I asked Jeff Chan, professional MMA fighter to rank martial arts based on how good they are for street fighting and then for MMA.
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00:00 How the ranking works
00:10 Aikido
00:55 Brazlian Jiu Jitsu
02:59 Copoeira
04:11 Boxing
06:30 Ninjutsu
06:45 Wrestling
07:25 Japanese Jiu Jitsu
08:18 Jeet Kune Do
08:57 Judo
10:35 Filipino Martial Arts
11:00 Why Karate Is Amazing
12:42 Kickboxing
14:02 Krav Maga
14:28 Lethwei
14:51 Systema
15:36 Taekwondo
16:09 Muay Thai
16:47 Tai Chi
17:00 Wing Chun
17:45 Sambo
18:28 Ranking Pure Martial Arts
19:50 Single Martial Art per Tier for MMA
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Welcome to the Martial Arts Journey KZhead channel!
My name is Rokas. I'm a Lithuanian guy who trained Aikido for 14 years, 7 of them running a professional Aikido Dojo until eventually I realized that Aikido does not live up to what it promises.
Lead by this realization I decided to make a daring step to close my Aikido Dojo and move to Portland, Oregon for six months to start training MMA at the famous Straight Blast Gym Headquarters under head coach Matt Thornton.
After six months intensive training I had my first amateur MMA fight after which I moved back to Lithuania. During all of this time I am documenting my experience through my KZhead channel called "Martial Arts Journey".
Now I am slowly setting up plans to continue training MMA under quality guidance and getting ready for my next MMA fight as I further document and share my journey and discoveries.
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► • Aikido vs MMA - REAL ...
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#mma #martialarts #tierlist
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Sanda?
Lethwei is pronounces leh-way
Such a cool video! From someone who has capacity to analyze of human conditioning (How much damage trained human body can actually absorb and still keep going) giving out the opinion... Awesome! Chan is a beast! He should be recongnized of his mentallity and analazyation. Chan would make an awesome fighting coach in his old years!
@sultan whomever super to fun
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life John 3 16.
As an ex security guard with 10+ years of experience I have to say he's spot on when he says pretty much all martial arts are good enough for the street. People have no idea what they're doing. I would go as far as saying that playing something like tennis regularly will make you the winner in most street fights just because you'll be quicker on your feet, more aware of your body balance and have quicker reaction time. I have trained in many different martial arts (moved around a lot, so just went to the nearest club of whatever) and personally I would rank Judo the highest for self defence situations. It just makes you extremely stable on your feet, while at the same time it's very easy for you to make the attacker fall down. It deescalates the situation, because you can kinda just gently trip them without hurting them when they come at you and after the third time they fall down on their ass and have to awkwardly scramble back up they start feeling really stupid and just want to get away from the embarrassment.
That being said I once did just that and walked away and 10 minutes later I just suddenly saw light and darkness. The little bastard sneaked up on me, punched me in the face from behind and ran away. Gave me a black eye, so I guess he got his revenge lol. So yeah, being aware of your surroundings is key, maybe more important than anything else.
I just pull guard, berimbolo and then wet willy for self defense situations. It deescalates the situation because you can kinda just gently moisten them without hurting them.
@@BPchadlite Haha, very effective :) Seriously though, appearances are VERY important in a street fight. Maybe I'm more focused on that because my experience is mostly in security around crowds of drunken people + wearing a uniform you can easily look like the bad guy to the onlookers and it can create a real mess and chaos. A fistfifght looks like two guys fighting, same with wrestling. But when you trip them they have to stand up and "restart" the aggression, it's very apparent. Often even their friends will see it's their buddy that is acting up and will try to calm him down.
100 agree%, judo is like striking of the grappling arts, u can use it against many attackers at once, just like punching or kicking, u can end the find in one throw, especially if they can't break fall. Just make sure u have a good reason to use this as I've seen many people have their heads smashed on the concrete after a throw. But definitely more effective than BJJ for a fast finish of a fight. Also works really well with your striking as all judo throws start from standing. U also don't need a gi for most throws, but as a bouncer u can grab clothes snd jackets and use that as if its a gi
The thing is playing tennis would make you a better fighter than practicing aikido
Honestly, if Aikido is C tier when it comes to street fighting, I already lost hope to the rest of the tier list
aikido sucks lmao
As Icy Mike said, training something is still better than training nothing. A drunk goofus like Jeff postulated would be able to resist a throw as well as your uke.
He’s being too generous?
@@wattlebough I think he is
@@Six-bw3ir With Aikido I agree. He’s being too generous.
As a black belt in Aikido, I would give it a D rating for real fighting.
I did yoseikan budo : a mixed martial art of karate, japanese jiu jitsu and also aikido. The aikido we did was basically the same locks and grapple we praticed in jiu jitsu but with different ways to send them. I found that, coupled with praticing new ways to counter those attacks, it really helped my footing and creativity. Which is always nice.
Did you ever get beaten in street 😅
did you do kyokushin@@simongloutnez589
They also forgot the GOAT of technique in a street fight : *running* ! ☺ When sh*t hits the fan, run hard, run long, run fast.
i agree running is the greatest martial artist @@goofygrandlouis6296
My Jiu Jitsu instructor loves teaching Judo takedowns. The things work like bread and butter and can transition perfectly into many of the basic moves.
That’s because bjj is judo! Judo for girls
@@djharto4917 HAHA try to go agains't a bjj fighter, you'd be out of breath in a minute
nobody gonna believe me, but when I was 6 or something in Russia I did judo/sambo for like a year and then stopped. I probably had around a hundred street fights from age 7-16 including in USA when I moved. I lost maybe 1-2 fights and even then I wouldnt call them "lost". Everyone underestimated me. No fight lasted more than like a minute and all ended up in the first like 20 seconds with me doing some kind of throw and then me getting on top I wasnt big, but very strong and athletic so that helped too (could do 25 pull ups at age 10). When I moved to US, the strongest black kid in 4th grade picked on me, I told him lets go fight after school. Dude dropped in 2 seconds. He thought it was going to be a fist exchange, and got really scared when he ended up being controlled by me. The thing with wrestling, is it sends a big fear into your mind when someone else is controlling your body As an adult I have no idea how effective Judo is. fighting at my age (36) is much more risky. People use weapons, friends, I could get charged, etc. You also gotta be extremely fit and Im not anymore
You shouldn’t post so much trash on line. You need to talk to someone
@@djharto4917 you got cheated on?
When Jeff explains his knowledge about a martial art, it's on point. But when he gives the grade, it just leaves me with a question mark. It's like you've got to change the grading system based on what he says because he's too polite to give any martial art less than a C grade. Jeff is definitely the type of teacher that would grade on a curve.
LOLL sorry I'm too Canadian
This's a pretty good observation. I've seen a few comments shitting on Jeff for putting certain martial arts in "C", but if we actually took the time to listen to what he says, it becomes obvious that it's just a polite version of giving them an F tier
@@DarkDoughnutsVids 😂😂
My father is policeman and he uses aikido all the time and it didn't failed single time. Granted no fighter gonna fight you. But it worked on drunks, "Streetfighters", and criminals. But we don't train aikido what Roka trained. Our dojo is more modern and we have some bjj in it and striking so we are able to use technique. Without striking "atemi" its impossible to use aikido at all in my opinion so most aikido schools we call them dancers.
@@MMAShredded LOL :d
11:00 He nails perfectly why karate is so amazing. People often fail to understand that the training movements you see in karate practice (kihon and kata) are not exactly the real fight, they're just schemes you repeat to train your body and prepare it to react quickly, but the real fight in karate is all about distance and timely reactions. This is why you see karate fighters land kicks and blows so precisely.
Exactly I do Okinawan kenpo btw
Yes, the thing is in most karate classes they only teach kata, rendering it useless.
He needs to see kyokushin/ashihara/enshin conditioning
kata is completely useless for fights. It looks aesthetic tho.
Which Karate though? Kyokushin Karateka don't move like that when they fight.
Great interview. The interviewee shares his knowledge so clearly, and the interviewer asked perfect follow up questions. Thanks guys!
I was a boxer for quite some time. I have recently switched to Wing Chun and have stuck with it for the amount of competence it helps someone develop. I have learnt is for just four and a half months and feel street safe if not combat ready.
As someone who did Tekwondo for 9 years I can firmly say that Tekwondo is fun, flashy and explosive, and same as for most other martial arts you could easily take someone untrained. Though as hard it is to say, I think that Tekwondo is something you supliment your fighting style with, rather than base your style of in a mma type sitch. You see a lot of olympic level Tekwondo fighters be both medalists in Tekwondo and kickboxing, since it flows into one another very well. Thing about using Tekwondo in mma is that its something you use when you've already set up a good opening for it, but it isn't great at creating those openings by itself.
Agreed - when I did taekwondo a lot of the more advanced people I went with (especially 1 black belt who also had a black belt in jiujutsu!) would spend a lot of their free time outside of training suplimenting their fighting style with more focus on grappling, boxing, wrestling, et.c.
Tiekwondo is ketchup
God bless you with Faith and his Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ almighty!
taekwando is flashy more than effective
he is basing it on if you have any bjj and striking knowledge already you clown
Homey is giving waaaay too much credit to aikido lmao I don’t think he’s taking pressure testing into account at all
Yeah I feel like he’s assuming it’s an actual fighter from each art rather than considering the typical training methods of a given art
Fr bro just like judo like bro sambo > bjj > judo imo
Aikido and TAI CHI are the very best for self-defense! Anyone telling otherwise is just throwing a cop-out! XD Just Kittens. Hehehehe.
Aikido and TAI CHI are the very best for self-defense! Anyone telling otherwise is just throwing a cop-out! XD Just Kittens. Hehehehe. :3
@@ReligionAndMaterialismDebunked hahahaha
Thank you! This was VERY informative! I learned a TON.
this is one of the best ranking videos i have ever seen and agree with. Jeff seems really cool and i need to go out and support his fights!
I really appreciate the mindset of Jeff Chan in this video. Most arts are going to give you skills that work against the untrained in a short period of time. After that, you're min/maxing for the sport. An example would be a boxer learning to punch in such a way that they won't be counter punched. If your opponent is going to wait for your combo to stop instead of counter punching to interrupt your combo, then it doesn't really matter that you know the head movement and proper handwork to keep your head protected while you're punching.
Yeah, but, Aikido and TAI CHI are the very best for self-defense! Anyone telling otherwise is just throwing a cop-out! XD Just Kittens. Hehehehe.
@@ReligionAndMaterialismDebunked got any evidence?
Except aikido
Great video! Jeff is being so humble when admits that he changes his opinion about some arts (like my favorite one karate) and when he says that he don't know the art to comment about, some youtubers will say "IT'S NOT WORK" in the first moment. Being like Jeff make we more able to learn, adapt and use other arts.
What are you talking about? Aikido and TAI CHI are the very best for self-defense! Anyone telling otherwise is just throwing a cop-out! XD Just Kittens. Hehehehe.
Karate definitely works. Really every art works when you use what’s useful and train it
Karate and Kenpo are the most misunderstood martial arts IMO. The trouble is there’s a lot of hacks and mcdojo scammers who make it look bad. On top of that, even when you find a proper place people see the movements and sets people do and think it looks ridiculous. In reality these mcdojo cucks are not real karate and only teach in child dojos typically, and those exercises are not how you’re supposed to fight in acc sparring. It’s only done to get the body to understand the mechanics of moves and distance and get it down to a science. Once your reaction time is high and you understand the mechanics behind momentum, and condition as much as possible, karate makes guys who hit HARD, some of the hardest hands in MMA and they react fast as hell. And they’re ability to gauge distance is precise. And you can apply those mechanics to any other striking. Karate boxing or even karate Muay Thai will hurt even more.
this is really informative. ❤
I used to do wrestling and boxing in highschool and then switched to muay thai 100%. I think this is a good breakdown in this video. Of course I "believe" what I believe; it all comes down to the individual doing whatever style. People who are naturally more athletic will be good at whatever style they land on. From my experience; you don't want to get into a street fight with wrestling or judo. But then again in a street fight any lucky hit is a game changer.
Have a question, which one is better boxing or muay thai?
@@AdenikiBonas-rk7yz Muay Thai will get you prepared for all situations
Do you mean you wouldn’t want to get in a street fight with a wrestler or a judoka? Because a single throw/slam is enough to cause crippling damage to your opponent. If your good at wrestling or judo then I think the other guy is the one who was to worry.
@@tdreloaded I wouldn't want to get into a street fight with anyone for the record; I've sparred with my judo-pal thaiboxing and while I have him outclassed in striking; if it came down to it he could toss me to the ground and break my back or something. And the bast--rd knows this XD XD XD
@@AdenikiBonas-rk7yz Muay Thai can use kicks, elbows, knees, clinch and throws. Boxers are very good at what they do, but they have big holes in their game that can be exploited.
I like how fair he's being, point about capoeira, a lot of capoeira academy's are also involved in bjj as well, the local one around me is run by a BJJ brown belt. I've sparred with him and it's terrifying. Many use it as an add on to their BJJ as well as a way of creating muscle memory/movement unlocking for fighting not the main art.
Also a beautiful way to experience Brazilian culture!
@@jacksonmuaythai So true, done a couple of seminars, the guy who I was talking about I've seen him land sakuraba style cartwheel guard passes in purple/brown belt level competition.
@@lewisb85 I see all styles of capoeira as signature styles like how I could throw a sakuraba during a fight the way saenchai throws his cartwheel kicks
Yeah, but... Aikido and TAI CHI are the very best for self-defense! Anyone telling otherwise is just throwing a cop-out! XD Just Kittens. Hehehehe.
Colby Covington coach is coapeira teacher
I’m suprised Rokas didn’t discuss or react to placing Aikido so high
@@jesusiskingofkingss actually the other way around, he hated it real hard for like a year, he's only recently come back to seeing its value
Accurate and no ego or being self centered I love the video. It’s very reasonable and good explanation from the maker great video
Amazing video especially the speed round of particulars at the end
dam.. jeff musta woke up thinking 'today I choose generosity'
I love Jeff, he helps me getting back into grappling (his sambo, judo, wrestling) when doing MMA & muaythai sparring
Excellent analysis - Deep and well thought out...
I love Karate - and as a mechanical engineer and long-time Karate practitioner, I feel like a lot of the moves are optimized mechanically for getting the most impact for a punch or kick that your body can dish out. But as he said, distance management is key, because that is a prerequisite to maximizing the peak forces your body can generate (like the basic punch called 'oi-zuki' essentially comes out of your whole body, esp also from your legs via grip on the floor. when trained well, even a person with relatively low, muscular strength will be able to throw a quite fierce punch. Historically the idea of Karate was also a bit to essentially knockout/kill the opponent in one blow rather than making a whole fight out of it. with that, it may look less spectacular than some other martial arts, but it's amazing at channeling huge forces quickly). So in a narrow area, it would surely be less effective than many other martial arts...
As a civil engineer i prefer muay thai,and it hasn't anything to do with my profession
@@iminsideyourwalls9432 as CFO I prefer boxing and it has everything to do with my profession 😂
As far as Karate, only Kyokushin works, period.
@@bernardoj54 Passing general judgment by what category of Karate "works" or "doesn't work" seems kinda simple to me. In average, Kyokushin-style labelled Dojos certainly weigh heavily on the fighting aspect, but in my experience, it seems much more dependent on the individual Dojo, rather than just the style. By far the most gut-wrenchingly violent Dojo I have ever visited, was one in Switzerland committed to the Shotokan style. Damn, those guys there had no limits, from kicks to the head till faint, daily blood, you name it, it was there. It's really more "who" than "what name do you give your exact style". at the end of the day
@@s3vashlil bro, what the FUCK do u know abt fighting? First of all its far from overrated, its absolutely underrated bc ppl shit on it without knowing anything. The kata and school technique is only used for class and has certain benefits if done correctly. If we are talking the actual karate, made for fighting, i am willing to bet it would put your ass to sleep in seconds, it has very straightforward and effective punches/kicks and is the actual basis of most Martial arts today. It also depends on the style and place u learn it, iv seen some absolutely dogshit boxing places but iv never said its bad. I train in a preaty damn good club and we have separate fighting classes where we are absolutely exsausted from how hard and draining it is
Great video, loved how you rearranged the table based on different considerations after you already had done the first version.
Not 💯 sure about some of Jeff's grades here but his knowledge of Martial arts shines through! Love these types of videos where you go into the merits of each style. 🔥
Hmmmm... Aikido and TAI CHI are the very best for self-defense! Anyone telling otherwise is just throwing a cop-out! XD Just Kittens. Hehehehe.
@@jonahpostsstuff1301 it was a joke
AMAZINGLY DONE!!! i try to skip to next bit i cant i will miss smt u will get high places with how u have it
I have been following Jeff for about a year and love watching his videos and how many people he he actually does sparring with just to put out a video is amazing. I'm just glad that at only 3 months into Muay Thai training in a MMA gym I'm able to agree and even know what Jeff is gonna chose before he does. Makes me realize just how much knowledge I've gained in martial arts in a relatively short time. But like Jeff said , on my first day of Muay Thai training I learned to kick and now my Teep , switch, back and side kicks are so powerful I knocked the heavy banana bag thru the wall at American Top Team 😆 I say that to demonstrate how Jeff said boxing/kickboxing and Muay Thai were all quick to learn and get good at when compared to other traditional martial arts like Kung Fu.
I love and teach Karate, but have trained in Boxing and Judo for countless years. The question I get often from new students, is what style do you recommend to be best for effectiveness etc, I always say from my experience in my field is:-1st Avoid conflict ,2nd Boxing, 3rd Judo, then Karate, but it really depends on the person's attitude to training and the club's teaching methods etc, but most importantly is to find a style, you enjoy the most!!!
Awesome Video!!! Jeff Chan is so respectful of the various martial arts - he doesn’t want to trash any of them with a low grade. I love these ranking videos overall.
Great video! Thanks..
Really cool interview idea
This video is super cool, also I really like how Jeff motivates the answers!
Excellent video from two of my favorite Martial Artist/KZheadrs. I think Jeff's grading is fairly accurate. Though he's so politely Canadian, you could tell he struggled to grade anything below a C.🤣
As someone with a brother who wrestled in high school, the discipline is insane. He subsided off of water, pomegranates, granola bars, and maybe the odd cookie here or there for a quarter of a year so he could be two weight classes lower than where he was before. He was so close to not making weight that he needed to run miles every morning in order to lose enough water weight so he could compete. Over a year and a half after he placed 5th at state, his face is still bony from the ridiculous weight cut he had to go through. I asked everyone on the team what they thought about wrestling and they said these two things, "It sucks," and, "It's a way of life."
sounds like hell, and the malnutrition probably wouldn't help performance.
A weight bully then
As someone who did wrestling for 8 years, the sport is cruel because you could train your butt off all week and cut the necessary weight to get into the desired weight class….. but all that effort could be over in a matter of seconds as you get pinned by a much better opponent. Then all of that time and energy just doesn’t feel worth the trouble. But when you’re victorious, and you get that medal in a tournament….. it feels SO much sweeter. Wrestling is certainly not for the faint of heart. Yet somehow, I’m still glad I did it.
Sumo wrestling is fun to watch.
I didn't continue to compete in college but was quite successful in high school, competing at both regional and state. I can say that not everyone aggressively cuts weight and lives that kind of a lifestyle, even at the highest level of the sport. As the other commenter said, those are weight bullies that are potentially taking years off their life for no reason other than to gain an edge over people who compete at their natural weight class. Unless you are doing it professionally, it just isn't worth it. Even then, if you aren't a top 10 fighter, you probably aren't making enough money for it to be worth it.
Finally. Someone spit it out. Even in MMA, you have to be good at your boxing skills because it is the most effective when it comes to striking while having a composed stance
Boxing has always been my favorite because of how simple it is, pretty much the just the basic fundamentals of fighting. How to throw a proper punch, how to block/dodge a punch, and simple fighting stance/footwork. Obviously it's not going to work in every situation, but I always kind of figured if you just wanted to learn to how to fight without turning it into a full time hobby it would be by learning boxing.
Simple but very difficult to master
@@daebak7370 yes
I agree as well boxing,bjj and wrestling very easy and simple to learn if your just starting to learn how to fight but all are very hard to master
Hello said other than Gracie bjj learn Boxing.
Boxing is good if you are tall bulky beast with so much strength
Muay thai ... best striking Wrestling ... best take down BJJ ... best submission = MMA today These three styles are just all you need 💀
And basic boxing
@@jordannorris2406 muay thai is boxing, but better in all departments other than the importance of head movement.
And for only $300 a month! lmfao.
@@steviebob3119I love Muay Thai and think it is definitely one of the best striking bases for MMA, but the stance and footwork don't translate particularly well. If you are a grappler learning to strike, you might be better off learning boxing.
Plus it depends on where you are, but in the us I think it is a lot easier to find a good boxing gym.
Great content
I really respect Jeff's take on TKD. As a TKD practitioner I completely agree with his take. The point system in sparring really rewards the go for broke with some form of spin kick all the time which often leads the head exposed. More conservative approaches tend to score less points and the head gear protects pretty well so people typically don't focus on head defense with hands as much as footwork.
Which TKD are you talking about? There are 2 styles - Im guessing just based on your comment that you are talking about WTF Olympic style TKD - in ITF Taekwondo which this is used in the army - what is it with Americans & not knowing there are 2 styles of Taekwondo? ITF taekwondo uses elbows, knees, even headbutts we have trained, shoulder strikes - When you say TKD mention which one ITF or WTF - The differences in styles is light and day
Karate background MMA guy here: I appreciate this guy's praise of karate and I love how much more praise traditional arts are getting nowadays as it's making a comeback due to the machidas and wonderboys out there so I'll give it a go and explain the in and out movement we use a lot: It's like fencing. Karate guys treat a fight like it's a sword battle, and that your hands and feet are like sword, you wanna hit in the most aggressive, spurratic, single strike the most accurately you can without getting hit without the other swordsman's sword. It's often compared to very old Irish boxing, which was very similar in concept to this style of movement as they fought bare knuckle and thus are more careful with strikes and striking. The "hands down" stance is to allow for mobility and a steeper stance. As he points out it sucks in a bar fight but in an open parking lot it's helped me once
I’ve also noticed that this “Karate Boxing” stance seems to be ideal for MMA some good examples would be Henry Cejudo and Patricio Pitbull. Both short guys with short reach but through the “fencing” you’re talking about manage to land good shots on bigger taller opponents. Fedor and Whittaker as well.
@@filth6996 I think MMA fighters use a wider stance because they aren't as exposed to leg kicks
karate is a joke lmao u get disqualified for KO'ing an opponent in the olympics haha
@@waefawawrgaw2835 you're talking point karate not full contact. Kyokushin is the father of kickboxing.
@@waefawawrgaw2835 and this is why full contact guys didn't want karate in the Olympics
Finally I can stop rewatching the other videos you did with Mike and Ramsay EDIT: wow, super disagree with the majority of the rankings. No hate to Jeff, he is much more knowledgeable than me, but I whole heartedly disagree that Muay Thai is better than Sambo for the street OR the ring
Ive seen pretty many martial art tier videos and this one is definetely the best,
I think you should've differentiated Sambo and combat Sambo! Khabib, Islam, Fedor., blagoy, nemkov, minakov, yaroslav amosov, arlovski, merab dbalishvili, all competed in Combat Sambo, besides sambo. Strikes included, basically MMA.
On the topic of Japanese Jiu Jitsu, there's also the JJIF format where they actually spar and have full contact competitions. No ground work, but purely striking and stand up grappling.
Also Japanese police use it, it's by far the oldest martial art here. If it was innefective it would have died out 1000 years ago.
Sports for self defence in order of effectiveness: 1. Poker (read the room and leave 1 hour before the fight starts) 2. Sprinting (get away safe) 3. Soccer (kick lead leg out & sprint like a hyena. Play dead if necessary) 4. Boxing (fast jab, range, footwork for escapes) 5. Muay thai(if attackers get to mid range, elbows, knees) 6. Wrestling (if clinched, stay standing & slam) 7. Bjj (a last line of defence. Like a saftey harness for if you fall. If the opponents homophobic they may give up altogether)
Learned a lot from this👌❤️💪🥋
This goes with what I've heard my entire life that if you can box and you can wrestle you can fight. Which MMA has shown to hold very true.
Precisely this. If you train a good striking form like boxing or kickboxing and you train a good takedown/grappling form like Judo or Jiujitsu, you're set. This was the revelation that MMA really brought to reality.
@@sparkofcuriousity Hi, how is the Judo/boxing combo for security/self defense?
@@12shah74 I think that's solid. If you're doing security, you can use the boxing/judo as your foundation but do some training with other styles sporadically to incorporate some of those elements and complement your foundation. For example Muay Thai or kickboxing to complement your boxing, and some wrestling, Jiujitsu etc. But, let's say, you only have boxing and judo available near you, i would say it's effective.
Boxing and wrestling is all you need. HANDS AND SPRAWLS. BJJ is useless vs a wrestler with hands. Wrestlers with hands DOMINATE mma
In defense of capoeira I did witness someone having no clue of what the capoeirista was doing and dived into a meia lua de compaso, and got smashed. So if you have the malice and are able to set people up into your strikes, capoeira can be deadly. Generally, you only need to connect once.
that was kind of what he said
Actually that is the ultimate in the art of fighting without fighting LOL escape, they're not catching you at that point, once you get an exit no one will catch you LOL
With media lua de compaso you hit with your body weight plus the inertia of the spin, so It is a very dangerous kick
This is the best list I've seen online thus far! I still think that TKD could get a little more love as the art that can generate the most power per pound, but if you are not training it well (pressure testing, punches to the face etc), and it is not paired with anything else, you can most certainly get in a lot of trouble. As much as I love Wing Chun, his assessment on it is pretty fair, though it certainly acts a concealed blade when paired with Boxing and especially BJJ.
amazing video
Mannn everyone I hear on here says JJJ doesn’t spar but we do in our gym every day. Also I guess there is a difference between modern Japanese Jiu jitsu and traditional. I practice modern Jjj. I’m gonna make a KZhead channel so JJJ gets the love it deserves
BJJ is a ripoff and is just modified jjj for sports.
BJJ comes from Judo not Traditional, which is where Judo comes from instead.
@@Shaddycls judo, bjj, aikido, sambo are all martial arts origin from the martial art of jūjutsu. not judo.
@@cn4s490 BJJ comes from Judo, Judo comes from traditional Jiujitsu. Gracie was expanding Judo over Brazil showing that was more effective than striking martial arts, and the guy taught Gracie kids who developed BJJ.
@@Shaddycls there is no difference .they all come from traditional Jiujitsu.
Jeff is one of my favorite MMA KZheadrs, probably my most favorite now that I think about it. So much so that I try copying his techniques when he spars or even his bagwork. Guy gives out ton of content that its hard to believe its free. He also made me rethink the effectiveness of certain martial arts deemed ineffective, further emphasized after watching this.
"It's not about the Martial Arts, it's about discipline,self-defense,and more." -Wise man
its also a lot about your physical fitness. You can be a black belt but still get taken down by someone less trained, if this guy is just stronger and more fit
Wing chin is especially good for security work. You’re already likely to be in close proximity and have quite skill gap, and trapping the hands is an effective way to end the fight without escalating it further.
There are two rulesets of sambo - sport and combat. While sport variant is basically a judo combat sambo is like MMA with limited time on the ground, which is amazing for street. In combat sambo you have to submit in 5 seconds or get back on your feet and start over.
Yes, he made a mistake on Combat Sambo. If there is an S tier it should be Combat Sambo alone, and all are A tier below. Combat Sambo is the only pure art who can beat all martial arts.
Combat Sambo look at Khabib, it's so damn effective.
While combat samba is very similar to mma, it rules actually allows you to do things that would be illegal in mma, specifically head butts and groin strikes. you are allowed to headbutt standing or on the ground but you need 3 point of contact with the ground to do that. Also you are allow to strike the groin, but only in the clinch with knee strikes
3 I think, combat sambo is a lot more sport based now, so I thing there’s something called applied sambo which is more t for the military
That blue shadow thing is annoying. But the overall video is epic. Both of you are my favourites. Jeff needs to try Machida Karate asap.
This is a good tier list and very good assessment from the guest. Very enjoyable to watch and listen to.
most bullshit assessment ever
Great points.
I can't believe he was about to give Aikido an A-.... Downgrades to C, this still way to high. Honestly, no one is going to run at you leaning back with both of their hands fully extended. Aikido doesn't teach you under pressure, I could almost argue that it could make you a worse fighter if you have never pressure tested it in real life.
I agree. It could give you a twisted view of real fighting, throwing you off when a fight actually happens
A lot of people have no idea how effective boxing is in a street fight. For me it's a combination of boxing and Roman Greco that would be the most effective arts for a street fight. Roman Greco is like nogi Judo lol.
Yes! For me the ideal is Boxing and BJJ.
Boxing is great in a street fight, until you meet someone who wrestles you to the ground, or kick you in the ribs beyond range of boxing. All martial arts have flaws, this is why its important to know in the street there are no rules. Unlike in the boxing ring.
Does boxing work against fully resistant opponents?
@@prestonjantjies Of course. I've seen far too many examples in real life. When it comes to punching power, speed and upper body defense no other art can touch boxing. I've seen featherweight boxers knock out much larger men in street fights.
@@SilverforceX the chances of that is low if you know boxing lol, you aren't gonna get taken down by a wrestler going for a double leg lmao, it's gonna be some goon trying to tackle you
Having started with Taekwondo myself and competed and won full contact competition, I personally felt boxing was far superior for defence (especially for speed of learning). I've literally seen amateur boxers hold their own against blackbelts in various martial arts. Why? Because boxing has you immediately sparring full contact and putting what you learn into practice unlike contactless sparring in most martial arts. Again, for this same reason - kick boxing and especially thai-boxing I found were incredibly effective in a very short time of learning. I literally started doing competition in Taekwondo purely because I didn't trust what we were doing in class contactless to be effective + boxers move real fricken quick.
True I'm a boxer who just started training in taekwondo I feel I can hang with the black belts except my teacher haha
I was brown belt in taekwondo but then lost the sport through the years to get back into the martial art world I went into boxing and found how, I wouldn’t say superior but imo for me was superior striking, the distance striking in TKD is useful but throwing kicks Is unique for everyone except in boxing throwing a hook jab cross feels more natural. Basically I like boxing more.
PERFECT placing of the commercial 4 the wallet (I'm serious). Just when looking how to analyze the dangers of fighting on the streets I started thinking "streetfighting , my money?". GREAT move you fox !!
so what I got from this is a boxer with grappling wrestling or just some ground and clinch control can pretty much handle most of what life throws at them but if you can use grappling kicking and less common methods than striking you can still manage most situations so essentially you don’t NEED striking but it helps a lot and can even prevent the need for ground game
Interesting how varied the ratings in each tier list video have been. Regarding karate, and I think he described Taekwondo similarly though I’m pretty unfamiliar with TKD, I’d say it’s a matter of most techniques being effective but many schools having very bad training methodologies, because of a combination of pandering to kids and excessive adherence to tradition. A good chunk of karate techniques are shared with higher tier standup martial arts like kickboxing and fair amount of the more unique ones have been used effectively, but yeah, like I said, lots of shit training methodologies. Most of you are probably thinking I’m gonna say “but the school I went to was ideal”. No. It was certainly above average IMO, in that we sparred often, there was no weird culty Sensei syndrome, we learned a bit of BJJ too (1 week of classes every month), and he never gave black belts to kids “you can’t grade for black belt until you at least start getting your adult strength, because at the end of the day, you’re not much of a black belt if you can’t at least hold your own against a grown man”, yet at the same time there’s no black belt fetishization, he makes it clear throughout our karate careers that first Dan is just “you’ve completed the tutorial”, not “your fists are deadly weapons and must be register with the government”. However, it was definitely quite kid focused so it took years before we were allowed to move past pretty light contact sparring. I’m not advocating for like full contact fighting between 12 year olds, but I think a bit more contact earlier on would’ve been very beneficial, and it seems my Sensei agrees because recently he’s been introducing more sparring and more contact (more, not full) in the kids classes. We also do spend a lot of time on kata. I do like kata, I enjoy it as a traditional thing, but personally I’d focus on it less to have more time to spar. Like it’s a very big part of our exams for each belt so we end up devoting, I think, a bit more time to it than is ideal. Not as bad as other schools I’ve seen, we do still have time to do more practical drills and spar, but I’d still definitely cut back on the kata skimping. Sadly I don’t think my Sensei will make that change, at least I’m the foreseeable future. What’s funny is that the same guy’s purely BJJ classes which I also attended, have somewhat of a different mentality. Rolling every class, obviously BJJ has nothing like Kata, so it feels almost like a different school. Perhaps if I’d started as an adult I’d feel differently but like kids over 10ish can start taking things a bit more seriously so I still think he waited too long.
Karate is definitely not below in a tier than kickboxing, that's just ridiculous. Also kata is not shit training, it's actually something a lot of these more primitive (easy-to-master) arts are missing. Kata is for developing precision, control of your movements and to train your muscle memory (faster movements, reaction time, less fatigue from practicing), plus this can be done alone, when you have no sparring partner. Get up in the morning before everyone else like Kobe in his basketball camps and do kata. Then do it in the evening after the last practice.
@@ripitvapars I mean, karate, as practiced in most schools, is less focused on practicality than kickboxing as practiced in most schools. If the way it’s taught and practiced were ignored and the technique compared, karate and kickboxing would rate about the same, but we do have to take into account how Karate is typically focused on being a fun activity for kids and preserving tradition (and in a statistically significant number of dojos practiced without sparring 🤮). Don’t get me wrong, I love karate, but I do try to be self aware about it. As for kata I don’t know of it being any better than just doing combinations while moving (things like kihon ido). If I remember correctly there were studies that found that kata isn’t all that helpful, but since I can’t find them, feel free to disregard that point if you want.
One element to take in consideration is that Karate in the US is quite different than Karate everywhere else. When I started in Brazil in the early 90's my sensei was beating my leg with a shinai to correct the posture and we started the class with 80-100 sit ups and 50 push ups and I was 14. You never saw a karateka wear a do-gi other than the traditional white (no multi-color, star and stripes uniforms). Then I moved here and is like Wild West of martial arts where everything goes and was very hard to find a dojo where the sensei was not trying to scam me for money. "want to spar? join the sparring class on Friday, just add 50 bucks to your tuition"! "You have a uniform already? Sorry, you need to use the uniform with our logo on it, just for 100 bucks for this very basic thin do-gi that you can find on amazon for 50 U$". I believe that are very good dojos here, but you need to look through all the BS before find someone legit.
I spent a couple of years in Krav Maga and I boxed a lot more as offense than I kicked which I used more as defense, especially the side kick. In particular I developed my left jab as a counterpunch to punching and kicking. That made Krav Maga a good street fighting style for me.
do you think it actually works in a fight?I wanna start training it
@@zezebombastic3953 For me it did. But, my instructor cared more about street fighting or realistic fighting situations, and survival than anything else. I found that I was a pretty good boxer and my instructor focused on developing that. I have no doubt that if I would have ended up with an instructor that only cared about tradition or an unrealistic fighting style, it would have been a wasted experience. So, if you peruse Krav Maga, make sure that the instructor focuses on a realistic street fighting. If not move on. That goes for any style. My instructor’s motto was “do whatever it takes to win and make it home safely, (don’t start fights, and as long as you don’t do anything illegal it’s ok). That’s exactly what I was looking for. Good luck in your search.
@@zezebombastic3953 Also, after four to six months of learning how to punch, fall, kick, grapple, etc, correctly, from that point forward all we did is spar. Every session was a sparring session. Occasionally we’d learn new techniques. But once we got that out of the way and he made sure we understood how to spar correctly and safely, we began full contact sparring, two hours a night, three days a week for a year. That made all the difference for me. Again, good luck.
@@TheSteveSteele hey man im training krav right now too. i got intrigued since we only spar very rarely and if we do, its with pads or we can't even hit each other just almost hitting. kinda torn if i should leave krav or not because of this
@@WeezyBeez For the first few months you should learn how to do basic things like punching, kicking, falling, etc, without sparring. Otherwise you’ll most likely injure yourself and others. But after that, in my opinion, you should be sparring most of the time. If not, I’d leave that school and find one that does spar a lot. That’s just my opinion.
Great video, you should have Ryan Hall do the same! I think it would be interesting…
My rule of thumb regarding the best martial arts for self-defence is it has to be effective fighting in a public toilet cubicle/ restroom stall and on a moving bus. These are the kinds of places you can expect to be attacked. If it can’t be used in these kind of confined spaces it’s of limited use in self-defence. That’s my take.
Elbows from muay thai, maybe even knee and grappling from bjj
@@AlligatorAli you want to avoid going down on the ground if you end up in trouble on the street, other than that, you describe krav maga. Knees and elbows are simple to learn even for untrained people and is used in krav maga, along with simple judo throws (which ive seen) and a few other things. im looking at krav maga since im a middle aged guy, i have done other martial arts.
@@someonethatisachristian what you want to avoid doesn't really matter. What happens, happens.
@@someonethatisachristian rear naked choke (standing) Arm twists. There must be other standing grappling moves well.
@@AlligatorAli im not that well versed in krav maga, i havent started with it yet, i only know it from theory.
Just started Muay Thai training , never been more sore 🤣 this is gonna be an interesting ride
“Most kicks can beat a boxer, unless theyre mike tyson” 😂
it would be interesting to see an akido master vs untrained fighter video to see if it truly is effective in a sparring/fight setting versus someone untrained like jeff said
Lots of videos show it's useless because it relies on people working with you. Some technical moves work with alterations. But not great.
you guys have no clue. a lot of people in security learn aikido because its very effective to controle people. also, aikikai aikido is very different than aikijutsu/daitoryu aikido. these techniques transitionned from battlefields to kill people, to basically harmony movement/dance but essence is still there. so yeah depends what kind of aikido you learn. Aikido would not be good in mma, but definitely effective in the street, if you don't intend to preserve your opponent like in the dojo
@@xaviermasse9689 dude I'm a martial arts instructor and I've seen enough videos of people who are black belts in aikido get embarrassed when trying to wrist lock some guy punching them in the face. There are a few holds that work but aikido as a form is a waste of time. There's a guy who Hass done videos with Jeff and he used to teach it and stopped when he realized it doesn't work and he got his butt whipped by someone with mild mma experience. You however believe what ever you wish, if you enjoy the training keep training. But don't expect it to work if you need it.
@@kieranshepherd6715 i think the point is that when someone is trying to punch you in the face, aikido wont work. But when someone is idle, not threatening, then aikido can help in securing someones wrist Thats pretty much the only extent to which Aikido is useful. However, this one move of grabbing the wrist, is probably the single most important move of every and any security guard or anyone who wants to de-escalate a situation. Straight up punching someone is often just too much, but restraining someone is professional When I was 14 or something this grown big asian man grabbed both my and my friend's wrist at the same and escorted us out. He controlled my entire body with just a hold of my wrist. I presume this was aikido
You the man Jeff! MMA analysis, no argument there of course. :) Olny thing in these vids that always comes back is when it comes to self defense....while you need both; strategic decission making trumps technique. Very boring, but if you're not being taught the fundamentals of violence in a classroom setting, you're way behind. Almost all of these martial arts never even touch on that subject. While a lot of the techniques will be the same for a self defense and MMA setting (with the excemption of setting change, multiple attackers, weapons, etc.) strategy between the two couldn't be more apart from each other.
Jeff actually knows his stuff and also isn't pretending or making assumptions with the ones he doesn't. Finally, a ranking list I (kind of) agree with. Also didnt he win the self-defence championship?
Jeff Chan knows a lot about MA. Spot on
Was a Karate practioner its actually refreshing seeing Karate getting a high grade, Karate was also prove itself in MMA and with new Karate Combat league it was show just how effective Karate striking can be while also having some notion of takedows, defending takedows and ground and pound i also think Karate is evolving alot especially beacuse of MMA and because with MMA being the proving grounds for martial arts the ones that dont evolve or refuse to open new horizons will die out, this was been happening all the way back to feudal Japan, i think nowadays there is no reason to learn from other styles and getting out of your confort zone in martial arts, in regards to street fighting i think most martial arts will work.
Karate is suck
mma is the proving ground for effective martial arts in ring fighting...as u said, most if not every ma will work in a street fight...
Lyoto Machida
@@kevo192000 lyoto Machida dont aprove
@@eduardocoutochueri9920 Lyoto wouldn't approve of his grammar either.
These rankings are superb. We hope to see more content like this.
If you ever do something like this again can you possibly make a side by side identical ranking chart of 1 being Street Fight (or example A) & 2 being MMA (or example B) so at both times we see a side by side ranking comparison ?
Thank goodness I'm doing Muay Thai. Glad to know it's useful
I love how enthusiastic he is about everything, and how icy mike was like yeah nothing actually works.
😄
@@johncena12366 his streetbeefs record begs to differ. And his part in ultimate self defense championship
interesting video, Jeff is knowledgeable and insightful as always, but I'm disappointed that there was a little icon for Sanda but you never asked him about it, regardless its a fun video
I wish he ranked the rest of the styles... Was curious to see kudo, kyokushin and sanda
Judo, Boxing and Taekwondo have always worked perfectly in the streets here in Nairobi.
The first 2 maybe.
@@Ricardo-cp2lu Delusional
@@IGlazeChiefKeef Not me.
@@User87145 Yes, ITF taekwondo can be useful. I'm talking about the Olympic version, which is an absolute joke and I know it first hand.
Thats true. Casually, I practice 3 (Judo as a child) and are great. Taekwondo Itf, the real Taekwondo 🥋💪🥊
I practiced boxing and kiokushinkai karate. And real aikido a bit(Serbian martial art, imroved version of aikido). Boxing and kiokushinkai are just amazing. Now I want to do judo
This guy has done the best listing of the martial arts for street. Boxing and wrestling!!
I really love this video and how fair you are to each. I truly hate how so many people are easy to say "taekwondo is bad!!" Without understanding that like the GOAT said, it is about the Martial Artist. It is up to us to understand the concepts and apply them to real life situations. We can all learn to punch, kick and move. But what separates a novice from a component fighter is knowing how to use this in the most effective way possible. Naturally, doing more than one MA will make a big difference, also how the club teaches. Too many embarrassing clubs out there now more interested about money than making component fighters.
Wushu Sanshou should be mentioned here its a Chinese Kickboxing combine with takedowns withs strikes. There’s a couple of MMA fighters who is using it (Cung Lee) or team Lakay from the Philippines they’ve produce champions
Nah that shit is lame as hell, it’s just kick boxing with wrestling and a bit of bjj lol.
@@potatoehead4405 then you should try spar with one. You know its lame or not 😂🤣
I used to train for 15 years in a university club at the campus center where there are more than 15 martial art clubs in the complex. I was in the karate club and on many occasions every year we would all gather or go to other arts courses to test and try and a couple of times per year we'd all gather all together. Well I have pretty much the same tier list. Karate elite if there's enough space (until you can catch them and go quickly on the ground).
I like this guys free-flowing unorthodox style when they show them sparring creative fluid
turns out Jeff did better on sharing his opinions, This dude is a good teacher to have.
Can the TKD in your list be ITF style rather than WTF/Olympic. There's a huge difference in them (including ITF having head punches!!!) For Tai Chi too, Master Willie Lim was incredible using this as an effective martial art
No la hay
Ramsey put every art in the bottom half because "no art is near perfect to go into the high ranks" Jeff did basically the opposite. Comparing their tier lists is very funny
Ramsey is goofy
Ramsey is right in one sence when he basically says that martial arts is for though guys, ofcourse tough guys will win in MMA and be awsome on the street, as he puts down and ridicules krav maga. But whole point with self defence like krav maga is that it ISNT for tough guys, its to help normal and weak people (whats considered soft targets) learn some skills to defend themselves against predators on the street, not to win against tough guys that they would lose against anyway even if they trained MMA harder than the tough guys. Funny how that doesnt even cross Ramseys mind when he talks about this. He also said good martial arts are those that takes a long time to learn..... Ehh... for an ENTUISIAST maybe? Not for an average person that wants to learn self defence, average people dont have time for 10-20 years of hard training before they can use it effectively. Also having looked at MMA competitors have a swing at eachother at weigh-ins, they fight like brawlers, not refined, tecnical fighters you see in the ring for some reason, something "shuts off" when that happens, this is something thats i see is often talked about in real self defence like krav maga.
Ramsey did the woman self defense. Not mma tier list. Also he belives the best for being good in mma, is simply doing mma. And working on the holes in your mma game.
@@katokianimation yeah, in fact I ignored completely the different concepts which tier list had But still interesting to compare them
@@someonethatisachristian if the average person doesn't want to train that much it doesn't want to defend itself. Self defense demands training, which krav maga does is give the ILLUSION of being capable of defending itself, but people don't realize this because most won't ever need to use krav maga skill or at the right time to use it are just too afraid and nervous to think straight and react. Ramsey is right when he says that, he is protecting his audience from doing some krav maga bullshit and think it can try to disarm someone with a gun
Great video! The discussion about karate made me wonder specifically about how Enshin karate would fair in MMA. I used to love seeing the Sabaki tournament here in Denver. Enshin seems quite a bit different from many other karate styles.
As a Karate black belt, thank you for understanding the importance of distance management. I've told friends before that karate is good because of the foundation, distance, defense, strong attacks. But there's so much karate hate that its hard for anyone to hear me. I'm not telling anyone to try a full Kata on someone XD, mind your distance and footwork, wait for them to make a mistake, 1 hit KO kick or punch to the face.
Thank you. I sometimes dont like telling people I took Karate not because I'm not proud of what training i got but I just dont want to deal with the hate. I dont where or why people underestimate it so much. Maybe Hollywood is part of the reason? It'd make sense that's where a lot of the Katana hate stems from I noticed.
When Jeff says Taekwondo would be flashy, and don't have there guard up and over all not effective by it's self, I can totally agree with him if he was only talking about World Taekwondo, There is a style/federation in Taekwondo called "ITF Taekwondo", and it is way more effective then people think. In ITF Taekwondo the sparring is basically Kickboxing just a bit more fancy kicks, they punch to the head, and have there guard up. Outside of sparring there is takedowns, elbow strikes, a little bit of knee strikes, and knowing how to get out of a headlock. ITF Taekwondo was the older style of Taekwondo made by Choi Hong Hi, He made Taekwondo for war and he used to kill people with the Taekwondo, because ITF Taekwondo has a lot of Tang Soo Do techniques like chokes and stuff like that. I would agree if someone only did WT Taekwondo all by it's self in MMA/Street fight which wouldn't be the best option, but ITF taekwondo would be actually up there with karate.
This 👍🏼
IMO for self defense it would be boxing for the punches and footwork, wrestling for takedowns and takedown defense, Muay Thai clinch, elbows, knees, BJJ if you end up on your back. Stay away from kicks above the waist and avoid being too comfortable on your back going for submissions, instead focus on sweeps or standing back up.
Judo alsp great
Cool vid. Any top judo player has a top ground game these days. “Newaza” is practiced all the time at clubs now. Islam for instance a Dan grade judo player had no problem at all going to the ground with Oliveira & ended up subbing him.
Idk what that blue smudge on his bicep was but for a while you had me confused thinking the pixels on my phone were glitching 😂
6:31 actually, ninjutsu is an umbrella term, not a single martial art. Yes, there are weapon techniques, such as shurikenjutsu (which is about throwing those stars or shurikens) - but the unarmed combat is actually called taijutsu
This exactly. Bujikan taijutsu is basically judo + bjj and it is definitely not something people should underestimate, Genbukan on the other hand feels like combat aikido. I trained both for a long time, also trained BJJ for few months and sticked with Bujinkan.
His ranking is still accurate though. Most of the moves would be banned in MMA since taijutsu is mostly joint breaks and other lethal strikes.
This video has inspired me to try out Muay Thai, gonna start in around a week or two. Hope I can stick with it long term for fitness and self defense purposes
Awesome!
haha same here
W
ima do muay thai and boxing. seems very effective in a combination
@lopic_david02 How's that going because I would like to try that combination too. What parts of each style do you use?