MMA styles

Four days later and everyone is still going crazy about Machida's domination of Rashad Evans at UFC 98. Machida fought that fight perfectly and like most people, I am still wondering what it was that Evans saw in Machida's style that he said he was going to exploit. But now everyone is talking about how karate is either a) making a comeback or b) going to be the next big thing. Depends on your point of view I guess if at one point back in the day it was effective or not. But the fact that Machida is trying to brand karate now as 'Machida Karate' (much like how it's Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to many people still instead of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) is opening up a whole world of discussion.

Is Karate going to take over the MMA world and in two or three years will all the best fighters be the guys who use karate as there main source of attack? Of course not. You will still need a combination of Muay Thai, Wrestling, and Jiu-Jitsu to be a great fighter. But every style of martial arts has some aspects of it that work in this sport. It is called MIXED Martial Arts for a reason. It takes the best of all elements and combine them into one sport. is Capoeira overall an efficient MMA style? Not a chance, but that did not stop everyone from getting excited about it after Marcus Aurelio's (not the UFC Marcus Aurelio) half moon crescent kick KO a few months back and talking about how capoeira can be effective in the sport. Karate definitely has some aspects that will work very effectively in MMA. Machida is not the first to prove this, but he has been the best. The fact that it is so hard to gameplan for because it is so unpredictable makes it an effective style to use in MMA, but it will not be replacing any of the big three (muay thai, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu) as a style you need to know to be effective in MMA.