In a previous post, I wrote about MMA against multiple opponents, also in the second part. Before you post comments, please read those two posts and especially this one here.

I hadn’t really planned on taking up the subject again though. That is, until I came across this video. It illustrates perfectly what I wrote, take a look.

Now we can go on and on about:

• How this guy obviously wasn’t an MMA fighter and should have done technique X,Y or Z.
• You, your teacher, GSP, Randy Couture, or whoever you want to bring in as an example, would have destroyed both opponents with Mixed Martial Arts techniques.
• I suck because I bring this up again and it takes you out of your comfort zone where you can feel MMA is the ULTIMATE-MEGA–FIGHTING-SYSTEM of not only the world but also the entire universe! Roar!!!!!

But these are pretty lame arguments and we all know it. :-)

The facts are clear and cannot be refudiated (Thank you Sarah Palin!) ;-):

• There’s an argument between two men, a woman tries to negotiate a peace.
• They start fighting and quickly close in a clinch.
• The fight remains standing until one fighter trips the other by tripping him over a railing.
• A wrestling match ensues, mostly on the ground. Neither man is really winning.
• A third party shows up and starts kicking the crap out of one opponent. This causes him to freeze and take a lot of damage.
• We don’t know how the fight ends but it’s not looking well…

Some thoughts:

• Neither men looked like a particularly experienced or trained fighter.
• The situation could probably have been resolved easily with the GUMP-doctrine: “RUN Forrest! RUUUUUN!”
• Once the third man came up, the fight is a one-way street. The lonesome defender freezes up and takes the beating. I hope he made it out of there alright because these kind of beatings can do permanent or terminal damage.
• He’s exceedingly lucky the third guy didn’t pull a knife or look for an environmental weapon.
• Speaking of environment, tripping over the railing pretty much turned it into a ground fight (they only got up once afterwards, and not for long). There is nothing to trip over in the Octagon but there’s plenty in the real world. As you can see, it makes a difference…

Like I said again and again: MMA is not useless for self-defense, nor is it useless against multiple attackers.

But, and it’s a big but, (Ooooh, I crack myself up!) there are huge differences between the Octagon and the street.  And as Randy said, the differences are just as important as the similarities. You disregard these differences at your own risk…

If you’d like to read some of my thoughts of how to use MMA techniques for self defense, try this series called From the Octagon to the Street.

As always, that’s just my take on things. If you disagree, no worries. If you like it and can use it in your training, then that’s great. In the end, you make your own choices about how you train and have to live with the results. My point is, choose wisely after considering the pro’s and con’s. Instead of choosing because it feels more comfortable not to consider issues you don’t like to hear about. Or because somebody else said so.

UPDATE: The video was unavailable for a while because Youtube decided it violated their terms of service. Which is pretty funny because I took it from another youtube account and copied it on mine.  So now I’m linking to the same video, also on Youtube…

UPDATE 2: Here’s part Four…

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In the first part of MMA against multiple opponents, a couple of you left comments that bring up some interesting points. Here’s one by Viro:

I think the reason sport-MMA doesn’t have much of a game for a multiple-attacker scenario is that its not an issue for those types.

The MMA folks have boiled down what works and what doesn’t for the model they’re working under: one vs one in a ring with whatever particular rules exist for that venue.*

I think for MMA to come up with a vs multiple-attacker game, there just needs to be a viable venue where someone is faced with multiple attackers. If there is enough money involved, people is going to sign up. Then we’ll see MMA work to find the most efficient method to win in whatever scenario and rule-set is in place.

Oh, based on the video. I think Miller was pulling a stunt. He obviously looks jovial in the beginning of the clip. I don’t think everyone/anyone else was in on it and they displayed a singular lack of humor in dealing with his shenanigans.*

*I think I read it here, but am not sure: In most leagues, you can’t stomp on someone on the ground. In those leagues there is a ground game. In the leagues where you can stomp and kick someone on the ground, the person sent to the ground gets. TF. off. of. the. ground. as soon as possible.

Here are some of my thoughts:

• First, that was exactly my point: multiple opponents is a non issue in MMA.
• Second, the rules indeed make the game. A small change in rules can have huge effects on the game. Case in point.
• As for a multiple opponent MMA competition, there was talk about exactly such a venue. I think it was last year or the one before, not sure anymore. As far as I know, it never took off. I seriously doubt there’ll ever be such a competition, a legal one that is. It comes close to manslaughter and the potential for some really nasty fixed matches is high.  But it sure would be somehting to see such a competition. I’m pretty sure it would look very different from today’s UFC…

Another comment, from Jon this time: [Read more…]