Knee kicks too much for UFC / MMA competitions?

There are lots of attacks banned in MMA .. and after watching this weekend UFC even with Khalil Roundtree i’ve come to the conclusion that Direct knee kicks should be one of them ..OUCH!!! This stomp was ruthless and an immediate career changer !!!

direct knee kicks in the ufc
roundtree’s knee kick ended the fight in a hurry

Knee kicks arent anything new

Some people are stunned by what they saw, but those strikes are nothnig new for those of you in the ” traditional martial arts” and street self defense scene, Easy to duplicate and usually one the first thing taught in self defense when used right they are super effective.

Gracie jiujitsu puts the “pisao” to good use as part of the Foundations system

Martial arts like Silat, JKD and Wing Chun Kung Fu are big on the direct knee strikes but come generally come up flat when it comes to application because in the case of martial arts that you train to hopefully never use, You will often come up short in terms of application given the “chaos” the stress of real combat / competition puts you under.

Even in this fight Roundtree threw several heavy punches and was in a bunch of exchanges before landing what he wanted later in the fight..

Think of it like a home run in baseball, they are real but best not to depend on them.


Put it quite simply if you dont train to deal with the mental and physical stress self defence or competition scenarios will place you under the odds of pulling off anything you have in mind well when you actually need it are drastically reduced.

Found this article in black belt magazine going over the KNEE kicks in various styles

self defense tactics come to life in the ufc with the knee kick

The future of MMA Striking? Not likely..

It will only take a couple more of these and perhaps high a level competitor getting permanently sidelined before the UFC / commisions step in to address the direct attack on the knee in UFC / MMA competiton.

Its not as if the strike was “unblockable” and can be direclty dealt with by simply sqauring up your stance, Which also changes the game because takedowns them become a lot more applicable introdcuing more ground work. Good for real fight fans bad for the masses and fans of the recently more popular sprawl and brawl type of MMA we see today.

I totally get it the idea behind keeping the sport RAW and as close to combat as possible BUT honestly if they banned direct strikes to the back of the head and groin strikes why not add this to the mix??

It’s a valid technique but going to ruin more careers than its worth.

Lets see how it goes

cp