Tired of Ultimate Kickboxing

Some fighters believe that they must stand and trade in order to get the notoriety required to make big money in MMA. This has has led to a phenomenon some refer to as Ultimate Kickboxing, and the whole idea that fans and promoters want this is forcing many into poor strategy.

Consider former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia's quick knockout loss to Ray Mercer at Affliction 3. Sylvia could've won the fight easily if he had decided to take his counterpart down. Instead, he chose to stand up with a former boxing champion. Maybe he wanted to prove something to himself. Maybe it was for the fans and promoters. Maybe he wanted to prove something to boxing.

Regardless, it was a lousy strategy that got him knocked out. The whole idea that fighters can use everything at their disposal on their feet, but immediately become boring once they attempt to get the fight to the ground is both pervasive and ridiculous. MMA is different than kickboxing because of the ground game. Remember, kickboxing has been around for a long time but never achieved the kind of popularity that mixed martial arts has. To turn the sport into kickboxing is not good in any way.

Fighters should also remember that losing a fight in an attempt to be exciting isn't good for their careers either, and Sylvia is hardly the first person to do it all wrong. In fact, the list is long and goes way back. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic did it years ago against Mark Hunt in PRIDE and lost a decision. At the end of their fight, Cro Cop finally decided to take Hunt down. He likely would have ended the fight on the canvas there, but it was too late. Tito Ortiz got caught up in a stand up brawl with Chuck Liddell many years ago in their first encounter as well. Could that fight have gone any other way than to Liddell on their feet? Of course not. Fact is, these days the instances of Ultimate Kickboxing strategy at work are too numerous to count.

The bottom line is that MMA fighting is about strategy. Ultimate Kickboxing is about stupidity. If your best chance to win a fight is on the ground, take the fight to the ground. If your best chance to win is to stand up, then do that. It's just that simple.