Martialocalypse

A DARK PROPHECY OF DOOM

In the 80's Kumite Point Fighting almost destroyed the martial arts scene in the USA, and this destruction was only prevented by the emergence of real competition between martial arts in the form of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA, at first K-1 Rules Kickboxing but later mixed striking and grappling competition like the Ultimate Fighting Championship or "UFC".) The MMA movement has matured and is now extraordinarily influential, making the better martial arts like Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu more popular than the Kumite Point Fighting that once gave martial arts a bad name.

However, Kumite Point Fighting has now been officially approved as an Olympic sport. Where MMA was once a savior to the martial arts community, it will now be used to promote Kumite Point Fighting. A small minority of fighters like Anderson Silva and Connor McGregor have managed to have success even with dropping their hands or using long stances in MMA. Even though this is rare among all MMA fighters, champions or otherwise, their style of fighting will be used to justify the Kumite Point Fighting style of martial arts.

It won't matter that most of their technique is Muay Thai. Kumite Point Fighting instructors will be able to say "look they are the best in MMA. They fight like we do, in our stance, using the body's longest weapon, the kick" just like they used to say before MMA. And they'll have plenty of boards for people to break to show how "powerful" those Kumite Point Fighting kicks are, just like before.

"But BJJ is so popular right now, it won't fall from grace as the most popular martial art..." People are going to watch one season of Cobra Kai and become interested in the of the "Olympic sport" of Kumite Point Fighting. The instructors perpetuating this abomination are going to reference MMA as a justification for why those students don't need to bother with Muay Thai or BJJ.

That is what this bottle cap challenge is about, popularizing the idea that Kumite Point Fighting style kicks should be praised for their accuracy instead of their power. It is the worst omen in the world for the future of martial arts. "But UFC 1 proved BJJ was the best!" Self-serving platitudes won't save us, because there was a lot more to the UFC than just UFC 1:

When it is suggested that any other martial art besides BJJ has any value, some BJJ practitioners have resorted to chanting "UFC 1 proved BJJ is the best." Most commonly if someone points out that Muay Thai might be better than BJJ for the specific task of fighting multiple opponents, some BJJ people cry:

• "If you can't beat one person, you can't beat multiple people." (Since there is some small chance that you could be attacked by a BJJ practitioner, it is impossible to adequately prepare to fight multiple attackers without first being the best BJJ fighter on earth, because otherwise, you could be potentially attacked by someone who is better at BJJ than you.) 
• "Your only chance is to run anyways" (as if you could count on being faster than every other person in the group attacking you, and as if no bouncer has ever dealt with two drunk jerks at once.) 
• "You are unlikely to be attacked by more than one person anyways" (as if people planning to attack you planned to fight fair.) 

This same BJJ blind rage is aimed at every martial art that is not BJJ. BJJ has become dependent on a lot of martial arts infrastructure: high tuition, a robust system of tournaments, a community of professional full time instructors, well maintained dojos with expansive mats, armies of Gi distributors selling uniforms on Amazon, etc. At least in the Seattle Area, over time BJJ has become less likely to share infrastructure with other martial arts, some schools ending Muay Thai programs or insisting instructors only teach BJJ. This not-playing-well-with-other-martial-arts is not financially sustainable if BJJ starts to get less income from fewer new students and needs to share infrastructure with other martial arts in order to survive.

The real legacy of UFC 1 was it restored public confidence in people wearing martial arts uniforms in the face of tough guys with muscles - and BJJ does indeed deserve all of the credit for that. BJJ may lose most of their new incoming students to Kumite Point Fighting, thanks to their self-congratulatory hubris, Cobra Kai, the Olympics and all the MMA fighters who thought it was cute to use their Karate-for-kids in the cage. The dark ages we haven't seen since the 80's are about to return, and this time it is not clear to me that martial arts as we know it today will ever be this good again.

Update: this post has a sequel - Signs of the Martialocalypse.