Over at Sherdog.com, I ponder whether Lyoto Machida's in-cage abilities and accomplishments will help spawn a renewed emphasis in traditional martial arts for MMA purposes and, if so, what would it take for that to happen and what such a revolution might look like:

For brevity’s sake I am simplifying the historical record, but this is essentially where the chemical reactions began. Catch wrestlers picked up the guard game, strikers learned how to control posture and defend the takedown and wrestlers learned their over-under clinch to set up opportunities for knees, uppercuts and elbows.

Another major transformation, should such a thing actually happen, will likely be far slower than the Gracie jiu-jitsu catalyst remaking the martial arts landscape in 1993. Part of it is that much of the known world is already conquered; there isn’t as much territory left to explore.

Additionally, one must always remember that what the host country of the early UFCs could offer helped eventually mold the product and guide the transformation. There may not be armies of kick boxers within its borders, but America was home to hordes of wrestlers of considerable skill long before Rorion Gracie and Semaphore Entertainment Group toyed with the idea of putting a moat around the Octagon. That wrestling became such an integral component on the modern MMA repertoire speaks as much to its effectiveness as it does to its prevalence on the soil from which the sport got one of its most major lifts. For another martial arts revolution to take place, MMA must be both highly mobile and easily accessible, something that is only now becoming a reality in the world’s richest nation. India will have to wait its turn.

Whole thing here.