THE UNPRECEDENTED EVOLUTION OF MMA

You know as well as I do that we live in a polarized world — and have for many years. Sadly, the martial arts community has not been unscathed by this. Yes, many martial artists were against kickboxing when it rose to prominence in the 1970s, arguing that it was more sport than art, but far more have rallied against MMA, and the sentiment seems to be in direct proportion to the popularity of the fight sport. Fortunately, Black Belt readers are more open-minded than the martial arts masses when it comes to this topic — which is why we thought it would be a good idea to sit down with Greg Jackson, our 2015 Instructor of the Year, to get his perspective on MMA, its rapid development and its close connection to the traditional arts.

— Editor

The techniques you see in MMA are not new techniques. They’re just a blending of old martial arts techniques. In MMA, we’re just taking what works from a lot of different arts, then we make sure it work. How? By experimenting. In MMA competition — outside of biting, eye gouges and groin shots — everything else is pretty much fair game. Once we identify a technique that