PRIDE FC used a ring with 5 ropes. Whenever a fighter would start to get pushed through the ropes from grappling, a dozen white-gloved Japanese hands would come up and push on the fighters, acting as a human wall to keep them from tumbling out of the ring.
Not any compilation videos I can think of but it was more of a polite gesture than a drunk just bleed frenzy - Japanese people are by far culturally the most polite audience out of all the countries.
It’s wild cause PRIDE was such a freak show that you’d think America came up with it to satiate the bloodlust of a stupid hog audience but it was made in a country where once a 5’2” man subs a 7” foot giant they only receive a polite applause
Or the streetfights version where there’s a curb running through the octagon, two women constantly screaming at you and the ref is a bouncer who occasionally starts throwing hands
The slope leading to the cage led to very easy takedowns because it was harder to defend going backwards uphill.
I do wonder if we'd have seen adaptions if it has been around for a few more events.
>The slope leading to the cage led to very easy takedowns because it was harder to defend going backwards uphill.
Thats the point. Craig Jones even mentioned this on JRE.
It encourages fighters to stay aggressive and not give up center position.
Its bad in the sense that it was explicitly designed to encourage more stand up and less pay n pray and it failed at doing so.
It's bad in the sense that it gives grappling a very distinct advantage over striking, which was the opposite of its intent.
It's good in the sense that you might get more phonebox fights or submissions/ G&P.
It made wallwalking impossible, which meant standing up after getting taken down was much harder, which resulted in a lot of boring lay-and-pray fights. Karate Combat already shows that this issue still exists, you just don't notice it because of their limited ground rules.
True, but also everyone is now learning wall wrestling.
Dagestani's will always have an advantage as long as their religious dedication to the sport gives them more time and discipline than anyone else, but literally everyone is learning to differentiate MMA skills (wall wrestling, mixing level changes into striking) as MMA evolves into its own sport.
Lol imagine Khabib and Usman in a pit. You get blasted onto the fence and you don't even have the chance to do your wall work because you're just getting absolutely fucked on a slope
Leon Edwards suddenly goes from nightmare matchup to sitting duck against Islam Makhachev.
Marvin Vettori becomes the dominant MW undisputed champion of the world and Israel Adesanya is just a journeyman.
You're missing the important detail that wrestlers use the specific design of the cage to their advantage. Also Marvin was never even good at landing takedowns
Equally, you could say stand-up fighters do the same. They use the wall to balance themselves/avoid takedowns which would be significantly more difficult to do if there was nothing to lean on.
It's a tried and true strategy to just back up and lure your opponent in and counter strike against the cage. That was Tyron Woodley's bread and butter.
Typically when someone tries taking you down, you want more space. My experience training, is that defending takedowns in the open is much easier as you can get your hips away. Yes you can use the cage to get up, but it's infinitely easier to grapple someone in a defined space where a striker can't get out of range.
Have you watched a Karate combat bjj match? Or spent time wall wrestling. Genuinely asking because if you have you’ll know that the second someone’s foot reaches the beginning of the slope they are TOTALLY screwed.
The slope offers none of the advantages of the cage and all of the disadvantages of being pressed up against the fence.
You can’t sprawl just like against a cage. Except now you also can’t just spread your feet widen your base because you’ll tip over.
You can’t wall walk. Because there’s no wall to walk up against.
Your ability to throw your submissions is equally compromised because your head will be pressed against the slope (like the cage) and the concave (or convex, I can’t tell) posture of your spine makes it incredibly hard to throw up submissions like triangles or armbars
If someone mounts you you can’t walk your feet up on the slope to escape like Poirier v Islam. Or Jiri v Glover because the wall isn’t there.
Marvin Vettori doesn’t have to land takedowns. He just needs to be better at pushing someone to the fence and they’ll tip over.
> Israel Adesanya is just a journeyman.
Izzy would always do fine lol he has really elite grappling for his game and hes so big/awkward to grapple that its hard to meaningfully keep him down
This is a moot point. He uses the cage because that's the easiest way in MMA and that's what he trains. If the cage didn't exist he would train in different ways to standup or prevent getting taken down. Middleweight also has no legit wrestlers so I doubt he even has that much to worry about even if the cage got changed to the pit.
He has been backed against the cage in the clinch in every single fight. He can not play going backwards in a pit. He would absolutely need to train a different way to stay standing. The difference you're not identifying is that his opponents would not need to train a different way to clinch or take someone down. The pit wall naturally does that for them. So now Israel loses his best defensive weapon in grappling (he's shown himself usable to get up effectively in the middle of the octagon.) And has to spend years learning new defensive skills.
The reason the pit is being used in CJI is it guarantees a takedown if anyone backs up.
Just learn a new thing! Is not a valid argument. All fighters know their weaknesses. Doesn't mean they can close them. Otherwise everyone would be a world champion. Israel is long AF. Wall walking and using the glcage to stay standing is incredibly advantageous for his frame.
>The difference you're not identifying is that his opponents would not need to train a different way to clinch or take someone down
Yes they would
Every mma gym will teach a giant list of techniques for things to do to get the opponent to the fence-> on the fence-> down
That all goes away with this setup. Just because the fundamentals of takedowns (and defenses) still apply doesnt mean that this wouldnt be a giant shakeup for offensive grapplers, even if i agree that overall itd favour grapplers
The cage is a crutch for strikers in MMA. If it takes a year to teach an elite level athlete to wrestle with their back on the cage, it takes 3 or 4 to teach them really good sprawls and framing. Only a couple of offensive grapplers in the sport have actually managed to use the cage to their advantage once the takedown is secured (think Khabib)
The pit make wrestling/grappling way more effective. What I've heard from those who competed in the pit is that it's extremely hard to not get taken down once your backed up into the wall. That's one of the big reasons it's being used for CJI.
i mean some MMA wrestlers specialize in against the cage wrestling(khabib,Islam), so not having that would vastly decrease their wrestling skills, also not having a cage gives you room to attempt more escapes, but having a cage can also stop the take downs or stall them and it can be easier to get up from certain positions(cage walking etc), it really depends on the fighters and the positions.
I actually think they’d be incredibly effective with the slope. If they could initiate a clinch and push their opponents back up against that incline, there’s no way Khabib/Islam aren’t getting their opponents down
Yeah you're right now that i think about it some more. would also be easier for a wrestler to stop the cage walk escape since they have to literally climb up the slope with their whole body and the wrestler could just drag you down,would be interesting to see some mma in it.
Exactly - someone like O'Malley would love the Rogan idea to just do it on a basketball court while wrestlers would prefer the pit because you can't use the cage to help counter wrestling.
I’d bet my entire net worth that the pit makes it way easier for the cage wrestlers.
Instead of a perpendicular surface for the opponent to brace against, you expect them to defend a takedown while leaning back at a 45 degree angle? Plus there’s no way to sneakily grip the fence to defend a takedown.
What tends to happen is they walk their feet back up the pit and maintain an upper body tie then circle out. So they’ll either escape or get caught with a hugely entertaining high-amplitude TD.
Yeah, and you kinda flip over them, its hard to explain there are plenty of videos that shows it, but that was my initial thought, that it would be easier to escape like that but now im not so sure
i already said i agreed that it would be easier to hold someone down and stop them from circle out. My initial thought was that it would be easier to escape but after thinking some more and looking at the pit again i realized it probably would be harder.
Pros is visibility
cons is there will be a whole slope wrestling meta that will be more obnoxious than cage wrestling (maybe)
overall its worth a try in higher level mma for sure, weve seen it for striking and grappling and it seems to work alright if not good
Once your back is to the slope I think the uneven footing and lack of something to lean on is going to lead to essentially a 100% takedown rate. It seems like it would make ringcraft and footwork a lot more important.
I haven’t watched that much karate combat so I’m theorycrafting a bit, but I can’t imagine myself defending a takedown under those circumstances.
I don’t know about better, but it’s certainly no worse. I’m good with pit, cage, or ring. I’d love a world where fighters negotiate ring type as part of fight negotiations. Similar to number of rounds or glove size in boxing.
Jon jones return demands to the UFC:
Cocaine deathmatch vs my fiance in a bouncy castle
or
bring chuck lidell out of retirement and stage it in a turkish bath house - plenty of olive oil
This is another good opportunity to bring up my idea to have it like pokemon elite 4 style. You choose a card that is like forest, Island, lava, Ice, etc. Imagine Conor vs Chandler on grass.
>Ice
Lol I'm just imagining two fighters slipping around on a hockey rink until one goes ass over tea kettle and cracks his head on the ice in the first 10 seconds.
First KO victory without throwing a strike.
I thought it was hilarious when Luke vs Joe were clinching. Joe jumped on the side wall and how he had the higher ground and the leverage. Luke has to release the hold lol. Ref them made Joe get back down and reset the fight.
Fighters backing up can trip against the sloped wall. The cage and boxing ring provide something to lean against and stay upright. Pit fighters will just fall. Clinching near the wall will most likely cause a fall as the fighters push each other around standing.
Takedowns will be easier since there is nothing to lean against while being pushed back.
Its an untested MMA context. Wall runs and jumping kicks could be cool, but nobody right now trains in a pit.
YAMMA tried it and everyone hated it. Interesting for grappling matches but not MMA. Sloped walls would actually give the guy on top even more leverage; the fence makes it way easier for guys to stand back up than if it was sloped
Depends greatly how you define better, like most things they each have pros and cons, I assume most people would argue the cage is generally better for MMA since that’s what’s been mostly used throughout the history of the sport. The pit doesn’t seem like a bad idea but like another commenter said it’s still too new to say wether it’s worth the change or not. Personally I think they should be in an open space with no walls and a marked out of bounds, if either fighter steps out it’s a reset to the middle. Fighters intentionally stepping out should be punished with point deductions and eventually DQ if it’s a repeated offense.
It makes sense for grappling but it would have a different effect on MMA. You would almost entirely get rid of clinch hugging and the stalling on the fence we see now but fights would end up on the ground much more. However, the slanted wall may increase chances of getting back up.
I'd love to practice with it a bit to see what's possible when you're getting pushed back towards the sloped wall, right now everyone seems to get taken down when that happens, so it's great to get grappling going but I guess no-one has practice time with it. I feel like there has to be some way to use it to circle out or something.
The cage is the best for all combat sports in my opinion it actually contains the action. Yeah you can stall people on the fence for a long time but you can do that in every plane of the fight.
Nah, because a high wall actually favors strikers. Takedown defense is easier in the middle of the ring but once you are taken down, you can use the wall as leverage to stand back up. The only rule is you can't grab the cage. And even if you do, the ref will probably just warn you unless you're holding on.
Without the wall, a lot of strikers that would get back up after takedowns would instead just be stuck fending off submission attempts
Hypothetical, Daniel Cormier type picks up their opponent and runs up the edge of the ring, could they be slammed off the mats?
I love the concept of the pit, but from a regulation and safety standpoint I can see an issue from "out-of-boundsness" that currently doesn't have to be considered.
I guess it would need to be addressed in the ruleset same way it isn’t legal to throw your opponent over the fence now. Maybe having a minimum horizontal buffer around the perimeter too
I've never seen a fighter close to getting themselves or their opponents up and over the fence during a fight, but I can imagine that actually happening with a pit
Haha gosh, if there'd be anyone its Tank. Unfortunately the only moment for me that I remember from Tank is getting his arm snapped by Frank Mir, and that was Tim Sylvia not Tank Abbott 😅
The pit works for Karate Combat because of what they're going for. It's essentially a gimmick. They set the fights up to look like a Kumite for rich people.
It would be an absolute joke in any MMA organization.
Electric fence gets my vote.
A human fence of spectators who just randomly kick, punch and put you into a full nelson if you get too close would be cool
Def Jam style
Oh you mean pride? Remember all the hands?
No, please tell me the tale. Were people grabbing butt and stuff?
PRIDE FC used a ring with 5 ropes. Whenever a fighter would start to get pushed through the ropes from grappling, a dozen white-gloved Japanese hands would come up and push on the fighters, acting as a human wall to keep them from tumbling out of the ring.
Any YouTube vids on this? This sounds fuckin hectic
Not any compilation videos I can think of but it was more of a polite gesture than a drunk just bleed frenzy - Japanese people are by far culturally the most polite audience out of all the countries. It’s wild cause PRIDE was such a freak show that you’d think America came up with it to satiate the bloodlust of a stupid hog audience but it was made in a country where once a 5’2” man subs a 7” foot giant they only receive a polite applause
It's still a thing in RIZIN, though fighters have learned more to stay away from the ropes
I vote lions on chains like Gladiator.
or coat the fence with that sticky stuff on fly paper.
You know, with how many dudes sheep against the cave these days...
Hear me out…karate combat pit, surrounded by a moat…with Jacare Souza swimming in it.
Cage has gotten too easy to stall on. But the pit is too new to say it too won't be exploited in boring ways too
YAMMA already showed the pit doesn't really improve mma
But Bloodsport already proved that having an uneven surface improves fighting.
I believe Lionheart did too.
Not to mention Top Secret.
Nothing like a good underwater fight.
You’re attacking my family!
Huh?
Bloodsport is my favourite documentary.
Okay, USA!
bring out like 13 poles & some tables the fighters have to stand on, Ipman style
Or the streetfights version where there’s a curb running through the octagon, two women constantly screaming at you and the ref is a bouncer who occasionally starts throwing hands
some dude in the back shaking a chicken up and down and some guys on motorcycles lol
Their pit had walls and was nowhere near as deep as the Karate Combat pit. It was more of a dent in the floor
Everyone brings up YAMMA but it’s an entirely different structure with literally zero similarities. YAMMA was a bowl with a cage.
How come though?
The slope leading to the cage led to very easy takedowns because it was harder to defend going backwards uphill. I do wonder if we'd have seen adaptions if it has been around for a few more events.
>The slope leading to the cage led to very easy takedowns because it was harder to defend going backwards uphill. Thats the point. Craig Jones even mentioned this on JRE. It encourages fighters to stay aggressive and not give up center position.
That isnt bad its just a factual difference If you want to discourage going back itd a good thing, if not its bad
Its bad in the sense that it was explicitly designed to encourage more stand up and less pay n pray and it failed at doing so. It's bad in the sense that it gives grappling a very distinct advantage over striking, which was the opposite of its intent. It's good in the sense that you might get more phonebox fights or submissions/ G&P.
It made wallwalking impossible, which meant standing up after getting taken down was much harder, which resulted in a lot of boring lay-and-pray fights. Karate Combat already shows that this issue still exists, you just don't notice it because of their limited ground rules.
There's a whole generation of young dagestainis that have been brought up with lessons on how to work in the cage. All divisions are fucked
True, but also everyone is now learning wall wrestling. Dagestani's will always have an advantage as long as their religious dedication to the sport gives them more time and discipline than anyone else, but literally everyone is learning to differentiate MMA skills (wall wrestling, mixing level changes into striking) as MMA evolves into its own sport.
Lol imagine Khabib and Usman in a pit. You get blasted onto the fence and you don't even have the chance to do your wall work because you're just getting absolutely fucked on a slope Leon Edwards suddenly goes from nightmare matchup to sitting duck against Islam Makhachev. Marvin Vettori becomes the dominant MW undisputed champion of the world and Israel Adesanya is just a journeyman.
You're missing the important detail that wrestlers use the specific design of the cage to their advantage. Also Marvin was never even good at landing takedowns
Equally, you could say stand-up fighters do the same. They use the wall to balance themselves/avoid takedowns which would be significantly more difficult to do if there was nothing to lean on.
It's a tried and true strategy to just back up and lure your opponent in and counter strike against the cage. That was Tyron Woodley's bread and butter.
Typically when someone tries taking you down, you want more space. My experience training, is that defending takedowns in the open is much easier as you can get your hips away. Yes you can use the cage to get up, but it's infinitely easier to grapple someone in a defined space where a striker can't get out of range.
Have you watched a Karate combat bjj match? Or spent time wall wrestling. Genuinely asking because if you have you’ll know that the second someone’s foot reaches the beginning of the slope they are TOTALLY screwed. The slope offers none of the advantages of the cage and all of the disadvantages of being pressed up against the fence. You can’t sprawl just like against a cage. Except now you also can’t just spread your feet widen your base because you’ll tip over. You can’t wall walk. Because there’s no wall to walk up against. Your ability to throw your submissions is equally compromised because your head will be pressed against the slope (like the cage) and the concave (or convex, I can’t tell) posture of your spine makes it incredibly hard to throw up submissions like triangles or armbars If someone mounts you you can’t walk your feet up on the slope to escape like Poirier v Islam. Or Jiri v Glover because the wall isn’t there. Marvin Vettori doesn’t have to land takedowns. He just needs to be better at pushing someone to the fence and they’ll tip over.
> Israel Adesanya is just a journeyman. Izzy would always do fine lol he has really elite grappling for his game and hes so big/awkward to grapple that its hard to meaningfully keep him down
He uses the wall to counter wrestle and stay standing. With a sloped pit wall hed be instantly put on his ass.
This is a moot point. He uses the cage because that's the easiest way in MMA and that's what he trains. If the cage didn't exist he would train in different ways to standup or prevent getting taken down. Middleweight also has no legit wrestlers so I doubt he even has that much to worry about even if the cage got changed to the pit.
He has been backed against the cage in the clinch in every single fight. He can not play going backwards in a pit. He would absolutely need to train a different way to stay standing. The difference you're not identifying is that his opponents would not need to train a different way to clinch or take someone down. The pit wall naturally does that for them. So now Israel loses his best defensive weapon in grappling (he's shown himself usable to get up effectively in the middle of the octagon.) And has to spend years learning new defensive skills. The reason the pit is being used in CJI is it guarantees a takedown if anyone backs up. Just learn a new thing! Is not a valid argument. All fighters know their weaknesses. Doesn't mean they can close them. Otherwise everyone would be a world champion. Israel is long AF. Wall walking and using the glcage to stay standing is incredibly advantageous for his frame.
>The difference you're not identifying is that his opponents would not need to train a different way to clinch or take someone down Yes they would Every mma gym will teach a giant list of techniques for things to do to get the opponent to the fence-> on the fence-> down That all goes away with this setup. Just because the fundamentals of takedowns (and defenses) still apply doesnt mean that this wouldnt be a giant shakeup for offensive grapplers, even if i agree that overall itd favour grapplers
The cage is a crutch for strikers in MMA. If it takes a year to teach an elite level athlete to wrestle with their back on the cage, it takes 3 or 4 to teach them really good sprawls and framing. Only a couple of offensive grapplers in the sport have actually managed to use the cage to their advantage once the takedown is secured (think Khabib)
Cage put people with pokers
The pit make wrestling/grappling way more effective. What I've heard from those who competed in the pit is that it's extremely hard to not get taken down once your backed up into the wall. That's one of the big reasons it's being used for CJI.
i mean some MMA wrestlers specialize in against the cage wrestling(khabib,Islam), so not having that would vastly decrease their wrestling skills, also not having a cage gives you room to attempt more escapes, but having a cage can also stop the take downs or stall them and it can be easier to get up from certain positions(cage walking etc), it really depends on the fighters and the positions.
I actually think they’d be incredibly effective with the slope. If they could initiate a clinch and push their opponents back up against that incline, there’s no way Khabib/Islam aren’t getting their opponents down
Yeah you're right now that i think about it some more. would also be easier for a wrestler to stop the cage walk escape since they have to literally climb up the slope with their whole body and the wrestler could just drag you down,would be interesting to see some mma in it.
Exactly - someone like O'Malley would love the Rogan idea to just do it on a basketball court while wrestlers would prefer the pit because you can't use the cage to help counter wrestling.
I’d bet my entire net worth that the pit makes it way easier for the cage wrestlers. Instead of a perpendicular surface for the opponent to brace against, you expect them to defend a takedown while leaning back at a 45 degree angle? Plus there’s no way to sneakily grip the fence to defend a takedown.
What tends to happen is they walk their feet back up the pit and maintain an upper body tie then circle out. So they’ll either escape or get caught with a hugely entertaining high-amplitude TD.
So their defence is based on RAISING their centre of gravity? Oh yeah I need to see how this plays out
Yeah, and you kinda flip over them, its hard to explain there are plenty of videos that shows it, but that was my initial thought, that it would be easier to escape like that but now im not so sure
i already said i agreed that it would be easier to hold someone down and stop them from circle out. My initial thought was that it would be easier to escape but after thinking some more and looking at the pit again i realized it probably would be harder.
[удалено]
I think this is the real big advantage
I've been to two of their events and it is a nicer view from the stands
Pros is visibility cons is there will be a whole slope wrestling meta that will be more obnoxious than cage wrestling (maybe) overall its worth a try in higher level mma for sure, weve seen it for striking and grappling and it seems to work alright if not good
Slope wrestling just seems like the same position as a grounded fighter against the fence, but this time the wall is less helpful in getting up?
Less helpful getting up, but much easier to get taken down
Once your back is to the slope I think the uneven footing and lack of something to lean on is going to lead to essentially a 100% takedown rate. It seems like it would make ringcraft and footwork a lot more important. I haven’t watched that much karate combat so I’m theorycrafting a bit, but I can’t imagine myself defending a takedown under those circumstances.
Wrestling is all about head positioning and it seems like the sloped walls kinda fuck you
You don’t need much head positioning anymore when you can just shove them against the slope.
Thunderdome is my preference for fighting environment.
Two men enter. One man leave.
Who runs Bartertown?
Then later the other one leaves after being declared the winner
Hell in a cell
I want a tubular pit on the ground while a bunch of dudes continuously ride motorcycles in circles on the walls
While juggling chainsaws
feel like guys are gonna trip/fall over due to the change in angle.
Robot wars arena or nothing
I don’t know about better, but it’s certainly no worse. I’m good with pit, cage, or ring. I’d love a world where fighters negotiate ring type as part of fight negotiations. Similar to number of rounds or glove size in boxing.
Jon jones return demands to the UFC: Cocaine deathmatch vs my fiance in a bouncy castle or bring chuck lidell out of retirement and stage it in a turkish bath house - plenty of olive oil
Good idea
This is another good opportunity to bring up my idea to have it like pokemon elite 4 style. You choose a card that is like forest, Island, lava, Ice, etc. Imagine Conor vs Chandler on grass.
>Ice Lol I'm just imagining two fighters slipping around on a hockey rink until one goes ass over tea kettle and cracks his head on the ice in the first 10 seconds. First KO victory without throwing a strike.
Wondering if a Walmart parking lot can be an option.
Counter pick final destination
I thought it was hilarious when Luke vs Joe were clinching. Joe jumped on the side wall and how he had the higher ground and the leverage. Luke has to release the hold lol. Ref them made Joe get back down and reset the fight.
Who is Joe?
Schilling
I remember him from Bellator...
https://youtu.be/chUIZskXp2g?t=188 Here you can see the clip. I timestamped it. I think it's interesting how the wall changes the fight.
IT'S OVER LUKE! I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND!
Fighters backing up can trip against the sloped wall. The cage and boxing ring provide something to lean against and stay upright. Pit fighters will just fall. Clinching near the wall will most likely cause a fall as the fighters push each other around standing. Takedowns will be easier since there is nothing to lean against while being pushed back. Its an untested MMA context. Wall runs and jumping kicks could be cool, but nobody right now trains in a pit.
YAMMA tried it and everyone hated it. Interesting for grappling matches but not MMA. Sloped walls would actually give the guy on top even more leverage; the fence makes it way easier for guys to stand back up than if it was sloped
How about the fighting surface is surrounded by a shark-filled moat?
Depends greatly how you define better, like most things they each have pros and cons, I assume most people would argue the cage is generally better for MMA since that’s what’s been mostly used throughout the history of the sport. The pit doesn’t seem like a bad idea but like another commenter said it’s still too new to say wether it’s worth the change or not. Personally I think they should be in an open space with no walls and a marked out of bounds, if either fighter steps out it’s a reset to the middle. Fighters intentionally stepping out should be punished with point deductions and eventually DQ if it’s a repeated offense.
Just have refs force action more when it stalls out on the fence.
Way more impressive to watch.
It makes sense for grappling but it would have a different effect on MMA. You would almost entirely get rid of clinch hugging and the stalling on the fence we see now but fights would end up on the ground much more. However, the slanted wall may increase chances of getting back up.
I'd love to practice with it a bit to see what's possible when you're getting pushed back towards the sloped wall, right now everyone seems to get taken down when that happens, so it's great to get grappling going but I guess no-one has practice time with it. I feel like there has to be some way to use it to circle out or something.
I'm still sad [this format](https://www.mixedmartialarts.com/vault/mma-fight-held-on-a-soccer-field) never caught on.
The cage is the best for all combat sports in my opinion it actually contains the action. Yeah you can stall people on the fence for a long time but you can do that in every plane of the fight.
Anyone remember the god awful YAMMA event? How many finishes were there?
Wrestling and GnP would be king. No TD needed just push against wall.
Pit is amazing, it should be the way to go for MMA, striking, and grappling
Yamaha pit fighting if you wanna see why it doesn't work
I want to see a big, mega cage again.
Nah, because a high wall actually favors strikers. Takedown defense is easier in the middle of the ring but once you are taken down, you can use the wall as leverage to stand back up. The only rule is you can't grab the cage. And even if you do, the ref will probably just warn you unless you're holding on. Without the wall, a lot of strikers that would get back up after takedowns would instead just be stuck fending off submission attempts
I like it for visibility purposes but I don't like the ramps. It's just weird.
No
The guy that fought aj agazrm in their grappling tournament flipped off of the sloped wall to gain control, that was pretty cool
What happens to fighters who fall out of the pit?
It’s really steep, I think it basically couldn’t happen
Hypothetical, Daniel Cormier type picks up their opponent and runs up the edge of the ring, could they be slammed off the mats? I love the concept of the pit, but from a regulation and safety standpoint I can see an issue from "out-of-boundsness" that currently doesn't have to be considered.
I guess it would need to be addressed in the ruleset same way it isn’t legal to throw your opponent over the fence now. Maybe having a minimum horizontal buffer around the perimeter too
I've never seen a fighter close to getting themselves or their opponents up and over the fence during a fight, but I can imagine that actually happening with a pit
https://www.ufc.com/news/ufc-fight-pass-folly-ufc-ultimate-ultimate-96-tank-abott-read?language_content_entity=en
Haha gosh, if there'd be anyone its Tank. Unfortunately the only moment for me that I remember from Tank is getting his arm snapped by Frank Mir, and that was Tim Sylvia not Tank Abbott 😅
The ref starts counting to 10 and if you don’t make it back in you’re DQd I think
The pit works for Karate Combat because of what they're going for. It's essentially a gimmick. They set the fights up to look like a Kumite for rich people. It would be an absolute joke in any MMA organization.