Old school vs. new school

brianmontgomery — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:45:09 PDT

Has anyone noticed a decrease in the number of fighters in MMA today who are highly trained in specific martial arts. If you compare for instance GSP to Pat Smith, St. Pierre is well versed in stand up, grappling, and BJJ. Pat Smith "the uncrowned king of kick boxing" on the other hand back in the day was one of if not the best kick boxer in the world. The sport has evolved over the years definately but I think it has also moved backwards slightly. It has gone from finding the style that suits you best and perfecting it like Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Oleg Taktarov, Joyce Gracie, and Pat Smith did. As Bruce Lee put it "study everything and keep what works" has become todays ideal way to study and fight, not specifically focusing on one thing but looking at everything and deciding what will work best like GSP, Cung Lee, Chuck Liddel, Rich Franklin, and Fedor Emelianenko. Which is better? I don't know. What I do know is that todays fighters are just as good as yesterdays fighters with just as much skill there's just more of it.

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Old school vs. new school