Muay Thai vs Tae Kwon Do

[Tom Yum]

[Storm0266]

What do you figure that TKD guy is? 8-10 inches taller and maybe 40 or 50 pounds heavier?

That's exactly what I thought when I watched that.

[Prince Vegita]

I'd say maybe 5-6 inches, but at least 50 lbs. The thing that kills me is how the thai guy's timing is so good that he doesn't even feel compelled to block/evade half those shots despite a huge reach disadvantage; he simply isn't there when the blows fall.

[Prince Vegita]

They matter, no question. Initially the fight was declared a tie and the match was won by decision (if you can find the second vid, where the Thai was much more active in the additional round). A lot of the TKD guy's initiated attacks just didn't come anywhere close to landing, or if they did they weren't effective at disabling the MT guy. Did the TKD guy's size take the MT guy out of his game? Sure. You can clearly see the advantages it gave the TKD guy everytime they clinched, and he was surprisingly good on the inside.

[Tom Yum]

Koakkalai was indeed hesitant in the boxing range, more so than normal. I just thought it was a cool fight. Koakkalai will take any fight, even against guys with 100+ lb weight advantage.

Strength and size do matter - I'm reminded of fights where the bigger, stronger guy was able to pound out his opponent - Nog vs. Sapp, Hoost vs. Sapp, Severn vs. Macias etc.

but strength and size aren't the only attributes - Pardoel vs. Gracie, Shamrock vs. Gracie, Koakkalai vs. Mo, Smith vs. Tank

I was very suprised at the Pardoel-Gracie match, since Pardoel was a judo champ and a black belt in Traditional Japanese Jiujitsu.

[DonKey]

Interesting contrast between the two styles. What rules were they fighting under? Seems like the ref was breaking up the clinch too fast.

[glendanfig]

MT is such a superior art. look at that poor tkd guy. he could even move after a few blows to the leg...he had to wait for the attacks to come to him he was immobilized...and he had a significant size advantage.
MT; 60% of the time, it works every time...
lol

[TKDBJJ]

I know this is an old topic but I have to respond.

To those who say TKD is ineffective in a street fight because of the fancy kicks, your right fancy kicks wont work in a street fight, but this applies to all styles. No one will ever throw a butterfly kick in a street fight unless they are totally clueless or haven't been in a real fight to begin with. Same goes with fancy hook kicks that MT and Karate and other styles like TKD use. Same with styles who emphasize fist work, you will more than likely not use a knife hand strike in a real fight. A smart fighter regardless of the style will take what they have learned and apply it when it comes to real self defense.

When comparing styles vs styles, this is just dumb its all about the fighter. If the TKD fighter knew he was going to be fighting a MT fighter and did not train his or her core to take hard shots or shots to the face by a punch or train their leg to take shots then they are just dumb. Same with the MT fighter, if the MT fighter did not get their foot work ready to fight a TKD fighter or get prepared to face fast kicks, combos, or spinning hook kicks and TKD fighters who switch up their stances, then they are dumb.

Fortunately I have been able to train in Kuk Sool Won, Hapkido, and TKD, KSW and Hapkido both use kickboxing styles when sparring and I have been fortunate to learn that with TKD. Also I'm lucky to train at a Dojang that teaches Olympic style WTF full contact sparring along with grappling (Judo and BJJ) there are other classes too that teach Tai Chi and what not. Its all about your school too, luckily my school allows Black Belts who have Black Belts in other styles to teach other styles to students who are interested. So we TKD students who train in BJJ, Chinese weaponry, Tai Chi , Hapkido etc. Our dojang understands that learning one style is one sided so one class may focus on one style then another class on another style. So thats the sign of the times, your school should be integrating other styles but also have a foundation in one art. This is not MMA, MMA training is what you see on the UFC reality show where they actually train BOTH BJJ and Striking at the SAME TIME. Where as my dojang and most other dojangs, dojos, mcdojos or whatever the hell you want to call them are CROSS TRAINING. HUGE difference.

TKD and MT have some similarities, but only some. MT obviously has more weapons when it comes to sparring, however we TKD students also learn how to throw elbow strikes in breaking, knife hand breaks, etc. Yes its not at the same level of training the MT student gets but we still get to learn how to do them. Also MT allows punches to the face and do not requrie people to wear all the protective gear. TKD teaches more elaborate technical foot work, combos, and speed which is why I wanted to train in TKD. I use to talk shit on TKD because of all the protective gear, but I think its a great style and I'm glad I'm training in it.

Bottom line I know you all look up to Bruce Lee, he is the definition of MMA, he took from Wing Chun, Fencing etc and made JKD. I'm not saying make your own style I am saying the best fighter will take what he can learn from other styles and what he or she is best at and incorporate them into their fighting style. PERIOD! These threads should be banned on martial arts forums.

[Marksmarkou]

It was good to see the tea kwon do guy keeping his hands held high and trying to use some punches.