If you go to any MMA gym here in the states or pretty much anywhere on the western part of the world you will find a gym that practices three diciplines, Muay Thai, Wrestling and BJJ.  I understand that in MMA a person must have a stand up base, some sort of wrestling base and some submission skills, but why must it be the EXACT SAME $H*T everywhere? There is no reason that our quality Traditional Martial Art Schools cannot add some type of wrestling (sumo etc) and bjj to their already effective stand up art whether it be Taekwondo, Capoeira, Wing Chun or Karate...

Was the UFC not started by people who watched Bloodsport and wanted to see how it would look in real life? Didn’t the fans want to watch DIFFERENT styles compete against each other to know what style is most effective? If the answer is yes then why are we developing a style that makes each person know exactly what to expect from the other and in essence everybody fight the exact same and use the exact same techniques? That’s not what i signed up for when i became an MMA fan in the 90’s.

Forrest Griffin is an example of a complete TMMA, he has good Muay Thai, BJJ, and Wrestling. However because he doesn’t have a primary art that he is great at I do not think he will ever have the Championship Belt again.

Fighters like Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva, and Lyoto Machida bring the Mixed to MMA.  Each of these fighters are masters in their own discipline but have added other arts only to use their art more effectively and to then force their primary art onto others who do not know how to defend against it because if they are not facing this Western TMMA.

Thank you to Kid Nate for introducing the word or idea of TMMA 

Lyoto Machida is a harbinger of fighters successfully applying exotic martial arts techniques to MMA and I would argue that the key is his mastery of disciplines like jiu jitsu, Muay Thai and wrestling -- the traditional base of MMA fighters.

Honorable Mention: The guy who used Capoeira in MMA. This is what I signed up for when i heard about the UFC in the 90’s 

via i41.tinypic.com