WTF: Karate vs Capoeira on display, new grappling ties people up in knots

Did you miss us? Don’t matter, we’re here anyway.

Hello, kids. We had a bit of a hiatus on account of the combat sports schedule and allowing for a bit of a refresh. But now we’ve returned to provide lots of fun and some occasional head-scratchers from the world of fringe martial arts content.

We pick things back up with our usual starting point, Jerry from Fight Commentary Breakdowns. A big part of the channel is styles clashes, and this time the theme is Capoeira vs Karate. In the first clip, it’s two very young practitioners sort of flowing with things until Karate Kid drops the Capoeira rep, and things sort of pick up from there. Lots of spacing, lots of feints and trying to figure out timing from Team Capoeira, while Karate Kid wastes far less time and energy. It’s not gonna knock anyone’s socks off, but it’s interesting.

But it’s the second clip that brings the heat. It’s a match from the fabled Ganryujima organization, a promotion that has a round, elevated ring with a smoke-filled moat. No spoilers, but it’s dramatically different from the first clip with the kids. It’s got a lovely ending, to boot.

Another video has a breakdown of modern adaptations of Jeet Kune Do, and I’m personally not 100% what to make of it. The attempt at a freeflow combat style that can be adapted to MMA could also just be... MMA. I get what they’re going for, but it does feel a bit odd. Still very much worth checking out to see how the landscape changes in the face of the evolution of martial arts as a whole.

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OK, this was pretty wild. Defend FC continues to hold their outdoor fights in an open space, but in this case there’s a lot more encouragement for fighters to stay within certain confines. And while I suppose that’s fine, it doesn’t feel entirely necessary. That’s not a knock, just something to consider as these fighters have no incentive to be at a major distance from each other, and they’re not in a snowball fight.

I should explicitly point out that he fight itself isn’t a technical masterpiece by any means. But it’s just fun. Wanna see a cool brawl between two guys just going forward and spamming punches? It’s here! Wondering if those same odd punches actually land and do damage? They do!! It’s just grit 101, and you’re likely going to enjoy it once it heats up.

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We’ll follow that up with some goodies from Dambe Warriors. The first clip in this video is your usual fare, and it ends with a knockdown that appears to be more a result of a shove. But it’s the second fight in the video that ends with someone getting their shutdown button pressed hard.

This next one starts with some feints and flurries, but gets broken up due to a dispute. When the battle resumes? It doesn’t last too much longer after that.

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This is great, one of my favorite things on the internet. A compilation of nothing but Muay Thai knee finishes. A lovely collection showing the versatility of the art, as well as a series of examples demonstrating how suddenly any fight can end. That applies to the ring as well as the street, and it’s just intense seeing it like this.

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Here’s another excellent collection, courtesy of Judo Highlights (whom I highly recommend you subscribe to). It’s exactly what it says on the tin: top ippons from the European Championships, and it’s a good an example of truth in advertising as you can get.

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This week, we’ll end things with another oddity courtesy of McDojoLife on Twitter. You can check out their other content, helpfully pinned via Linktree on their account for a wealth of zany, dumb, funny, and troubling content.

This particular self defense method is new to me, and perhaps only the great Dean Malenko could make this look good and menacing at once. But that’s not what we get here. It’s more baffling than anything, and raises questions as to what certain people that train martial arts think realistic violence is. But we’re not here to answer those, let’s just stay at step one and watch this mesmerizing grappling technique:

A man that sleeps on the floor never falls out of bed, but that’s gotta be murder on your lower back. And remember - you might think you can fight, but there are many guys like you all over the world.