A question about MMA: am a newbie?

[JoJo]

Could a MMA Fighter survive with 3 Solid styles.
Greco Wrestling, Judo and Boxing.

Greco Wrestling: can you really succeed in MMA with out grabbing a opponent below the waist like Freestyle wrestling? at a elite level?

Boxing: Can you succeed without kicks, knees, elbows, ETC in a elite Organization?

Judo. Do you really need BJJ to complainmet Judo in an elite level?

Am very new to MMA I have a Solid Judo background, that's it?

 

[Davie J.]

MMA is all about integrating styles. While you have great choices right there, it is not yet complete. Kicking is just as crucial as takedowns, ground grappling, and punching. While you may not be throwing kicks, you still have to know how to parry them. Muay Thai, Kickboxing, etc.. will teach you that. That said, the best mixed martial artist is the one who has a big library of techniques in his arsenal, because this makes him/her very unpredictable, and it can be very difficult to beat them.

 

[davis]

Well for mma say you mainly want to strike on the feet. To keep it that way you would need to learn to sprawl to defend takedowns. You would need to defend the opponents strikes everytime you can also. If the opponent outstrikes you would need to get takedowns. You can gnp pass guard look for submissions,those kinds of things. If you mainly want to use wrestling go for takedowns but you have set up cause you could get sprawled,kneed,punched or completly miss and be in danger. Not to many wrestlers like using submissions and gnp instead but its mma so those can help a strong wrestler. so many american wrestlers that start main striking is usually boxing. And for judo well they need boxing to go with it. A lot fighters who is best at judo seem strugle with powerful strikers espesially kickboxers,muay thai fighters and better boxers. So judo fighters should work on there head movement when they strike more.

 

[callsignfuzzy]

I think you're missing the key component of MMA: the "mixed" part that integrates the various systems. Even if a fighter came from the collective backgrounds that you're talking about, they'd have to incorporate the allowable techniques of MMA (leg takedowns, leg locks, non-boxing strikes, etc) into account. It's like if you were planning on competing in Judo, but never learned any defenses against foot sweeps or collar chokes. You might succeed, you might even go an entire career without having to USE such tools, but sooner or later you'll get caught by something you don't have experience with. This was just as true at UFC 1 as it is today, with the strikers getting tooled by smaller, less-powerful grapplers because they had no idea what a choke was.

There's no rule saying that you can't train for MMA by attending boxing, Greco, and Judo classes, but the second you stepped into the ring or cage to compete, you'd notice your training deficit. To compete in MMA, you need to train for MMA. You need to spar with the full MMA arsenal. What you're talking about is simply cross-training in three separate sports. An OK foundation, but without training with the common tactics of MMA (the BJJ guard game, leg kicks, clinched strikes, leg tackles) you're simply not preparing yourself well for MMA. While you could, in theory, succeed with what you're proposing, I've never seen it done, and these days it couldn't be done at an elite level. You're simply leaving out too much.

 

[Gareth]

Any style you bring into MMA needs to be modified somewhat for the sport.
no one straight style is going to be able to beat the guys who integrate three or four styles like most do.