys have no idea who the hell he is and it's almost sad because if they did, they would get it. When I learned from the Russians I adapted my style to sombat, it's like learning how to ride a bike and then turning into a BMX artist, I basically took the same principle and I look up to sombat, he is my idol he will always be same with John Wayne parr, but sombat will always be my favorite and he has my utmost respect I love him to death the man is a legend and totally underrated in America❤
You know what also drives me nuts brother? When people say oh I am training UFC I'm like oh are you really training to fight in that league? They say what do you mean? I'm like your training UFC so what martial arts are you practicing and who is signing your contract to fight for UFC? I just cringe I'm like you mean your training mixed martial arts? And if so which martial arts are you practicing? Americans LOL😂😂😂
Nobody talks about capoeira Angola. Our primary strikes are 12/6 elbows and headbutts. So quite difficult to apply in cage with rules. Regional and Contemporary is different ;)
The mistake many people generally make about Capoeira is ignore its actual practical applications, all the knee strikes, takedowns, actual ground defence, elbows, elbow strikes, and it can be done standing up, but all they think is the dance.
Yeah people see the flicks in capoeira and write it off as some acrobatic show. Funny how capoeira tried to conceal the effectiveness of the martial art back when slaves invented it and it still works to this day.
@@Feroxing12yeah.. Mr. Feroxing knows everything about capoeira to make this assumption. You can pratice and master every martial art that will be a circus show when my glock be pointing at you.
The most important thing is going to a decent school/ Dojo no matter what you style is that you like, even a MMA academy can make you a bad fighter if the teachers and colleagues are bad. Also, I love the "what works and what doesn't" statement in martial arts, because even though there's useless techniques for self defense or sparring, the effective ones could also fail.
honestly, there is no such thing as a technique that doesn't work. Because each technique is dependent on context and each punch is unique. saying a technique/martial art is bullshido is as meaningless as saying jab jab doesn't work because the opponent ducked. Everything works dependent on context - heck even George Dillman's shit worked in the context of a dojo full of hypnotised students, in the same way you force your opponent into positions in the cage.
Your comment makes zero sense. He says the opposite. You should be training techniques that work for everyone always, not some obscure nonsense. Yes, your school might be poor, but change it. The style you train, however, will determine your fighting prowess.
@@Purwapada This is complete and utter bullshit! Saying "there is no technique that doesn't work" is completely horseshit, Aikido techniques *might* work in some scenarios against people that are untrained, but techniques from Wrestling, BJJ and Kickboxing all work against people who ARE trained, let alone people who aren't. If you need proof of the fact things like Aikido, Wing Chun, and Kung Fu are completely useless, just watch some more of Roka's videos, he is a pro Aikido black belt and he learned that people who did traditional Kickboxing/Boxing/MMA completely folded him with ease. I agree with the premise that "everything works dependent on context", however the context in question is: Is your opponent untrained in fighting? Yes? Then maybe some techniques from Wing Chun, Aikido etc will work. Is your opponent trained in fighting martial arts/sports? Yes? In THAT context absolutely 0% of Aikido or Wing Chun or anything like that will work against them. The ONLY effective martial arts are Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai (and all its derivatives), BJJ, Wrestling and Judo. If it works, it incorporates one or more of these, if it incorporates none, it doesn't work. End. Of. Story.
The fact that regular wrestling is so dominant in MMA doesn't seem to have hit him. And wtf is krav maga doing so high in the list? How many krav maga guys have become mma champions compared to wrestlers? Ridiculous.
Probably the best tier video you have, short, to the point, no bias. Especially when karate was taken down to tkd level, that was very valid and fair. Kyokushin maybe more like a B tier since no face punches are a big flaw + some of their punches are as outdated and ridiculous like in shotokan and tkd. Ninjutsu probably more like D-. Catch wrestling is on point too. MMA on top since you really need to train how to mix striking with grappling to use all separate skills you have.
"outdated punches" - how much of that can be attributed to the idea of no-gloves? I.e., in most modern competitions, people wear gloves, but when these MA were invented, their inventors prepared for no gloves fights?
@@doyouwanttogivemelekiss3097 not much. If you want to do bareknuckle fighting you still swing like a boxer (mostly, experts will tell you there are small details done differently). In karate and taekwondo you use the extremely outdated mindset of "one punch should be all you need", so they hit as hard and fast as you can. Which is an extremely dumb thing to do in an actual fight, as you're gonna break your hand when hitting someones forearm or elbow aka your punch getting blocked. Obviously the position from which they are throwing punches is also outdated, but thats a longer story about blocking kicks with low forearm blocks, conditioning blah blah blah. Tl;dr there is a reason why the best punchers in history arent karatekas (maybe aside Mas Oyama but that dude spend years punching trees and whatever the fuck)
In regards to kickboxing, it depends on the gym but some can be a mix of kickboxing, muay thai or even a bit of mma. Learning to knee, elbow, stuff the takedown, apply guillotines and the like. Its just in sparring and tournaments where you cant knee, elbow and grapple. Clinching isnt against the rules but it does get broken up pretty quickly as so the fight can actually continue.
yea i think mixing Kickboxing(American style) for it's variety fluid kicks & Muay Thai's powerful kicks, elbow & knee strikes and strong defense would make that Kickboxer more sufficient!
Seems like a solid list for applicability to MMA. I feel like he's not really putting much thought into the self defense aspect though. He asks "Why would you wear a gi to a fight?" Sure, you're not going to go into an MMA fight in a gi, but you're not going to end up in a self defense scenario in boxing shorts. As far as whether escrima is effective for weapons defense, his take seems very "fighter who's never trained with weapons makes assumptions about what would work with weapons." Armed martial arts have existed even longer than unarmed ones, people have had some time to figure out stuff that works by now.
I used to think gi was less realistic than no gi, then I did army combatives and we grapple in our uniforms that we wear day in and day out on a regular basis. Grappling in a military uniform is 100% gi grappling.
Can you please make the videos like this a little bit longer? Maybe not an hour long but it's kinda hard to understand for a foreigner what he says if it's cut together that fast.
Hey Rokas! First off, I love your videos. I would love to see you do one of these with Hapkido. Hapkido is specifically designed for self defense, so I'd love to see how you think it stacks up with some of the other Martial Arts you review. I've only trained at one school (Dojang) so unfortunately I don't know if it was an outlier or if it was a good representation of the art as a whole, but I have found it to be extremely effective on more than one occasion.
I am sorry, but considering people in real life wear clothes unlike the fighters in a cage, Kudo should be the only one ranked S as it is a type of mma (Mixed Martial Arts) that adresses that, on top of having headbutts. It makes no sense to put Kudo on the same level as judo when kudo is basically judo plus striking and then say that the average mma gym is an S. Other than that I enjoyed the video, looking foward to the second season of the Ultimate Self Defense Championship Rokas. From what I looked, it seems you won't be competing this time, only organizing, correct?
thing about Kudo is- it doesn't do anything on a very high level. It's grappling isn't nearly as good as in judo, it's striking isn't nearly as good as kickboxing. Headbutts are nice, mixing striking with grappling is also very nice. But say you want to use those skills in MMA- according to the rule "dont try to outbox a boxer, don't try to outgrapple a grappler"- you can't do anything there. Your strikes are basic and outdated, your grappling is basic. You're gonna be smashed by a boxer or submitted by a wrestler on average.
@@miqvPL "don't try to outbox a boxer, don't try to outgrapple a grappler" isn"t a rule set in stone, it's more of a guideline, we see people beating others at their own game in every sport, this isn't new. If the idea is that kudo doesn't do anything high level because it splits it's training between different disciplines without being great in any, the same can be said about what most people call "MMA", most MMA fighters get outboxed by boxers, submitted by bjj black belts and slammed by wrestlers. If you are saying that kudo isn't high level as whole, you should search more, it is one of the most high level MMA competitions out there, alongside Shoto for example. What people like the UFC guy in this video does is pick the best outliers of what he calls "MMA" and try to use that to put it in a pedestall it doesn' t belong. Heck, the middleweight division of UFC has been dominated for quite a while by two kickboxers with laughable grappling, this idea that someone going to a regular MMA gym will be the most prepared and complete fighter compared to other styles like kudo, simply isn't true. No point in your comment stands as an argument, being little more than observvations.
As soon as someone who does judo gets close, it is over. But against a boxer you gotta tank a few hits, so you gotta be able to move in quick, or/ and be able to tank some big hits. I feel like A, I feel like it would be very useful, but hitting someone would also be very useful.
And if you 've been ten years without training, you don't go to the gym, and so on, and then you have a fight, what MA would be more effective? When you fight in real life, you have heavy shoes, strengthen trousers, you can't start to warm up, and so on... maybe the the ranking would change in a 90%. I mean, being realistic, proffesional fighters, train everyday, fight barefoot, warming up, with rules etc, and this has nothing to do with the situation described previously. It's difficult to be 100% realistic in a fight of REAL life. Agree anybody?
Interesting that he mentioned that stopping a stick with your stick is impractical whereas in HEMA that is what is called a parry He probably does not have much experience with weapon fighting
That "stopping a stick with a stick" is just a drill anyway. Ofc real fight will not turn out to be a freaking star wars sword fight. Every hit of the stick represents a bodypart.
I think the people who could benefit the most from "self defense" training are not the young, strong, athletic guys, but rather smaller, older, men and women. Using that criteria, I would like to see a rating based on how much such students would benefit from training each martial or 6 months, twice a week, which I think would be a more typical scenario.
A MMA school that also taught Krav Maga would be a great combination. The Krav Maga training would cover the dirty fighting aspects and the real world tactics that aren't in a MMA ring.
Wrong. There is striking in Judo. Please don't confuse 'sport' Judo you see at the Olympics with actual Judo. Ranking it below BJJ, which is the Newaza component of Judo, is also ridiculous.
I was prepared to disagree.... and then I didn't. He changed karate at the very end. My only "kind of" disagreement was Jeet Kun Do, which he touched on. The philosophy of Bruce is what has lead to MMA. Anyone teaching JKD like it's some kind of martial art should just be laughed at, because it's not. You learn karate, boxing, wrestling, BJJ, and whatever other styles you want. Then you apply the principles of JKD to that, making it YOUR style. It is what works for you, and you only figure that part out by actually doing it and experimenting. Very good video. I like that guy :)
Rokas. I feel you have not covered traditional jujutsu so much. In fact when you search on jiu-jitsu it is mostly bjj. I would like to see more traditional jujutsu styles covered. Thank you for great content!
F Aikido :) The way of harmonious spirit. Aikido is about giving a power to defeat anyone but also to not abuse it, don't mistake the one who doesn't use power with the one who don't have a power... Aikido could be even S tier if you have a trusted sensei that will teach you everything.
I think it might be interesting (and quite the opposite of the usual stuff) if you do the same with a movie choreographer, but ask him to rank martial arts by they cinematic qualities
For me personally with BJJ there are three problems: 1. I know two people who trained BJJ and both had ripped squirrels in their knees and went through an operache (in sparring someone did them the levers too much) 2. Many techniques are described by holding the opponent's outfit, and on the mat the outfit is different than on a daily basis, the daily ren is small, durable and often slips the sue out of your hands, so some techniques are impossible. Only those made directly on the ankle, knee, elbow and wrist are useful for me. 3. If there are two attackers and one of them will put you in a fight, the other will kill you with his shoes. Who has seen the fights of football hooligans knows how it can be a fight with 2-3 opponents when one is on the ground floor. It looks like an execution, not a fight.
I’m glad Natan stated that there are good Karate schools and a lot of terrible. Not a lot of good karate schools but not EVERY school is bad. When it comes to Kali/Escrima, the practitioners use the sticks to hit to learn to defend when someone strikes to then counter, but that’s my guess I learned a lot from his quick explanations about his experience and understanding.
A lot of what you see in FMA is the basics - you learn to block a stick before you learn to start countering because the stick is a training tool for a short sword, and you don't want to be hit second with a sword any more than you want to be hit first.
The only thing I miss in these tierlists is ITF Taekwondo, which I guess is less popular in America but I would say more prominent in Europe than WTF (Olympic) Taekwondo. So I have to take kickboxing as a kind-of-representative of ITF, because they're pretty similiar on competitive level.
Fun fact: there’s certain fictional martial arts that can be overhauled to real world styles. One example being Nico-style from Kengan Ashura being a combination of Karate, Muay Thai, Jiujitsu, and Aikido
Shen Lung Kung Fu, a style that was brought over in the 60s, teaches traditional Kung Fu, but it also teaches Boxing, Judo, Wrestling, Jiu Jitsu etc., so all Kung Fu is not the same. Probably not great if you want to do MMA, but maybe a good way to expose yourself to various martial arts and pick a couple to specialize in.
Was literally going to comment this... ITF is legit... One organisation/curriculum as well so you won't find a mcdojo... I would put ITF ahead of Karate, but WTF is garbage lol
As a black belt in judo AND taekwondo (i trained for 20 years) There is no chance that judo is above taekwondo. Its going to be really hard for a judoka to even get to someone without knowing basic boxing and movment techniques that don't exist in judo. Taekwondo is not designed for street fighting but you know how to deal with most punches and kicks unlike judo
I don’t think there’s ever going to be just one martial art, like MMA. I think it’s just too broad and that there’s always going to be a desire to see competitions that emphasizes more specific skill sets. Even in the Ancient Greek Olympics, there were three hand-to-hand combat sports: boxing, wrestling, and Pankration. Even though they had a version of MMA, they still set aside time to train JUST striking and JUST grappling. And I think that’s because it’s legitimately helpful to break up your training that way and because it’s fun to see who’s the best at each particular discipline
Why do you called "real fighters" always assume that people only Martial Arts to do nothing else but fight. Some do it for history and tradition, some people do it to simply better themselves physically and mentally.
People underestimate ninjutsu alot... ninjutsu is basically japanese jujutsu + acrobatics and weapons... its not the best, but its not that bad... I compete in a martial art called sipalki, wich is similar to mma in rulesets, allow less things but allows throws, submission, strikes and some level of ground and pound... there are different schools, and one of the schools that fought in that tournament specialized in grappling... so, i fought someone from that school, my school specialized in keeping the distance... the guy managed to grab me... i managed to escape from an experienced grappler like 3 times because of my ninjutsu experience... Anyways, i admit its not the best style, not even on the top 3 ranks... but its actually much better than people think it is
well if you learn rasengan and chidori then it's F since energy attacks are not allowed under MMA rules. But for real now- I bet there's a good ninjutsu school somewhere. But most of them are mcdojos for cosplay fans. Every video I've seen of ninjutsu training was a flavored aikido. And there's no substitute for sparring, never was, never will be. If the skills you train are "too dangerous" for a sparring situation- sorry but without pressure testing them you won't be able to use them in a real situation, under stress, fear for life and adrenaline rush. You know very well people who get attracted to this kind of thing. Delusional seekers of misticism and magic, plus a bunch of naruto nerds. And a bunch of "masters" love to exploit this lot, showing them basic wristlocks and japanese jiujitsu strikes. And then ask yourself- who can a ninjutsu adept beat in combat on that list. A taekwondo adept? No, they are diet kickboxers armed with the best standing kicks there are. A capoeira chad dancing around performing kicks that pack their entire bodyweight behind them? no. Another nerdy idiot who tries to copy Bruce Lee without understanding why Bruce Lee fought in a style he chose? Maybe, still probably not. D is a generous placement for it.
@@miqvPL usually there are resistence drills every class, wich in my opinion are harder than sparring... altho, its not the same as sparring... those drills are basicañly focused sparring where the objective are not symetric... example, you jave to punch my face, and i have to wristlock you... or i have to take you down and you have to get out of my grips... or i have to kick you and you have to catch my kicks and use them for a takedown... etc... There is sparring but not very often... usually like .. once a month... but yeah... i guess i got lucky with a good ninjutsu school... all 3 times i did ninjutsu at different schools...
@@miqvPL also, ninjutsu beated boxing in ufc 3, its really not that bad... for some reason, everyone who says its just for cosplay has never been to a gotonpo for example... thats like saying muay thai sucks without not only ever practicing but not even know how the competition rules are
@@gingercore69 drills instead of sparring is what is killing stuff like wing chun. And there are many videos showing wing chun dudes being completely destroyed on sparrings against kickboxers and stuff. Since you spar- you know the difference. Knowing what's coming at you in a drill cannot be compared to not knowing what your opponent will do. Should you pressure? Should you keep distance? Which combination should I try to connect? Or just go with instincts since you'll react faster? You don't have those questions on a drill, no thrill, no adrenaline, no fear from being punched in the face. as for boxing vs ninjutsu- we don't make the general outlook based on singular examples. Kimura completely destroyed Gracie on the floor with judo. Does it mean judo beats bjj on the ground? No, it means Kimura was amazing. There are Jeet Kune Do guys who are excellent in sparring. Does it mean Jeet Kune Do is better than kickboxing? Nope, it's much worse than even the most trash styles of karate. My taekwondo instructor is a monster who can destroy dudes 4 weight classes above his- does it mean taekwondo is better than kickboxing? You get the point. I bet the ninja dude from ufc 3 trained in a completely different way than most ninjutsu schools. And perhaps he had a strong background in other styles, I didn't look it up. At the end of the day martial art styles are just that, styles. It's up to an individual how much they train and how hard. I know a 140kg aikidoka who, despite being pretty out of shape, would probably beat me in a fight, since in those 45 kg weight difference is quite a lot of muscle, and his cardio isn't as bad as his weight would suggest. He would make a quite a good sumo if we had sumo schools around.
@@miqvPL resistence drills are not the same as normal drills... it has the same intensity as sparring... the difference is that the winning condition for bith fighters are different... example, you have to submit me, i have to pin you down... or you have to kick my head, i have to catch a kick and throw you
Sorry, Rokus, BJJ is not good for the streets: 1. The ground is the last place you want to be in a fight. If you end up on the ground, you want to get back to your feet as quick as possible 2. Useless against multiple opponents 3. Choking someone out could lead to death (see Daniel Penny) 4. It's been formulated for sport not the street. A lot of the techniques do not work on the street Judo or wrestling is way better for self-defence than BJJ. Boxing is the first place to train.
I always wonder what makes people experts at martial arts they haven't taken the time to learn and understand....if ur ranking for mma its not rocket science...good striking good wrestling good submissions.
People often think of Catch Wrestling backwards from how things developed. It's not wrestling with submissions added in. Rather, collegiate/folkstyle, and freestyle etc. are wrestling with the submissions removed. Wrestling had submissions from the beginning, then they were later taken out.
I don't understand why he has a problem with Kudokas wearing Gi. Isn't more convenient in a street fight to grab someone's clothes to your advantage if we're talking about self defense? Judo is also a great example. I would grade it pure A. Also Rokas, maybe in the future you should include sambo in the ranking system!
*MMA propaganda* MMA is the best in the universe *Wing Chun also say* Wing Chun is the best in the universe *Anyone would judge* My practice is the best in the universe
MMA is mixed martial arts. So, MMA practitioners can use moves from most different martial arts, as long as they are within the rules. Generally the moves that are most effective in an actual fight will be chosen for use in MMA because it rewards what works and weeds out what doesn't. It's basically a testing ground for selecting the most effective moves in martial arts.
Re: "Do you think one day we will all just train MMA?" no. If all martial arts become homogeneous, that is when people will go back to old tricks from lesser known martial arts to get some advantage. George Foreman was as successful as he was in his first run because (in addition to hitting like a truck) he used a lot of old school defensive tricks that had fallen out of favor during his era like using stops to control his opponent's punches, something that nobody else was really doing at the time. Even within single arts, you will see philosophical rifts that lead to the emergence of multiple styles, Like Japanese vs Brazilian Jujitsu, all the different forms of Karate, etc. So if MMA became a homogeneous art at any point, you would inevitably have a point where a philosophical divide would emerge on some aspect of the practice and you'd see the arts branch out into different diverging rulesets, which would create new variations on "MMA". Those divergences already exist probably, like UFC rules vs other fighting promotions, etc. Theres also the cultural aspect, some people want to get in touch with something that belongs to their culture, or you might just be interested in the history of a particular art, so people want to keep that art alive. Something like Kali or Capoeira might not be a super effective martial art in the cage, but from a cultural perspective you might find it interesting or fulfilling, or just want to keep that tradition alive. It might not help you in a street fight, but maybe it helps you get your cardio for the day.
There isn’t one style that can get you through all situations. You have to mix and in my opinion the best 3 styles to learn would be Muay-Thai-BJJ-Wrestling.
Muay thai or Boxing - pick one Judo or Wrestling - pick one BJJ This is the best combination. Striking is slightly more important than grappling in street fight btw.
Boxers may not be able to use their legs BUT they are more mobile than most martial arts, which is why their footwork is adopted in multiple Martial arts.
As a capoeirista who loves the art, I totally agree with capoeira being ranked C. Definitely not the best but not completely useless. But it does help with agility and cardio.
The thing about Wing Chun is that: It is not built for cage fighting like MMA or Boxing. It is made for self defence and close quarters. period. if you want to do cage fighting like MMA and Boxing, then you should learn BJJ and Muay Thai.
S: MMA, Sambo, Kudo A: Japanese Jiu Jitsu, Catch Wrestling, JKD A-: Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai (Kickboxing) B: Judo, Boxing, TKD, Wing Chun Kung Fu B-: Karate C: Krav Maga C-: Capoeira D: D-: F: Aikido, Systema S tier: A martial art that you can take without the need to take other martial arts or without the need to readjust the art itself to be successful in MMA or real-life combat. That martial art contains all aspects of fighting such as striking, clinching, takedowns, and ground fighting. A tier: That martial art contains only either striking (such as punching, trapping, and kicking altogether) or grappling (such as clinching, takedowns, and ground fighting altogether), but the striking component or the grappling component of that martial art is well suited for an MMA setting or for real-life combat, such that there is no need to readjust that art to make it work in MMA or real-life combat. A- tier: That martial art contains only either striking or grappling (such as clinching, takedowns, and ground fighting), but the striking component or the grappling component of that martial art needs some readjustments to make that art work in MMA or real-life combat. B tier: That martial art should be used to compliment other striking/grappling martial arts to increase the chance of success in MMA. For example, Judo throws can be used to compliment wrestling/BJJ; and boxing head-movement/footwork, TKD footwork/kicks, and Wing Chun trapping can be used to compliment kickboxing (Muay Thai). Some readjustments are still needed to make that art work in MMA or real-life combat. B- Tier: A martial art that may only either contain striking or grappling or both, but most elements of that martial art can easily be substituted (such as why do karate to train for kickboxing when you can train kickboxing instead or why train karate kicks when TKD/Muay-Thai kicks are superior) and nearly none of the elements in that martial will compliment your striking/grappling as much as B tier martial arts. C Tier and Below: A martial art with most elements that do not apply to MMA or real-life combat most of the time and there is little to no incentive to learn that art compared to other martial arts, since that martial art does not teach any fundamental aspect of striking/grappling; or that martial art has a totally flawed view of striking/grappling or has a totally flawed fundamentals. Ranking is dependent based on the applicability in MMA-setting or in real-life combat.
Bem. Arte marcial não é esporte. É arte da defesa pessoal, da guerra como o nome indica. Muitos anos de treinamento físico, mental, espiritual e estratégico. Arte marcial envolve armas. Até a capoeira legítima tem armas, a navalha, porrete, facão e bengala. Porradaria em ringue não é arte marcial por si só. Conhecer, treinar e lutar não garante sua vida, se não envolver estratégia. Fugir também é auto defesa
Agree with him on everything EXCEPT Arnis/Eskrima. Eskrima has competitive knife and stick fights. Those competitions do EXACTLY what he described. "Try and hit them with my stick faster"
Subscribe to the Martial Arts Journey newsletter for a chance to win the official MAJ rash guard! www.martialartsjourney.com/newsletter
If you don't want to leave your chances for luck, get the rash guard here now: www.xmartial.com/products/martial-arts-journey-rash-guard?ref=MARTIALARTSJOURNEY
And use code "ROKAS" for an additional 10% discount!
No mention of Kalaripayattu??? comeon guys, Kalaripayattu is one of the oldest martial art form from India.
As I understand it, Bruce Lee saw that there was a problem with martial arts. To be doing a recognized system you have to train and move within a rigid framework. Get outside of that and you're doing something else. It's called style. Bruce called style "vertical death". It took me some time to understand that. But, I get it. I spent most of the decade of the seventies in the street. Every fight I've been in was a real one. I've had people try to kill me. After I learned how to fight by fighting, I learned the elements of boxing. The only formal martial art I trained in was Chinese Kempo Karate. I told sensei "this isn't what I do". He understood. I left the club. I told him that I'd come back when I can appreciate the "art" aspect of Kempo. It didn't happen. Sensei died. The club closed. Many years later I met a man that has many detractors. Nevertheless, I trained with him, and he knows a great deal about this. You might want to talk to Christophe Clugston. His method is not attribute driven. It is performance driven. You don't have to drill this stuff for years to become a "technician". After a few hours you'd be amazed at how fast you ramp up to speed. There are streetfighters out there that say "martial artists have had their day". They're right. It's called technology. And yes it has advanced. Contact Chris and get his version of it. And the detractors? Yeah, I've heard it all before. So has he.
Muay Thai is number 1 in street
How can you put boxing at same level as kickboxing.
Talk about Baji Quan please it's Chinese and Taiwan bodyguard chose style and even Emperor guard practices it.
I love to see people giving Catch Wrestling the respect it deserves.
Catch is awesome there's so much leverage behind those submissions and the neck cranks are devastating
I can't wait until catch wrestling catches on!
Where do you guys find catch wrestling? It's hard enough finding judo let alone adult wrestling. But I can't throw a rock without hitting another bjj gym.
@@punteroism it's almost impossible to find indeed.
So I started going to Wrestling in an MMA gym.
And I bought a bunch of Catch instructionals by Billy Robinson and Josh Barnett and I try to incorporate as much of it as I can.
Also next month I'm flying to UK for Catch world championship (as a spectator).
But I'll visit Wigan Snake Pit and for the first time have a few classes of proper Catch.
Grappling is grappling... and doing something is better than doing nothing.
Get some instructionals... get a grappling dummy... and find some people willing to roll with you.
That's a start ;)
catch wrestling borrowed their submissions from jujitsu. this is a fact
I think you should split the ranking videos for self-defense and MMA into separate videos
I agree. Two very different scenarios.
i dont even think MMA should be included as martial arts on this list. Because MMA simply took the best things from others martial arts and was not developed the technique/style itself. While the others martial art was developed over centuries or even millennia of experience and effort to get its technique and style as we know it today.
@@questionyourself718Yep, one is cannis cannie edit (Dog eat dog) and the other one is a paid, 'try-and-hit' thing.
Taekwondo at B- and not F? Are we finally exiting the 20 year long era of internet critics relentlessly hating on Taekwondo without even critically analyzing it? Hope so.
Man taekwondo and karate are overhated especially by the mma crowd.
I agree there are better martial arts for mma than these two like muay thai,bjj,boxing,dutch kickboxing,judo,sambo etc but even taekwondo and karate are good
As a taekwondo player,i can say you should go for other martial arts but taekwondo improves your kicks,fitness(mainly flexibility),reaction time,mentality,etc. and will definitely improve your health
Karate,my god finally people are understanding it is actually helpful but it just needs a little tweaks.
Still, legs get grappled, there is no more kicks.
@@factsfeelings3928thats not how it works a lot of karate styles have grappling
@@thunderkatz4219 I believe the OP said taekwondo, not karate.
There's nothing like a professional fighter to tell us what works and what doesn't in a fight as long as there are no more than two individuals involved, and yet making it clear that other martial arts have their positive points in training the body in some aspects. I'm with him. BJJ for the win, but you have to learn some striking as well.
I disagrees with him when he put kudo below bjj. If you're a kudoka you could go into anything really and move up quiet quickly because you already have a grasp of the movements while in bjj you have to basically start from scratch in wrestling and striking then get the skill to transition between them into groundwork. For street fighting its a no brainer which one is better
its good in theory, but his points are illogical and inconsistent
He speaks from experience, and he’s correct in all he says. Kudo is fine but the use of a helmet allows for risk taking that cannot occur when you take the helmet off. He’s got it nailed.
BJJ, Judo, Krav Maga, Systema, Aikido are all nearly identical with Aikido being the more complete of them all. The only thing that Aikido doesn't train is the guard and some of the chokes and sweeps, other than that it has everything from BJJ plus 10,000 more techniques and weapons and multiple opponent training. Aikido is superior to BJJ for street self defense and survival and weapons, but not for fighting, they aren't the same thing (fighting and self defense.) They didn't rate Daito Ryu, I wonder why?
Urijah Faber
MMA/UFC/Muay Thai/NCAA Wrestling/BJJ WORLD CHAMPION almost died in a street fight, Aikido black belt never would have got in that situation and would have been better prepared against multiple attackers, known not to clinch, go to ground in a street fight: ruclips.net/video/k-oCew_ef94/видео.html
Rickson Gracie starting his BJJ seminar with Aikido drills made famous by Tohei Sensei (Aikido's former head instructor) a long time ago then saying that BJJ guard has nothing to do with self defense. Professor Rickson is basically teaching Aikido basics in this seminar. Put an Aikido gi on him and its an Aikido class.
ruclips.net/video/Jh3K4ttwuyg/видео.html
Here is some of the Gracie family members at "Gracie Jiu-jitsu Academy" recounting how a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu purple belt student got beat up in a street fight and felt that his BJJ was useless. The student pulled guard but was getting hurt with punches that he never learned and he was a purple belt. The BJJ purple belt was disallusioned with BJJ and act why haven't I ever learned this in BJJ.
ruclips.net/video/e864iZ4sB8Q/видео.html
BJJ on the street is literally asking for hospitalization. It's made for cage fighting and only works there
Appreciated this guy's brevity.
Why do most MMA fighters forget that (real) Judo is all about newaza (ground fighting) too? Maybe they don't know that BJJ is a subset of the original Judo (Kano Jujutsu).
I think everyone is thinking of what's most common today, not what the origin of the martial art was
Rokas had an interview with one great Judoka like a year ago and he said that ground fighting in Judo is pretty basic compared to BJJ and some wrestling styles. And from what I've seen with my limited grappling experience- it looks right.
In our judo dojo every black belt student there does BJJ on the side (they wanted me to join but it conflicts with my tkd lessons)
Well, if the dojo focuses on competition, you'll only have 30 seconds of ground fighting tops. But I wouldn't call it "basic" when compared to bjj. Actually, there's absolutely nothing new on bjj, they didn't invent anything, it's all present in the kodokan canon. In Brazil, where I live, there are even judo newaza competitions. There's this great coach here called Moacir Mendes that would yield a great interview, Rokas. Kudos on your channel, brilliant stuff as always
BJJ took judo ne waza and improve it, that's it.. ahh but some coach bla bla bla, much respect to them .. ok, good for him, but nothing changes the fact that bjj is an upgraded ne waza.. you can do it in judo classes of course, but it's different. It's simple.
What I've seen in the two dojos I've been to, up until the brown belt (to get black you need a certain amount of points in competition), it's mainly newaza in randori (70%) bc it's just safer for beginners to learn and it's only in a competition that the fight often stops after the throw.
I guess it shows how much variance there is between teachers around the world.
For the question of "will there be one day only MMA?" I think the "sport" martial arts, like judo and taekwondo and other will stay.
The pratice of these are far safer (less risk of hurting yourself) thanks to their narrower set of autorized moves
Nowadays, they don't claim to be self-defense training, they are a relatively well internationnal federation that guarantee a certain stability in what is taught and an active competitive scene
The sad truth about taekwondo is that like Karate, it was meant for true combat, but the olympics made them to be just sports-based styles. If trained correctly, it is an hybrid system of kickboxing, with a little of judo and japanese jujutsu. I think the biggest problem of taekwondo, apart of being a modern martial art, is that it have lost its purpose with the explosive popularity it had back on 80s and 90s that set it almost exclusively to sport fighting
@@andrebarros4936 encyclopedia of taekwondo (15 volumes) doesn't include any grappling techniques, so I don't know what you base that knowledge on. Taekwondo's main 2 roots are Taekkyon and Shotokan karate, both of which include close-to-zero grappling.
I love my itf taekwondo, but it cannot be compared to proper kickboxing. It's greatest achievement in martial arts history is "it's better than shotokan karate". And I cannot in a clear conscience say it's better than another improvement over shotokan- kyokushin karate.
It is superior in many ways to kyokushin karate, but you don't spar nearly as much in taekwondo as you do in kyokushin.
And there is no substitute for sparring. At the end of the day it's diet kickboxing + some very good kicks, a great supplement to muay thai dudes who want to kick some more. Taekwondo doesn't need to be anything more than that. It's a great balance training, awesome stretching, it's hard to do and beautiful to look at. And way more effective in a fight than 95% of kung fu.
I like that this MMA fighter doesn't have any bias against tkd like many other people Rokas interviewed. He knows what it is.
Rokas still hasn't learned that fighting and self defense are two different things. Then you have actual war which is a 3rd different thing.
@@VenturaITPretty useless having any hand to hand combat skills in war though.
You’d probably have to go back to before homo-sapiens first appeared where people fought conflicts without some sort of weapons….
@@westington1Real martial art include weapons training. The techniques without the weapons are for if you lose your weapon during a battle. The "martial arts" without weapons are really not "martial" at all, unless they are used in a battle in a war... this is just the definition of words, but people have all kinds of false beliefs not supported by facts.
Ive been practicing Japanese jujitsu for for 20 years. 100% agree. In principle it is an S tier marital art. In jujitsu we spar, we grapple, we throw each other, and in randori, you dont stop until you submit or theres a clear stalemate. I will stand by S tier in principle. Thing is, there just isnt enough time to be in the elite level of what it practices. It is a great foundation if you want to move to more specialised training for conpeting as it covers a lot of bases. But the average jujitsu goer will not do amazing in specialised competitions. However, it is good, great in fact, for self defence. Seen it myself in real time. It all depends what youre training for
If you see what he says he talked about yes you do everything but you only end up mediocre. It’s like mma in that regard you do a lot but only get ok at everything unless you spend yearrsssss doing it
But it could easily be s tier by you know the 10 or 20 years you do it
@daygenhall6126 for most people, like myself, its a hobby. So training for 4 hours a week, trying to cover throwing, grappling, striking in a non-professional setting is simply impossible to be at that standard. If a Japanese jujitsu class had the training regime of mma, it could produce great fighters. But sadly that doesn't exist. But it does mean we can look after ourselves with most of the population
@daygenhall6126 I'm happy to admit I am not an s tier martial artist. I'd be delusional, even with the 20 years. Plus, the last 5 years I've been plagued with unrelated knee injuries. So I'm definitely not s tier XD
@@joe94c no no you’re exactly right I think Japanese jujitsu is up there for sure one of the better martial arts. Personally I really wanna get into sambo
Glad Natan gave karate a fair shake. He's a sandan in Uechi ryu and does his kata beautifully.
Does his kata that well in a street attack does he ?
@@serenityinside1 oh no not this guy 🙄
Does he? Because he spoke bad about kata in the video, like saying that some schools does it, and he doesn't understand why
To me what he said about karate was mixed. There are styles that are more fighting oriented and some less so. Karate is not a monolith. Schools like Kyokushinkai, Uechi ryu and others produce good fighters. Some schools less so. @@alessandrocattaneo4810
The problem with BJJ and grappling in general is the it's totally useless if you're faced with multiple opponents. In this situation then you're f*cked.
You can also make the same argument for striking. It becomes useless when faced against multiple opponents.
Not always true. Tell that to Mike Tyson. :) who grew up in the harsh streets of Catskill, NY. Striking, cardio, and footwork is very important. Especially, when it comes to a very bad mass attack situation. And to top it all I definitely say Filipino Kali weapons training as well. Besides, most Goons don t know how to fight. That s why they will band together to fight you. Now I don t encourage to fight mass people. It is very dangerous fight them all. But when crap really hits the fan. It s all about surviving, and getting the hell out of there with situational awareness and good judgement
@@christophermarkee5445 , Actually if you're a very very good striker, then it's likely that you can handle 3, 4, or even 5 average people, and I've seen it first hand in real life. On the other hand, no matter how good a grappler you are, there's no way you can handle that many people, simply because with grappling you can only focus on 1 person at a time. I'm not saying that grapping is useless, not at all, as a matter of fact it's an absolutely essential skill to have in the ring, you really need to master it to reach to the top.
@@JeffreyParker-ok5ed , the fact is that there's too many variables in real life situations, it's often very very risky to fight anyone. Actually, the best martial art of all is track and field😀 A fight avoided is a fight won😁
@@BrianWang-dg8gl I would not disagree. But I m just saying if you dont have that option. And no, I m not going to say. Let's go get a gun! Anyone behind the computer can say that
MMA isn't a style. Its a general ruleset
Could you make videos where pro fighters pick the most valuable/effective technique from each martial art? this way we can see what is the best thing that each martial art can offer
I’d say you basically are seeing that as MMA continues to evolve.
I went into MMA from a kickboxing background (Dutch style first, then thai for a couple of years), plus boxing when I was younger.
You adjust a lot when grappling is introduced - stances being maybe the thing that is most interesting there:
Boxing stance is out, as it makes you venerable to takedowns especially , but also kicks (just the transition from that to any sort of kickboxing is a big adjustment).
Thai boxing is probably superior to most other kickboxing style (even though you’d usually find the same ruleset in most places nowadays), but Dutch combo’s and stance transitions much better to MMA in my experience.
Training style too - Dutch is waay too hard in sparring, and that isn’t good for you. The Thai way of training is better for all combat sports I’d say, as the focus on technical sparring (rather than kicking the shit out of each other each training session) is better for learning, and much better for avoiding issues associated with concussions etc.
.
I’ve seen MMA evolve in the gyms I’ve been in - in terms of training approaches and fitness approaches especially - and you can see fighters refining techniques from other Combat sports down to what is most effective, most often (so low risk, high reward shots), as well as fitness training definitely giving an edge at the highest level.
GSP is a great example of all of the above. Perfect martial artist imo
Rokas, I'm surprised you didn't mention Sanda or Combat Sambo-would have loved to see how those stacked up
He would have ranked combat sambo on the same place as kudo they're virtually identical.
@@ghengiskhan9308minus the headbutts
Sanda is like nogi judo with striking allowed, pretty great, A-. Combat Sambo is basically MMA, should be S. Combat Sambo world champions turn into mma world champions
The best martial arts is the school that teaches what you want in a way you enjoy
If you enjoy ninjutsu and love it then do it
100% agreed
I study ninpo taijutsu, I like it I think it’s effective if practiced not just told it works. We do randori not every day but every Friday basically putting the waza we were shown during week to a controlled environment test. 4 on 1 randomly attacked. I hope it works
I thought kudo should have been ranked higher in self-defense situations in Northern environments or people were heavy jackets you could still use those grips like in judo kudo is well rounded you're not going to be walking around in just shorts and with no shirt on all the time
Thank you for having me Rokas!
The thing is is that Muay Thai obviously as you know is ring rules. But the Art of War itself, has a history to it. Obviously you probably know that when the thai the burmese, muay Boran ❤ the soldiers of ancient Thailand wrapping their hands dipping them in glass using their bodies As Weapons hence the art of eight limbs, that's why when you learn from the true Thai , it's a whole different ballgame than learning in america. America teaches it in a barbaric way, I know it sounds contradictive but at the same time, I was always taught actually by Russians that were trained in the Belarusian military, once you get hit you calm down, you get hit again you calm down even more, you let your energy build up let them waste their energy, and then that's when you start to strike, I love the music the Sarama, how beautifully it starts off so slow after obviously you perform your why crew, if you fall off and are not up to par with the rhythm, you will fall you will lose balance you will lose concentration it's like Charming a snake, and a lot of people specially americans, when they fight or train, they think that kicking a pad with a monitor that measures their kick power means that's how hard they are going to kick their opponents LOL not realizing that they are not conditioned enough and that if they do throw the kick that hard, their Shin bones will snap. They don't condition enough, and it's kind of upsetting because all of these videos on RUclips show them throwing these kicks against these pads with monitors saying oh yeah I have the hardest kick, it's like yeah go ahead throw that against a real Muay Thai Fighter that actually is conditioned enough to check your kick, it's like go ahead throw you are shinbone as hard as you can and see if you can withstand it LOL another thing is that they don't understand that the more weight that you have on your calf muscle the heavier and harder to kick along with the hip twist, but also keeping eye contact with your opponent, Americans seem to not understand all of the physics when it comes to Muay thai, they just think that you have elbows knees and kicks and that's it but realistically, the clinch is a whole nother art in itself, and they definitely do not master that a lot in America it's kind of upsetting, because I've seen them practice here, I am american, don't get me wrong second generation my family is Greek and sicilian, but at the same time I learned from russians, who learned from thailand, and they teach it completely differently than you would if you were to go to some cko kickboxing gym or some run in the mill American kickboxing gym, sometimes they think kickboxing is Muay Thai and it makes me cringe LOL I'm like you guys really don't understand the difference but you did great in this video seriously I love the way you labeled all of the martial arts and the levels to everything, I just love how you explained it all absolutely amazing brother❤❤
I was talking to John Wayne par recently and he was telling me about his fight with sombat, and he told me that his style was just something that was out of this world. The way he adjusted and adapted to any type of change that John tried to make, it was not matched. He could not keep up that well with sombat, this is why I Honestly Love buakaw, but in America he is totally underrated he's not mentioned everybody mentions Saenchai, and that is fine because he's a legend as well, and there are a lot more Legends out there, but sombat is not mentioned enough in America these guys have no idea who the hell he is and it's almost sad because if they did, they would get it. When I learned from the Russians I adapted my style to sombat, it's like learning how to ride a bike and then turning into a BMX artist, I basically took the same principle and I look up to sombat, he is my idol he will always be same with John Wayne parr, but sombat will always be my favorite and he has my utmost respect I love him to death the man is a legend and totally underrated in America❤
Also, Pankratuon❤❤❤😂 sorry I'm Greek so I just had to throw that out there LOL
You know what also drives me nuts brother? When people say oh I am training UFC I'm like oh are you really training to fight in that league? They say what do you mean? I'm like your training UFC so what martial arts are you practicing and who is signing your contract to fight for UFC? I just cringe I'm like you mean your training mixed martial arts? And if so which martial arts are you practicing? Americans LOL😂😂😂
Systema I've practiced for as long as Muay Thai as well, some call it Bullshido until they meet some actual Russian solider who knows it well 😅😅❤❤
Nobody talks about capoeira Angola. Our primary strikes are 12/6 elbows and headbutts. So quite difficult to apply in cage with rules. Regional and Contemporary is different ;)
The mistake many people generally make about Capoeira is ignore its actual practical applications, all the knee strikes, takedowns, actual ground defence, elbows, elbow strikes, and it can be done standing up, but all they think is the dance.
because its a joke circus clown show and not a martial art.
@@Feroxing12 para de falar merda na Internet e vai estudar sobre a capoeira !
Yeah people see the flicks in capoeira and write it off as some acrobatic show. Funny how capoeira tried to conceal the effectiveness of the martial art back when slaves invented it and it still works to this day.
@@Feroxing12yeah.. Mr. Feroxing knows everything about capoeira to make this assumption.
You can pratice and master every martial art that will be a circus show when my glock be pointing at you.
The most important thing is going to a decent school/ Dojo no matter what you style is that you like, even a MMA academy can make you a bad fighter if the teachers and colleagues are bad. Also, I love the "what works and what doesn't" statement in martial arts, because even though there's useless techniques for self defense or sparring, the effective ones could also fail.
honestly, there is no such thing as a technique that doesn't work. Because each technique is dependent on context and each punch is unique. saying a technique/martial art is bullshido is as meaningless as saying jab jab doesn't work because the opponent ducked. Everything works dependent on context - heck even George Dillman's shit worked in the context of a dojo full of hypnotised students, in the same way you force your opponent into positions in the cage.
Your comment makes zero sense. He says the opposite. You should be training techniques that work for everyone always, not some obscure nonsense. Yes, your school might be poor, but change it. The style you train, however, will determine your fighting prowess.
@@Purwapada This is complete and utter bullshit! Saying "there is no technique that doesn't work" is completely horseshit, Aikido techniques *might* work in some scenarios against people that are untrained, but techniques from Wrestling, BJJ and Kickboxing all work against people who ARE trained, let alone people who aren't.
If you need proof of the fact things like Aikido, Wing Chun, and Kung Fu are completely useless, just watch some more of Roka's videos, he is a pro Aikido black belt and he learned that people who did traditional Kickboxing/Boxing/MMA completely folded him with ease.
I agree with the premise that "everything works dependent on context", however the context in question is: Is your opponent untrained in fighting? Yes? Then maybe some techniques from Wing Chun, Aikido etc will work.
Is your opponent trained in fighting martial arts/sports? Yes? In THAT context absolutely 0% of Aikido or Wing Chun or anything like that will work against them.
The ONLY effective martial arts are Boxing, Kickboxing, Muay Thai (and all its derivatives), BJJ, Wrestling and Judo. If it works, it incorporates one or more of these, if it incorporates none, it doesn't work. End. Of. Story.
The fact that regular wrestling is so dominant in MMA doesn't seem to have hit him. And wtf is krav maga doing so high in the list? How many krav maga guys have become mma champions compared to wrestlers? Ridiculous.
There are many inconsistencys in the List. Wing Chun wich is a more practical and realistic to use version of Kung Fu is ranked below normal Kung Fu.
I think Krav Maga is high because it’s meant to be effective on the street
Apparently, krav maga is illegal in MMA.
@@nikolaigaming2097 No. It simply doesn't work. In any context.
@@raphaelgracia551
Krav Maga is extremely effective on the street because it meant for against an unfair fight
Please, stop ranking BJJ better than Judo... BJJ is the Ne waza part of Judo... Judo+Jujitsu are way better than BJJ...
I’m thinking in start doing judo but let’s say that you are fighting somebody without clothes does yudo still working?
Yes it still works. Many techniques without a gi.
@@VerdouZ It's hard to meet shirtless people in the streets.
U can't win fight by only throwing ppl alone LOLOL
Probably the best tier video you have, short, to the point, no bias. Especially when karate was taken down to tkd level, that was very valid and fair. Kyokushin maybe more like a B tier since no face punches are a big flaw + some of their punches are as outdated and ridiculous like in shotokan and tkd. Ninjutsu probably more like D-. Catch wrestling is on point too. MMA on top since you really need to train how to mix striking with grappling to use all separate skills you have.
"outdated punches" - how much of that can be attributed to the idea of no-gloves?
I.e., in most modern competitions, people wear gloves, but when these MA were invented, their inventors prepared for no gloves fights?
@@doyouwanttogivemelekiss3097 not much. If you want to do bareknuckle fighting you still swing like a boxer (mostly, experts will tell you there are small details done differently).
In karate and taekwondo you use the extremely outdated mindset of "one punch should be all you need", so they hit as hard and fast as you can. Which is an extremely dumb thing to do in an actual fight, as you're gonna break your hand when hitting someones forearm or elbow aka your punch getting blocked.
Obviously the position from which they are throwing punches is also outdated, but thats a longer story about blocking kicks with low forearm blocks, conditioning blah blah blah.
Tl;dr there is a reason why the best punchers in history arent karatekas (maybe aside Mas Oyama but that dude spend years punching trees and whatever the fuck)
@@miqvPLperfect answer and you are completely correct
In regards to kickboxing, it depends on the gym but some can be a mix of kickboxing, muay thai or even a bit of mma.
Learning to knee, elbow, stuff the takedown, apply guillotines and the like.
Its just in sparring and tournaments where you cant knee, elbow and grapple.
Clinching isnt against the rules but it does get broken up pretty quickly as so the fight can actually continue.
yea i think mixing Kickboxing(American style) for it's variety fluid kicks & Muay Thai's powerful kicks, elbow & knee strikes and strong defense would make that Kickboxer more sufficient!
Boxing, Jitz and Krav Maga is all I've ever trained. Want to train Catch as well, but nice to see my chosen three are reapectable choices.
Seems like a solid list for applicability to MMA. I feel like he's not really putting much thought into the self defense aspect though. He asks "Why would you wear a gi to a fight?" Sure, you're not going to go into an MMA fight in a gi, but you're not going to end up in a self defense scenario in boxing shorts.
As far as whether escrima is effective for weapons defense, his take seems very "fighter who's never trained with weapons makes assumptions about what would work with weapons." Armed martial arts have existed even longer than unarmed ones, people have had some time to figure out stuff that works by now.
yes, he doesnt seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed
I used to think gi was less realistic than no gi, then I did army combatives and we grapple in our uniforms that we wear day in and day out on a regular basis. Grappling in a military uniform is 100% gi grappling.
He also assumes the drills he sees is actually "fighting."
Can you please make the videos like this a little bit longer? Maybe not an hour long but it's kinda hard to understand for a foreigner what he says if it's cut together that fast.
Feedback taken!
Everybody always ranks "if you are attacked in the street" but what about YOU attacking someone in the street? Ninjutsu would be A for sure! LOL
Lmao, it’s for self attack I swear
LOL !! I've tried for real ninjutsu and if you're sneak attacking someone, it's one and done kind of stuff!
Only issue is with the FMA breakdown, that's like watching a boxer work pads and commenting that they're not trying to hit the opponent
Hey Rokas! First off, I love your videos. I would love to see you do one of these with Hapkido. Hapkido is specifically designed for self defense, so I'd love to see how you think it stacks up with some of the other Martial Arts you review. I've only trained at one school (Dojang) so unfortunately I don't know if it was an outlier or if it was a good representation of the art as a whole, but I have found it to be extremely effective on more than one occasion.
I am sorry, but considering people in real life wear clothes unlike the fighters in a cage, Kudo should be the only one ranked S as it is a type of mma (Mixed Martial Arts) that adresses that, on top of having headbutts. It makes no sense to put Kudo on the same level as judo when kudo is basically judo plus striking and then say that the average mma gym is an S.
Other than that I enjoyed the video, looking foward to the second season of the Ultimate Self Defense Championship Rokas. From what I looked, it seems you won't be competing this time, only organizing, correct?
thing about Kudo is- it doesn't do anything on a very high level. It's grappling isn't nearly as good as in judo, it's striking isn't nearly as good as kickboxing. Headbutts are nice, mixing striking with grappling is also very nice. But say you want to use those skills in MMA- according to the rule "dont try to outbox a boxer, don't try to outgrapple a grappler"- you can't do anything there. Your strikes are basic and outdated, your grappling is basic. You're gonna be smashed by a boxer or submitted by a wrestler on average.
@@miqvPLi think you don't know what you are talking about
@@miqvPL "don't try to outbox a boxer, don't try to outgrapple a grappler" isn"t a rule set in stone, it's more of a guideline, we see people beating others at their own game in every sport, this isn't new. If the idea is that kudo doesn't do anything high level because it splits it's training between different disciplines without being great in any, the same can be said about what most people call "MMA", most MMA fighters get outboxed by boxers, submitted by bjj black belts and slammed by wrestlers. If you are saying that kudo isn't high level as whole, you should search more, it is one of the most high level MMA competitions out there, alongside Shoto for example. What people like the UFC guy in this video does is pick the best outliers of what he calls "MMA" and try to use that to put it in a pedestall it doesn' t belong. Heck, the middleweight division of UFC has been dominated for quite a while by two kickboxers with laughable grappling, this idea that someone going to a regular MMA gym will be the most prepared and complete fighter compared to other styles like kudo, simply isn't true. No point in your comment stands as an argument, being little more than observvations.
This man don't know Judo
As soon as someone who does judo gets close, it is over. But against a boxer you gotta tank a few hits, so you gotta be able to move in quick, or/ and be able to tank some big hits. I feel like A, I feel like it would be very useful, but hitting someone would also be very useful.
It doesn’t know kung fu he say a lot of shit
@@roelofklooster4349 Exactly, if you survive when are approaching you will win the fight certainly.
He's only a pro fighter what does he know
@@thenomad123 He tested every art martial ?
And if you 've been ten years without training, you don't go to the gym, and so on, and then you have a fight, what MA would be more effective? When you fight in real life, you have heavy shoes, strengthen trousers, you can't start to warm up, and so on... maybe the the ranking would change in a 90%. I mean, being realistic, proffesional fighters, train everyday, fight barefoot, warming up, with rules etc, and this has nothing to do with the situation described previously. It's difficult to be 100% realistic in a fight of REAL life. Agree anybody?
Interesting that he mentioned that stopping a stick with your stick is impractical whereas in HEMA that is what is called a parry
He probably does not have much experience with weapon fighting
That "stopping a stick with a stick" is just a drill anyway. Ofc real fight will not turn out to be a freaking star wars sword fight. Every hit of the stick represents a bodypart.
Wait till he finds out you can hit people with your stick, while knocking aside their stick simultaneously...
@@Zwerchhauimagine once he finds out that the stick actually represents a blade and stick is for training
Silat is so good most of the moves are banned from the ufc made to kill people
What works broadly for the vast majority of people is what he is talking about and he is completely correct in everything he says.
Perfect ranking! love this video.
I think the people who could benefit the most from "self defense" training are not the young, strong, athletic guys, but rather smaller, older, men and women.
Using that criteria, I would like to see a rating based on how much such students would benefit from training each martial or 6 months, twice a week, which I think would be a more typical scenario.
Muay Thai + BJJ + Judo 🔥
MT+Boxing+BJJ+Judo+Wrestling 🔥
@@No_step_on_snakeBatman?
@@No_step_on_snakeNow that's hard to beat.
Judo and muay thai work beautiful together.
@@Todo_fighting I don't doubt it.
Tier videos are so awesome and this was no exception.
A MMA school that also taught Krav Maga would be a great combination. The Krav Maga training would cover the dirty fighting aspects and the real world tactics that aren't in a MMA ring.
Judo is often underrated because most good judoka get passed along as sambo fighters
Wrong. There is striking in Judo. Please don't confuse 'sport' Judo you see at the Olympics with actual Judo.
Ranking it below BJJ, which is the Newaza component of Judo, is also ridiculous.
Awesome to see natan on this channel, great video!
I was prepared to disagree.... and then I didn't. He changed karate at the very end.
My only "kind of" disagreement was Jeet Kun Do, which he touched on. The philosophy of Bruce is what has lead to MMA. Anyone teaching JKD like it's some kind of martial art should just be laughed at, because it's not.
You learn karate, boxing, wrestling, BJJ, and whatever other styles you want. Then you apply the principles of JKD to that, making it YOUR style. It is what works for you, and you only figure that part out by actually doing it and experimenting.
Very good video. I like that guy :)
Rokas. I feel you have not covered traditional jujutsu so much. In fact when you search on jiu-jitsu it is mostly bjj. I would like to see more traditional jujutsu styles covered. Thank you for great content!
Too bad the video ended prematurely, I would have liked to hear his answer on Lethwei and Tai Chi :)
real tai chi is basically lethwei.
I do chen style tai chi and spar with Muay thai guys
Pencak Silat from Indonesia is number one ☝️
I love how nearly everyone loves Master Ken and most people know him since he practically made the mcdojo meme an entire show and made it popular.
Boxing and wrestling is the absolute basics of mma, feel like they deserve higher on the list...
Hi Rokas! Great video! I've been a fan for a long time! I'd love to interview you on your martial arts journey.
Thank yoy so much guys for guiding us through it
F Aikido :)
The way of harmonious spirit. Aikido is about giving a power to defeat anyone but also to not abuse it, don't mistake the one who doesn't use power with the one who don't have a power... Aikido could be even S tier if you have a trusted sensei that will teach you everything.
I think it might be interesting (and quite the opposite of the usual stuff) if you do the same with a movie choreographer, but ask him to rank martial arts by they cinematic qualities
For me personally with BJJ there are three problems:
1. I know two people who trained BJJ and both had ripped squirrels in their knees and went through an operache (in sparring someone did them the levers too much)
2. Many techniques are described by holding the opponent's outfit, and on the mat the outfit is different than on a daily basis, the daily ren is small, durable and often slips the sue out of your hands, so some techniques are impossible. Only those made directly on the ankle, knee, elbow and wrist are useful for me.
3. If there are two attackers and one of them will put you in a fight, the other will kill you with his shoes. Who has seen the fights of football hooligans knows how it can be a fight with 2-3 opponents when one is on the ground floor. It looks like an execution, not a fight.
I’m glad Natan stated that there are good Karate schools and a lot of terrible. Not a lot of good karate schools but not EVERY school is bad.
When it comes to Kali/Escrima, the practitioners use the sticks to hit to learn to defend when someone strikes to then counter, but that’s my guess
I learned a lot from his quick explanations about his experience and understanding.
A lot of what you see in FMA is the basics - you learn to block a stick before you learn to start countering because the stick is a training tool for a short sword, and you don't want to be hit second with a sword any more than you want to be hit first.
Loved the video 👍
The only thing I miss in these tierlists is ITF Taekwondo, which I guess is less popular in America but I would say more prominent in Europe than WTF (Olympic) Taekwondo. So I have to take kickboxing as a kind-of-representative of ITF, because they're pretty similiar on competitive level.
Fun fact: there’s certain fictional martial arts that can be overhauled to real world styles. One example being Nico-style from Kengan Ashura being a combination of Karate, Muay Thai, Jiujitsu, and Aikido
If this list was meant for self defense or unaliving your opponent FMA wouldve been S
Shen Lung Kung Fu, a style that was brought over in the 60s, teaches traditional Kung Fu, but it also teaches Boxing, Judo, Wrestling, Jiu Jitsu etc., so all Kung Fu is not the same. Probably not great if you want to do MMA, but maybe a good way to expose yourself to various martial arts and pick a couple to specialize in.
@rokas can you please start to differentiate between ITF and WT tae kwon do? They are Worlds Apart and always end up getting lumped together.
Was literally going to comment this... ITF is legit... One organisation/curriculum as well so you won't find a mcdojo... I would put ITF ahead of Karate, but WTF is garbage lol
BJJ A+ and Judo A-?
Are you kidding me?
Most BJJ schools teach judo too
in which country? @@mikey1717
You must be garbage at submissions if u think bjj is worse than judo
As a black belt in judo AND taekwondo (i trained for 20 years)
There is no chance that judo is above taekwondo.
Its going to be really hard for a judoka to even get to someone without knowing basic boxing and movment techniques that don't exist in judo.
Taekwondo is not designed for street fighting but you know how to deal with most punches and kicks unlike judo
Also ranking Wing Chun that low is not credible
finally ninjutsu isn’t an F
I don’t think there’s ever going to be just one martial art, like MMA. I think it’s just too broad and that there’s always going to be a desire to see competitions that emphasizes more specific skill sets. Even in the Ancient Greek Olympics, there were three hand-to-hand combat sports: boxing, wrestling, and Pankration. Even though they had a version of MMA, they still set aside time to train JUST striking and JUST grappling. And I think that’s because it’s legitimately helpful to break up your training that way and because it’s fun to see who’s the best at each particular discipline
Why do you called "real fighters" always assume that people only Martial Arts to do nothing else but fight.
Some do it for history and tradition, some people do it to simply better themselves physically and mentally.
There’s nothing Brazilian about bjj. It’s basically watered down judo.
People underestimate ninjutsu alot... ninjutsu is basically japanese jujutsu + acrobatics and weapons... its not the best, but its not that bad...
I compete in a martial art called sipalki, wich is similar to mma in rulesets, allow less things but allows throws, submission, strikes and some level of ground and pound... there are different schools, and one of the schools that fought in that tournament specialized in grappling... so, i fought someone from that school, my school specialized in keeping the distance... the guy managed to grab me... i managed to escape from an experienced grappler like 3 times because of my ninjutsu experience...
Anyways, i admit its not the best style, not even on the top 3 ranks... but its actually much better than people think it is
well if you learn rasengan and chidori then it's F since energy attacks are not allowed under MMA rules.
But for real now- I bet there's a good ninjutsu school somewhere. But most of them are mcdojos for cosplay fans. Every video I've seen of ninjutsu training was a flavored aikido. And there's no substitute for sparring, never was, never will be. If the skills you train are "too dangerous" for a sparring situation- sorry but without pressure testing them you won't be able to use them in a real situation, under stress, fear for life and adrenaline rush.
You know very well people who get attracted to this kind of thing. Delusional seekers of misticism and magic, plus a bunch of naruto nerds. And a bunch of "masters" love to exploit this lot, showing them basic wristlocks and japanese jiujitsu strikes.
And then ask yourself- who can a ninjutsu adept beat in combat on that list. A taekwondo adept? No, they are diet kickboxers armed with the best standing kicks there are. A capoeira chad dancing around performing kicks that pack their entire bodyweight behind them? no. Another nerdy idiot who tries to copy Bruce Lee without understanding why Bruce Lee fought in a style he chose? Maybe, still probably not. D is a generous placement for it.
@@miqvPL usually there are resistence drills every class, wich in my opinion are harder than sparring... altho, its not the same as sparring... those drills are basicañly focused sparring where the objective are not symetric... example, you jave to punch my face, and i have to wristlock you... or i have to take you down and you have to get out of my grips... or i have to kick you and you have to catch my kicks and use them for a takedown... etc...
There is sparring but not very often... usually like .. once a month... but yeah... i guess i got lucky with a good ninjutsu school... all 3 times i did ninjutsu at different schools...
@@miqvPL also, ninjutsu beated boxing in ufc 3, its really not that bad... for some reason, everyone who says its just for cosplay has never been to a gotonpo for example... thats like saying muay thai sucks without not only ever practicing but not even know how the competition rules are
@@gingercore69 drills instead of sparring is what is killing stuff like wing chun. And there are many videos showing wing chun dudes being completely destroyed on sparrings against kickboxers and stuff.
Since you spar- you know the difference. Knowing what's coming at you in a drill cannot be compared to not knowing what your opponent will do. Should you pressure? Should you keep distance? Which combination should I try to connect? Or just go with instincts since you'll react faster? You don't have those questions on a drill, no thrill, no adrenaline, no fear from being punched in the face.
as for boxing vs ninjutsu- we don't make the general outlook based on singular examples. Kimura completely destroyed Gracie on the floor with judo. Does it mean judo beats bjj on the ground? No, it means Kimura was amazing. There are Jeet Kune Do guys who are excellent in sparring. Does it mean Jeet Kune Do is better than kickboxing? Nope, it's much worse than even the most trash styles of karate. My taekwondo instructor is a monster who can destroy dudes 4 weight classes above his- does it mean taekwondo is better than kickboxing? You get the point.
I bet the ninja dude from ufc 3 trained in a completely different way than most ninjutsu schools. And perhaps he had a strong background in other styles, I didn't look it up.
At the end of the day martial art styles are just that, styles. It's up to an individual how much they train and how hard. I know a 140kg aikidoka who, despite being pretty out of shape, would probably beat me in a fight, since in those 45 kg weight difference is quite a lot of muscle, and his cardio isn't as bad as his weight would suggest. He would make a quite a good sumo if we had sumo schools around.
@@miqvPL resistence drills are not the same as normal drills... it has the same intensity as sparring... the difference is that the winning condition for bith fighters are different... example, you have to submit me, i have to pin you down... or you have to kick my head, i have to catch a kick and throw you
Sorry, Rokus, BJJ is not good for the streets:
1. The ground is the last place you want to be in a fight. If you end up on the ground, you want to get back to your feet as quick as possible
2. Useless against multiple opponents
3. Choking someone out could lead to death (see Daniel Penny)
4. It's been formulated for sport not the street. A lot of the techniques do not work on the street
Judo or wrestling is way better for self-defence than BJJ. Boxing is the first place to train.
Why are you saying sorry? 😁
Lol wrestling has the same weakness as BJJ
Wrestlers spend most of their time on their feet. BJJ does not.@@Futurecoder1
based
Great interview !!!!
I always wonder what makes people experts at martial arts they haven't taken the time to learn and understand....if ur ranking for mma its not rocket science...good striking good wrestling good submissions.
People often think of Catch Wrestling backwards from how things developed. It's not wrestling with submissions added in. Rather, collegiate/folkstyle, and freestyle etc. are wrestling with the submissions removed. Wrestling had submissions from the beginning, then they were later taken out.
Why did you cut the last 7. Im waiting to see where he'd put silat at
Sorry. A lot of fighters I've met don't know Silat unfortunately
Love how “mma” is the only top tier but it’s literally just a general over simplification of everything below.
I don't understand why he has a problem with Kudokas wearing Gi. Isn't more convenient in a street fight to grab someone's clothes to your advantage if we're talking about self defense? Judo is also a great example. I would grade it pure A.
Also Rokas, maybe in the future you should include sambo in the ranking system!
I love these videos they are so entertaining and interesting more plzzzzz
*MMA propaganda* MMA is the best in the universe
*Wing Chun also say* Wing Chun is the best in the universe
*Anyone would judge* My practice is the best in the universe
MMA = My my my Martial art Always is the best best best
MMA is mixed martial arts. So, MMA practitioners can use moves from most different martial arts, as long as they are within the rules. Generally the moves that are most effective in an actual fight will be chosen for use in MMA because it rewards what works and weeds out what doesn't. It's basically a testing ground for selecting the most effective moves in martial arts.
Re: "Do you think one day we will all just train MMA?" no.
If all martial arts become homogeneous, that is when people will go back to old tricks from lesser known martial arts to get some advantage. George Foreman was as successful as he was in his first run because (in addition to hitting like a truck) he used a lot of old school defensive tricks that had fallen out of favor during his era like using stops to control his opponent's punches, something that nobody else was really doing at the time.
Even within single arts, you will see philosophical rifts that lead to the emergence of multiple styles, Like Japanese vs Brazilian Jujitsu, all the different forms of Karate, etc. So if MMA became a homogeneous art at any point, you would inevitably have a point where a philosophical divide would emerge on some aspect of the practice and you'd see the arts branch out into different diverging rulesets, which would create new variations on "MMA". Those divergences already exist probably, like UFC rules vs other fighting promotions, etc.
Theres also the cultural aspect, some people want to get in touch with something that belongs to their culture, or you might just be interested in the history of a particular art, so people want to keep that art alive. Something like Kali or Capoeira might not be a super effective martial art in the cage, but from a cultural perspective you might find it interesting or fulfilling, or just want to keep that tradition alive. It might not help you in a street fight, but maybe it helps you get your cardio for the day.
There isn’t one style that can get you through all situations. You have to mix and in my opinion the best 3 styles to learn would be Muay-Thai-BJJ-Wrestling.
Wrestle + Box : take 1 year each to learn and make you a solid fighter
Thai + Jits : take longer time and make you a complete martial artist
Muay thai or Boxing - pick one
Judo or Wrestling - pick one
BJJ
This is the best combination. Striking is slightly more important than grappling in street fight btw.
Why did you not finish the list? I was looking forward to hearing thoughts on Lethwei.
W for putting Judo in A-. Very realistic decision and I can also agree since I'm a judoka for about 10 years.
Great explanations.
Any martial art that teaches you to slam people on the ground is s teir
The best martial arts is the one that let you used and flow from different techniques from multiple arts.
Taekwondo is ultimate kicking style boxing is ultimate punching style and bjj is ultimate ground style
Aaaahhh I remember when Mixed Martial Arts actually mixed Martial Arts and not everyone did Brazilian Ju Jutsu 😂
Boxers may not be able to use their legs BUT they are more mobile than most martial arts, which is why their footwork is adopted in multiple Martial arts.
Also the Aikido teachers at Aikido of Honolulu did say 🤔 a true Marchalarts will practice 2 arts a hard art and a soft art
And Aikido is a soft art
As a capoeirista who loves the art, I totally agree with capoeira being ranked C. Definitely not the best but not completely useless. But it does help with agility and cardio.
It's a nice interview, but how about all other styles that were in the list, but you decided not to discuss them?
The thing about Wing Chun is that:
It is not built for cage fighting like MMA or Boxing. It is made for self defence and close quarters. period.
if you want to do cage fighting like MMA and Boxing, then you should learn BJJ and Muay Thai.
S: MMA, Sambo, Kudo
A: Japanese Jiu Jitsu, Catch Wrestling, JKD
A-: Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai (Kickboxing)
B: Judo, Boxing, TKD, Wing Chun Kung Fu
B-: Karate
C: Krav Maga
C-: Capoeira
D:
D-:
F: Aikido, Systema
S tier: A martial art that you can take without the need to take other martial arts or without the need to readjust the art itself to be successful in MMA or real-life combat. That martial art contains all aspects of fighting such as striking, clinching, takedowns, and ground fighting.
A tier: That martial art contains only either striking (such as punching, trapping, and kicking altogether) or grappling (such as clinching, takedowns, and ground fighting altogether), but the striking component or the grappling component of that martial art is well suited for an MMA setting or for real-life combat, such that there is no need to readjust that art to make it work in MMA or real-life combat.
A- tier: That martial art contains only either striking or grappling (such as clinching, takedowns, and ground fighting), but the striking component or the grappling component of that martial art needs some readjustments to make that art work in MMA or real-life combat.
B tier: That martial art should be used to compliment other striking/grappling martial arts to increase the chance of success in MMA. For example, Judo throws can be used to compliment wrestling/BJJ; and boxing head-movement/footwork, TKD footwork/kicks, and Wing Chun trapping can be used to compliment kickboxing (Muay Thai). Some readjustments are still needed to make that art work in MMA or real-life combat.
B- Tier: A martial art that may only either contain striking or grappling or both, but most elements of that martial art can easily be substituted (such as why do karate to train for kickboxing when you can train kickboxing instead or why train karate kicks when TKD/Muay-Thai kicks are superior) and nearly none of the elements in that martial will compliment your striking/grappling as much as B tier martial arts.
C Tier and Below: A martial art with most elements that do not apply to MMA or real-life combat most of the time and there is little to no incentive to learn that art compared to other martial arts, since that martial art does not teach any fundamental aspect of striking/grappling; or that martial art has a totally flawed view of striking/grappling or has a totally flawed fundamentals. Ranking is dependent based on the applicability in MMA-setting or in real-life combat.
What about kung fu
Bem. Arte marcial não é esporte. É arte da defesa pessoal, da guerra como o nome indica. Muitos anos de treinamento físico, mental, espiritual e estratégico. Arte marcial envolve armas. Até a capoeira legítima tem armas, a navalha, porrete, facão e bengala. Porradaria em ringue não é arte marcial por si só. Conhecer, treinar e lutar não garante sua vida, se não envolver estratégia. Fugir também é auto defesa
Not many people know about 'muay boran' that is a deadly style too
Agree with him on everything EXCEPT Arnis/Eskrima.
Eskrima has competitive knife and stick fights. Those competitions do EXACTLY what he described. "Try and hit them with my stick faster"
That Steven Seagal newsletter subscription 😂
really good list