I enjoy almost every aspect of MMA, mixed martial arts for those of you that do not know. You may know it as "ufc" (ultimate fighting championship) style martial arts. I love watching MMA and I think it's more entertaining than boxing. Watching it on television has inspired me to train in MMA several days a week and I'm glad i started it. There's so many different things to learn because it's not a traditional martial art that just focuses on stand up fighting or grappling, but rather incorpates the arguably best elements of each martial art into one, hence the term mixed martial arts. The main styles in MMA are boxing, muay thai, wrestling, Brazilian jujitsu, and judo. I personally like the muay thai and wrestling the best, but it's all fun.

Boxing and muay thai are both stand up style martial arts that have little to do with grappling. Boxing obviously is just based around hand fighting, but it's arguably the best type of style for punches. Muay thai is also a stand up style, but it includes four ways of attacking: Fists, elbows, knees, and shins. The muay thai kicks are not intended to strike with the foot, but rather the shin as it's a much harder and dense bone. Muay thai also has a clinch element, something that is broken up quickly in boxing. A muay thai clinch is when the hands are wrapped around an opponents neck and you mainly use your knees and elbows to strike from there, but you can also sweep or trip the person.

Wrestling, jujitsu, and judo on the other hand revolve mostly around grappling and do not have many striking techniques. Wrestling is a great style to take someone to the ground, there are all types of slams and shots you can do. Jujitsu is also good for take downs, but really excels when the person is already on the floor. When on the ground Jujitsu's main goal is a submission lock or choke, something that will break a joint or bone or cause someone to pass out. Judo is good while in the clinch as there are all types of nasty sweeps or throws you can do, such as a hip throw, which essentially tries to flip someone over your hip so they land on their head. Judo is a little impractical because it's best suited for tournaments as it takes advantages of gi fighting, that is fighting with something similar to a karate uniform. However some of the Judo throws can be very damaging with or without a gi.

Overall i really enjoy watching and training in MMA. It's a great form of exercise but more importantly it's fun. I've only been training for about seven or eight months, but hopefully i will continue for a while, the only reason i would stop is because of time constraints.