The Top 10 WORST Martial Arts For MMA

It is a well known fact that there are no absolute rules when it comes to martial art. Whilst there may be techniques that work under most circumstances, under some they dont. And vice-versa, some techniques almost never work, but under unusual circumstances they may.

No martial art is 100% useless, although some are extremely limited when put inside a cage and restricted with an MMA ruleset. Whilst a specific martial art may be excellent for physical conditioning, form and self defense, it may be completely useless when put inside the octagon for a variety of different reasons.

Throughout the short history of MMA we have seen the sport change very rapidly. The most common martial arts in MMA are striking based disciplines such as Muay Thai, Boxing and Karate. These are mixed with grappling based arts such as wrestling, judo and Brazilian jiu jitsu. Although other martial arts are used in MMA, these are the main varities that seem to work well in modern day fights.

Why Are Some Martial Arts Bad For MMA?

Impractical

As some traditional martial arts are so ancient, they contain some forms of fighting which are not relevant to modern day. It’s true that humans still punch, kick and grapple one another as they did thousands of years ago, but we no longer really fight with swords, staffs or fire arrows at one another.

Secondly, some styles of martial arts are not really suited towards MMA since it is too violent. Whilst it may be enjoyable and rewarding to practice a martial art which is relatively non-violent, this will not work well in the cage. In MMA you must capitalise on every mistake your opponent makes and it may be good sportsmanship or the rules of traditional martial arts which can lead to your downfall.

Hindered By Rulesets

There are many violent martial arts that are hindered by MMA rules. Whilst MMA is a pretty liberal sport in what you can and can’t do, not allowing headbutts, eye pokes and groin strikes rules out a lot of self defence based martial arts. It’s not clear whether these would work inside a cage setting, but it cannot be tested anyway since these techniques would result in an instant disqualification.

Even martial arts such as lethwei would not be effective in MMA since most of their strikes are legal, but banning headbutts takes away a massive amount of strikes, as well as completely changing the rules that the practitioners have trained for.

Based Around Weapons

If you’ve ever watched an MMA fight you will notice that without exception, fighters are always frisked before they enter the cage. This seems a bit pointless since the fighters aren’t wearing shirts, but is a safety rule nonetheless. Even if a fighter was wearing a shirt, it would be difficult to smuggle a katana in to the cage in any case.

It goes without saying that you can’t use weapons in MMA. The exception to this rule is the M-1 promotion in Russia which puts on medieval style MMA fights with blunt swords. Even this combat is somewhat limited since the fights would likely be very different if the swords were sharper.

Lifestyle Rather Than Violence

Traditional martial arts are based around a lifestyle and a journey, not just fighting. Obviously for professional MMA fighters this is completely useless since they want to spend most of their time improving as a fighter and are not too concerned about spiritual growth.

The lifestyle of specific martial arts can actually be a drawback since they promote peacefulness and respect. Whilst these are great qualities for a human to posess, they do not have much use at all when locked inside a cage with someone who wants to knock you out.

In short, traditional martial arts are still used in MMA, but their overall popularity is declining in modern life.

The Worst Martial Arts For MMA

10 – Wing Chun

Although wing chun has been, and still is used in modern day MMA, it is somewhat stifled due to the current meta style of fighting. Wing chun works very well from a close face-to-face position or a clinch. However, it has drawbacks against wrestling and more importantly ranged fighters. If one fighter is taller than the other, it is almost impossible to trap their hands if they are throwing jabs from a great distance.

In addition to this, some modern day MMA fighters use overhand strikes which are both high risk and high reward. There is no real way to block an overhand shot and you simply have to get out of the way and counter it. Whilst this is still possible using wing chun, muay Thai is the dominant martial art from the clinch and it has been this way for decades with no real signs of changing any time soon.

9 – Jeet Kune Do

Surprisingly enough, Jeet Kune Do is pretty much the predecessor to MMA. The style was created by Bruce Lee when he realised that the single style of Wing Chun was not good enough to defeat all other styles. Instead, Lee chose to mix martial arts and create his own system which is now commonly known as Jeet Kune Do.

Even though Jeet Kune Do is the closest thing we have to 1960’s MMA, it is the traditional style of the martial art that hold it back from being use in the cage.

JKD was designed to be a self defense and street fighting martial art, which means that many of the techniques it uses are not legal under MMA rules. As Wing Chun was a heavy influence on JKD, both arts were inspired by street fighting in Hong Kong, which was both violent and dangerous. Therefore you will find both throat and eye strikes, as well as the use of weapons in JKD. All of these things would be an instant disqualification under unified MMA rules.

8 – Capoeira

Capoeira was originally created by slaves to hide the fact that they were practicing martial arts (something which was not allowed). By combining martial arts with a dance, capoeira was successfully able to fly under the radar of slave owners.

This is already an inherent drawback since every other martial art does not waste energy on inefficient movements which are made to look like dancing. Capoeira kicks are actually extremely powereful due to the arc of the practitioners leg and the torque produced and have caused some of the most brutal knockouts ever seen in MMA.

However, throwing kicks whilst showing your back to the opponent is generally considered a fundmentally bad thing to do as you can be strangled from this position. Generally the only kicks thrown from a low position are upkicks as they are somewhat low risk for the person on the floor.

7 – Japanese Ju Jitsu

Japanese ju-jitsu is largely out of date compared to other grappling martial arts which have grown in popularity an evolved as a whole. The majority of takedowns in Japanese ju-jitsu revolve around wristlocks. Wristlocks in MMA are not illegal, but are extremely difficult to pull off due to gloves and hand wraps which protect the wrists from being bent inwards. If you take away this from Japanese ju-jitsu it becomes a very weak version of both judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Much of Japanese ju-jitsu is also gi based grappling, which no longer applies in modern day MMA promotions.

One last point to make is that many of the submissions attempted in Japanese ju-jitsu are performed from a standing position. These holds do not have anywhere near as much control when compared to a ground submission with a leg entanglement. Simply put, Japanese ju-jitsu has not evolved like other grappling styles and is somewhat primative when put side by side with them.

6 – Kendo

It may be a little unfair to pick on kendo since it is a swordfighting art and obviously swords are illegal in MMA. However, many other weapons based martial arts such as escrima and even ancient samurai sword styles all have hand to hand combat skills for disarmed combat.

This does not mean that kendo and other 100% sword martial arts are useless, but they have no practical use in MMA. The only real benefit of learning a martial art like kendo for MMA purposes would be the conditioning and arguably the hand-eye coordination. Other than this everything else is useless for a disarmed fight.

5 – Aikido

Aikido is a martial art which focuses primarily (although not entirely on wristlocks). Unfortunately wristlocks require a great deal of control. If the elbow of the opponent is not controlled at all times, then it would be almost impossible to submit someone via this method, especially as many MMA fighters will let minor joints break since they heal relatively quickly.

Not only this but hand wraps and gloves give more protection to the wrists of fighters. It would be hard enough finishing a wristlock on an athletic UFC fighter with no gloves at all. But with added support it becomes even more difficult. Not to mention, you almost always need two hands to finish a wristlock on a single arm, this means your opponent has a free hand that can be used to punch you in the head.

Aikido also doesn’t really offer too much in terms of blocking heavy barrages of strikes or wrestling takedowns either. In short, Aikido may be useful for the occasional self-defense scenario, but is not used in MMA for a variety of reasons.

4 – Tai Chi

More of a lifestyle or hobby for the older generation, Tai Chi is a martial art which has almost no application within an MMA setting. The main drawback of Tai Chi is that it is an extremely traditional martial art which is based around both internal and external stimuli. There is no physical sparring in almost all of the Tai Chi taught throughout the world, which is a gigantic negative if it were to be used inside a cage.

Tai Chi is most commonly seen when being performed by retired people in the parks of Chinese cities. These people want to live a healthy and active lifestyle, they do not want to step inside a cage for an MMA fight.

Whilst there will be semi-contact and full-contact Tai Chi taught in the west, people should be very wary about how useful these skills actually are in a real fight situation. As of today, Tai Chi has never been used or listed as an athletes main martial art skillset in the UFC or any other top tier promotion.

3 – Ninjutsu

Ninjutsu was created in a time and place where MMA competitions were the last thing on peoples mind. In feudal Japan, life could be pretty dangerous and ninjas performing espionage was not commonplace, but not rare either.

In summary, ninjutsu is both not really applicable and also too extreme for MMA. Conducting reconnaissance missions could be akin to watching tape on your opponent, but this where the similarities between MMA and ninjutsu end. There was often assassination and the use of weapons was obviously extremely common in the year 500.

Modern spy techniques have also evolved a lot since ninjutsu was first introduced to the world. So really this is a semi-martial art which has just lost its way and become out of date. It may still have some relevant techniques that could be used in MMA, but these will likely be taught by other martial arts of simply be lost to the sands of time altogether.

2 – Krav Maga

Krav Maga is a combat system that was developed for war. If you take a close look at the curriculum of Krav Maga you will quickly realise that this is fighting at its most pure and dirtiest and should not be allowed anywhere near MMA. Almost every technique that Krav Maga teaches is illegal inside the cage since they are designed to cause life altering damage such as eye gouges, bites and groin strikes.

As the IDF uses krav maga in militarised checkpoints and warzones, it is safe to say that there aren’t many rules in these situations, especially if your adversary has a bomb or any other kind of weapon.

It is not just the techniques of krav maga which are dangerous, but also the attitude. Krav Maga is a mindset in which you are focussed on damaging your opponent as much as possibble rather than honoring a strict code of conduct like traditional martial arts.

1 – Dim Mak

Arguably not even a martial art. Dim Mak is infamous for the touch of death – named this for an unknown reason since it has never actually killed anyone. In all seriousness, dim mak is not far off from a completely fake chi-based martial art.

It’s possible that pressure points and meridians exist for the sake of medicine, but you certainly can’t knock a man to the floor by simply pushing an area on his hand or neck.

Unfortunately it’s not just dim mak which is the main culprit to be the worst martial art in MMA, but many other Chi and non-contact based martial arts too. There are countless videos of these fake masters fighting amateur level MMA fighters on the internet attempting their bizarre forms, only to be knocked out seconds later.

It may be fair to just group all of these styles together as “fake martial arts” but given that dim mak refers to itself as the touch of death, it takes #1 spot.