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No holds barred, vale tudo, absolute/extreme/ultimate fighting and mixed martial arts are all among the terms currently being used to describe and promote a sporting hand to hand combat without weapons with very few rules, regulations or conventions in which victory is determined by way of a knockout; submission by way of strikes, lock or choke; the intervention of the referee; the throwing in of the towel by the corner man; or regrettably, as in the UFC/MMA events, rather than declaring a draw if the match is undecided, determining victory by way of a judge's decision. Unlike a karate or tae kwon do game of tag in which the only bloodletting is only ever accidental and if intentional deemed illegal, no holds barred fighting (to use the most popularized term used to describe this form of hand to hand combat) is a violent collision sport in which at its most extreme only biting and gouging are deemed illegal.
Because of the brutal, bloody and seemingly chaotic nature of no holds barred fighting it might be tempting to stereotype the no holds barred fighter as being a psychologically flawed individual with poor levels of physical conditioning and limited skills, driven not only by his own bloodlust but that of the crowd, and therefore no match for a champion of Western boxing, kickboxing (K1), Muay Thai, judo, sumo, Greco-Roman/freestyle wrestling, sport karate/tae kwon do, or for some master of an Oriental quasi-fighting discipline (i.e., one that merely represents hand to hand combat in an idealized overstylized and superficial way). However, nothing could be further from the truth, and one has only to recall how the mentally tough, intensely focused, superbly conditioned and highly skilled Frank Shamrock, former middleweight champion of the UFC/MMA, defeated the former Olympic and world 85 kg freestyle wrestling champion Kevin Jackson in the opening seconds of the contest with an arm bar, to realize that as athletes on a world stage of physical endeavour, no holds barred fighters such as Shamrock are second to none.
Shamrock's mindset, level of physical conditioning and fundamental skills, key offensive, defensive and counteroffensive moves, tactics, strategies and strategems both on the feet in the open and closed positions and on the ground in the top and bottom positions are not unique, in that he is but one of a new breed of elite athletes to emerge from the no holds barred fighting gymnasiums around the world. Because of the highly competitive, brutal and bloody nature of no holds barred fighting, the longer periods of fight time and the more ways you can win or lose a no holds barred contest on the feet or on the ground, the requisite of offensive, defensive and counteroffensive skills (again both on the feet and on the ground) required of a no holds barred fighter need to be far greater than in any other combative sport, making no holds barred fighting in this writer's opinion the ultimate fighting challenge and by comparison rendering many other martial arts a mere sham.
For me it is not surprising that the ancient Greeks considered pancratianists, the ancient forerunners of no holds barred fighters, to be their finest athletes above all others, including boxers and wrestlers. The mindset, level of conditioning and skill level required of a professional boxer of the likes of Lennox Lewis, undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, though compatible to the boxing ring, are incompatible to those required of no holds barred fighting, but this fact doesn't seem to have prevented Lewis making the claim during a TV interview some years ago that not only was he the greatest fighter on the planet, but if locked in a room with ten men, he would be the only one left standing. (One would never have guessed it judging from his unofficial TV brawls with Hasim Ranman and Mike Tyson!) Not that Lewis would ever step into a no holds barred arena to substantiate such claims against a NHB fighter experienced in dealing with stand-up fighters, or even against one half his size and not necessarily a champion, as he isn't so dumb as to not have realized what the likely outcome would be or what the news headlines the next day might read: 'Lewis choked out in the opening seconds of Round One.'
A boxer of the likes of Lewis with the right strategy and tactics might be able to solve some of the situational and positional problems occuring within a no holds barred fight, but with his limited one-dimensional standing skills and no ground skills or conditioning it would be unlikely he would be able to solve all of them. The multidimensional situational and positional problems rapidly and randomly occuring within a no holds barred fight both on the feet and on the ground require multidimensional solutions, and anybody (including the boxing promoter Frank Warren, who believes that a professional boxer under NHB rules could take on a high-ranking NHB fighter and win) has got to be living in Teletubby Land. Of course if a no holds barred fighter were to fight under professional boxing rules, it is more than likely he would be in for a beating, as Don Fry found out when he mistakenly took on the highly rated K1 fighter Jerome DeBanner under K1 rules.
I don't mean to imply that those who practice the more conventionalized and socially acceptable sports such as boxing, K1, Muay Thai, freestyle wrestling etc. can't fight. Many obviously have proven in international competition or on the streets that they can. For that matter, even among those whose grades, titles, esoteric fighting practices, choreographed combative displays, demonstrations of Dim Mak against overly compliant stooges or demonstrations of chi by breaking prepared materials in sheer or having them broken over parts of their bodies, suggest misleadingly that they can fight, there are undoubtedly a small minority who can fight. It's just that to date no one using the fundamental skills , etc. and training methods of his conventionalized combative sport or disclipline alone (of which I do not include Brazilian jiu jutsu) has won a no holds barred contest at the highest level, and all those from boxing, K1, Muay Thai, wrestling etc. backgrounds who have consistently won at the highest level have radically changed their requisite of skills and training methods in order to do so, Bas Rutten being a perfect example.
However, that doesn't seem to stop some of them from laying claim that it was their wrestling/Muay Thai/jiu-jutsu skills and training methods alone that were responsible for their victories, much in the same way that those from karate backgrounds who have been successful in the K1s and whose skills and training methods have obviously been borrowed from Western boxing and Muay Thai claim that their successes are attributable to karate technique and training. One commentator of the K1 even went so far as to state that the reason why karate techniques aren't used within the K1s is that they are too dangerous, and if you believe that, you will unfortunately (like the vast majority of martial artists) believe anything. The truth is that the fundamental skills, etc. of no one conventional combative sport alone can suffice to prepare you for a NHB contest. Even the highly rated standup fighter Jerome LeBanner since his defeat to Yasuda Tadeo under Pride rules openly admits he needs to improve on his takedowns and ground submission skills before seeking a return match.
Over the last ten years or so NHB fighting, which was previously dominated by Brazilian jiu-jutsu and wrestling, has evolved into a truly mixed martial art. In order to be a successful NHB fighter today you have to be as offensively, defensively, and counteroffensively effective on the feet as you are on the ground. The more situational and positional problems you can solve, the more successful you are likely to be. Whether on the feet or on the ground, you have to have ways (or innovatively find ways) of defending and countering your opponent's attacks, getting around his defenses or counters, or using them against him. Many of the skills and training methods currently used by NHB fighters, apart from those that have evolved and continue to evolve within the NHB gymnasiums around the world, have been adopted and adapted for NHB usage from Western boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jutsu, contemporary Sambo, submission/freestyle/Greco-Roman wrestling, and Judo.
Confusing? Not really, it is simply that although the skills and training methods of these separate specialized combative sports alone are not enough to solve the multidimensional situational and positional problems of a NHB match or preparing for one, when used selectively and adapted specifically by the individual for NHB usage they are effective. 'Jack of all trades, master of none' is undoubtedly a truism for some, but not for those who haven't been irreversibly programmed towards performing in an overspecialized way. Acquiring new and often diverse skills is really just a matter of accepting what you need to do to win, as well as lots and lots of practice.
In other words, some give up after trying and failing to juggle two balls, whilst others go on to juggle many, many more. The simple truth is that you have to be multi-skilled just to avoid losing in a NHB contest, let alone to win, and it is wiser, on the basis of sod's law, to not only spend time in situations and positions that are favorable to you but to spend equal time in situations and positions that are not‹something which the Lewises of this world never seem to even consider.
If you accept the view that no holds barred fighting is the closest sporting representation to the real thing (because of the limited rules and regulations, anything can happen within a no holds barred contest and usually does—unlike those more conventionalized combative sports in which you can almost predict with boring regularity what will happen next), it might interest you to know that after spending countless hours analyzing mile upon mile of video tape footage of no holds barred fighting and training methods from around the world, I have found that none of the fundamental skills etc. and training methods used by the most successful of NHB fighters bore any resemblance to those used within the fighting disciplines of karate, tae kwon do, or kung fu. Need I say more?
Fighting isn't what you want it to be, or what the rules and regulations of a conventionalized combative sport such as boxing or the doctrines of an Oriental tradition such as karate have predetermined it to be, or what the likes of Jet Li and Jean Claude Van Damme have fantasized it to be. It simply is. And no holds barred fighting is the closest representation to that reality than any other unarmed combative sport or discipline. For the first time since the globalization of the martial arts of the East and the West, the eternal question amongst many martial artists as to what is effective and what is not has finally been answered with the advent of no holds barred fighting. However, despite the overwhelming evidence, the vast majority of martial artists still stubbornly refuse to accept that what they so often religiously and meticulously practice and believe to be effective is, from the perspective of a no holds barred fight, totally worthless. Form is the consequence of what effects you need to cause or prevent within a realistic situation or positional play; it should not be the consequence of blindly seeking to adhere to the misguided aesthetics of a martial art master who in all likelihood has never had a fight of any real consequence in his entire life.
In other words, if the fundamental skills, etc. and training methods of your tradition, personal system or method bear no resemblance to those used by the very best no holds barred fighters in the world today or if the resemblance is only superficial, then it is unlikely that anybody using such skills etc. and training methods would be able to take on and defeat a champion of no holds barred fighting. The measure of an effective move is not whether it has worked for you down at your local on a Saturday night or in a game of tag that bears no resemblance to the real thing, nor is it what appears to work against some overly compliant stooge during a demonstration, nor what is claimed by some master to have worked in the distant past. The measure of an effective move is whether or not it has been shown to have worked in no holds barred competition at the highest level‹and not, might I add, against some mediocre opponent in a third rate contest. And the sooner everybody realizes that, the better for it that the martial arts will be.
Dropping some stooge who, with no intention of fighting back, offers the most vulnerable part of his anatomy for summary execution with a Bubishi carotid sinus strike at the time of the rat isn't proof of someone's fighting ability! Neither is using the power of chi (that Oriental panacea for doctoring the truth) to break prepared materials in sheer or, with the aid of an accomplice, to have equally prepared materials broken over various parts of the body, or to bend a spear on the throat notch. In fact, such tricks are more likely proof that those who perform them can't fight, in that anybody who needs to create an illusion of fighting ability by reverting to such deceit probably has a major problem when it comes to doing it for real. In the absence of any reality checks within your preparatory practices and fighting methods, there is nothing to prevent you from entering and descending deeper and deeper into a world of martial art fantasy where anything is possible, as opposed to the world of combative reality, where it most certainly is not, and where if you get it wrong you are in for a serious beating.
As someone who in the Seventies and Eighties was considered by many of his peers (the list reads like Who's Who in the Martial Arts) as being the very best (their well-documented sentiments, not mine) my only hope is that in my sixtieth year, apart from still being able to mix it up with guys half my age, I will be as influential in radically changing the direction of as many martial artists today as I was some twenty or thirty years ago, particularly amongst those who have yet to accept the harsh realities of no holds barred fighting and that it is the world's greatest combative sport, bar none.
Steve Morris, July 2003
