The Best Styles Of Karate For MMA

When it comes to MMA, karate is an overlooked discipline. Almost every professional fighter has a background in wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and a striking format such as boxing or kickboxing. Most fighters do not learn karate and instead turn to Muay Thai for their striking techniques.

With that being said, we have seen some extreme outliers with fighters such as Lyoto Machida, Georges St Pierre, and Stephen Wonderboy Thompson having huge success within the UFC. There is no doubt then, that if studied properly and applied correctly, karate can work well within the MMA ruleset.

Karate Will Not Be Enough On Its Own

MMA has come a long way in its short lifespan. Long gone are the days when you simply needed to know Brazilian jiu-jitsu and this will be enough against 80% of the opponents you face. Instead, MMA has developed at a phenomenal rate where knowing 3 different kinds of martial arts is pretty much the bare minimum.

Alongside any side of karate, you will need to know wrestling and BJJ at the very least. Even with these two martial arts, it is likely you will need something such as muay Thai or traditional boxing to supplement your karate. It’s not uncommon to cross train several different striking martial arts, although it really depends on how your gym is set up. If there is a full contact karate program which is very diverse, then this may be enough as a single striking art.

Gym & Training Program Matters The Most

Although different styles of karate are better than others in terms of application to MMA, what matters most is the gym setup. Shotokan karate for example is a very useful style within MMA. However, if it is performed as a semi-contact sport or never drilled in conjunction with takedowns, it will not be useful to you since your training does not simulate an MMA fight.

In short, you should train karate in a way that is synonymous with MMA. The further your karate gym distances itself away from this, the less relevant it will be when it comes to fight. On the whole, it is best to train in a way that puts all martial arts together so they can be used alongside one another.

Best Karate Styles For MMA

Kyokushin

The most popular style of karate within MMA has to be Kyokushin. This style has many top level practitioners who have used it over several decades, therefore there is no doubt that it works at the highest levels of fighting.

Notable users of Kyokushin are Georges St Pierre, Bas Rutten & Mamed Khalidov. Therefore anyone questioning whether Kyokushin works in MMA or not should have their questions answered by the impeccable record of these 3 fighters.

Compared to many other styles of karate, Kyokushin is still one of the last remaining forms that is regularly performed with full contact. As the form has not been watered down by removing techniques and moving towards a more kata-based style, it is still brutal with original and practical techniques.

Kyokushin sticks to heavy sparring so that techniques can be practiced properly within a gym setting, making them ready for competition when the time is right. This is further proven by many Kyokushin champions moving on from karate and ending up in both MMA and K1 kickboxing fights. Other styles of karate don’t really have this natural progression since they are not set up to fight in a realistic setting.

Kenpo

As with most valid and brutal karate styles, Kenpo originated from Okinawan karate. Since then, the style has become more refined and westernized, with many practitioners now learning “American Kenpo”. The most notable and successful user of the Kenpo karate style within the UFC is Stephen Thompson, who has 5 knockout wins and 6 decision wins thanks to his use of Kenpo.

Within MMA, Kenpo karate is a glass cannon. This is because it has a very wide stance with low hands. On the surface, this seems like a terrible idea since you are vulnerable to both single leg takedowns, as well as head kicks and punches. However, if you watch any UFC fight where Kenpo is used successfully, you will see that the distance is too large for the opponent to reach the kenpo practitioner. As such, the Kenpo user will move into range to strike and then quickly hop back out of range – avoiding getting hit themselves.

In some ways, this resembles semi-contact karate point fighting but can be used in an MMA setting.

Since the stance of kenpo is so “neutral” and the hands are low, this makes it very difficult for opponents to know just when they are going to be attacked. This forces them to waste energy and always be defensive since they never know when a strike will come.

Shotokan

Often overlooked as an effective style of karate for mixed martial arts, Shotokan also derives from Okinawan karate. The reason Shotokan often gets disregarded for other striking forms is that many modern day gyms have watered down the once brutal style. Kata is mostly preferred over full contact sparring, which is why we have not seen too many MMA fighters use it in the cage.

However, much like any other style of martial arts, what matters most is exactly how you train it.

This point was proven by former UFC champion Lyoto Machida who used Shotokan to great effect within the Octogan. Machida won fights with punches and devastating head kicks which were thought to only be possible in movies such as the Karate Kid.

As Shotokan karate is very dynamic and explosive, its strikes are always a threat. This does not mean it is the best style of striking to use or learn for MMA, but does show that if it is learned properly, it too can work at the highest levels of fighting.

Kudo

Although not many people outside the world of karate have heard of kudo, it is an extremely well-rounded martial art. The good thing about kudo is that it has very real and practical applications to MMA. Kudo is not a style of karate that is rigid and stuck in perfecting a certain stance. Instead, the hybrid karate style is fused with the likes of judo, ground-fighting, and other kickboxing martial arts.

On the one hand, you could argue that kudo is not even really karate, but this is where its roots are from. As kudo is such an all-encompassing style, it is clearly very well suited to mixed martial arts. Perhaps the main reason why it is not more popular is that most people who want to train MMA would rather go to an MMA gym than a kudo gym. However, regardless of this, kudo is clearly one of the best styles of karate to practice for MMA.