Jackie Chan says he doesn’t like MMA

Mark, do you think before you write these editorials about Ultimate Fighting? Part of Jackie's martial arts background is in Judo, to which the Gracie Family owes more than a little thanks. Not to mention the fact that if you were to put Jackie in the cage against the likes of, say, Matt Hughes, Jackie is more than accustomed to pain, and has, through the course of his career, broken both cheekbones, all of his fingers and toes, hips, nose (once at the hands of Bruce Lee), sternum, neck, ankle and ribs, dislocated his pelvis, and cracked his skull. What, pray tell, could the average MMA fighter possibly do to Jackie that he hasn't already experienced dozens of times?

MMA > Jackie Chan.

you do realize that we are talking about MMA, not boxing. The amount of blows to the head you get in your whole career in MMA, are a joke compared to what you get in boxing, get your facts straight. Look up an interview with Randy Couture, does he sound like he has a speech impediment? Nope, I didn't think so.

i love mma, but i completely understand and respect JC's opinion

|Honor in Fighting| I like white too;D But why can't fighers respect their opponents? Giving respect to a person you battle against is key to demonstrating good sportmanship and honor.

I agree with Jackie Chan's principal of respecting fellow athletes.

However many people lack the spirit to lend a hand to their enemy and fight fairly. It also applies to how we treat people with the same level of respect. When a person is down, don't walk all over him like a doormat. Instead, offer a helping hand and smile a sincere smile. “^____^” That's how you win others' respect. Give lots of it!

Martial arts can be defined many ways but I feel honor is derived from participants following a code of conduct or set of rules that forms the foundation of self discipline and mutual respect. MMA fighting, film fighting and non-competitive martial arts training each have their own sets of rules and codes of conduct. As long as participants follow those rules within each sphere I see no reason not to respect them all.

Hey guys,
Jackie has earned his place in history is not because of who he is, rather because of his philosophy, don't you think so? MMA is just tooooo violent. I rather want to watch BOXING instead.

well spoken!! i agree 100%
i always disliked MMA!! they have the nerve to call it mixed martial arts
when most of these fighters cant throw a proper roundhouse kick.
to me its nothing but a tough man contest!!
there is no honer in these matches or spirit !!
like chan said a real martial artist has the courage to let the other fighter
get back on his feet!!
its nothing but a cockfight with people!!

I mention Chan's lack of groundwork because he was criticizing the fact that fighters continue to fight on the ground. But that came about because of the influence of jiu jitsu and other martial arts that make use of groundwork. The suggestion is that Chan considers such fighting to be disrespectful.

I'm not arguing with or against him. I'm just making an observation.

Its just an opinion, some people like MMA, some don't, just because you study martial arts doesn't mean you have to like every branch on the tree.

Yeah like some poster already said, didnt Bruce Lee introduce MMA as Jeet Kune Do back in the 70s?

To add to Mark's comment, Chan's attitude probably stems from a traditional/old-fashioned Chinese aversion to touching the ground with anything other than your feet. It's considered low class. This isn't just about martial arts or fighting; for instance, I was routinely smacked for sitting on the ground as a kid.

I've met plenty of “traditional” martial artists who are cocky a**holes too. At the same time, I've also met very respectful gentlemen who are excellent mixed martial artists. Case in point, Renzo Gracie is one of the nicest guys you're likely to ever meet. Outside the ring, anyway.

Better not take that attitude if you ever get into a self defense situation.

To Kent108,
“And while I'll agree many mixed martial artists don't display exemplary technique, I think the lesson you should take from that fact is this: power, size, strength and conditioning are a much bigger part of martial effectiveness than most “technique” focused martial artists like to admit.”
If that were true, Royce Gracie, the UFC's first champion, would have gotten beaten into the ground like a railroad spike. Again, I love the CONCEPT of MMA, but the execution of it all to often leaves out both the “mixed” aspect of it, and any perceivable skill level on the part of 90% of the fighters.
“Matt Hughes is purportedly a decidedly unpleasant person, but if you think he doesn't express speed, power and explosiveness in the ring–as much as Jackie–you're out of your mind.”
Well, then I guess I must be late for my straight jacket fitting. Call me crazy if I don't see any perceptible level of skill present when one's fighting style looks like something out of pro wrestling and, like the majority of MMA fighters, has fallen into the very trap that Bruce Lee warned martial artists to avoid – predictability.
“But here's the thing: in all his movie injuries, once he's injured, that's it — they stop everything, bandage him up, or take him to the hospital.”
Well, that certainly shows how much you know about the injuries Jackie's incurred over the years. I'm guessing you didn't know that Jackie put a sock that looked like a sneaker around his broken ankle and continued filming the Hovercraft scene in “Rumble in the Bronx”, when his armed was accidently slashed by a sword during “Snake in the Eagle's Shadow”, etc. What Jackie demands of himself is infinitely more dangerous than anything he could possibly face in the Octagon, and pain really bothered him, he'd have retired from this line of work years ago.

And as to the “dirty” fights Jackie has filmed, what that statement forgets is that he and his opponents still rely on SKILL rather than brute force. And no one's saying that, in ancient times, martial arts were not used to kill, rather than simply fight off, an opponent (another reason why I feel that MMA, while a fantastic CONCEPT for sport fighting, is nothing original.) The admiration for Sugar Ray Leonard Jackie expressed in this article as well as his criticisms of MMA are clearly about sport fighting rather than the art of war. Not to mention the fact you don't kill or maim an opponent unless there's absolutely no other choice, just like you don't even fight them at all unless your out of options.

And to Mark's comment,
I agree, he probably does find fighting a grounded opponent to be disrespectful, and that's his perogative. Just because one doesn't care for a particular aspect of fighting doesn't mean that one is incapable of acknowledging whatever strengths it possesses. I have nothing but respect for the grappling arts, but as I've said before, my major quarrel with MMA is that most of the fighters, including those who rely exclusively on grappling, just aren't very good fighters, in my opinion. Donnie Yen had next to no experience in ground work at all prior to SPL and FLASH POINT, yet he looks far more professional and experienced then most of the other so-called “experts”. All too often, UFC fighters bear great resemblance to the no-skill bruisers one might see in “Fight Club”, and I thinks that's one of the negative effects that MMA is having on the way that martial arts perceived by the general public, particularly by adolescents. They're coming to view MMA as the modern equivalent of pro-wrestling, rather than an evolutionary step forward in the development in martial arts, and could care less about whether or not either fighter achieves victory through skill; they just wanna see two guys clobber each until one or the other is flattened. And don't even get me started on the 29-year old rednecks you run into in a bar or a restaurant every Saturday night who've watched 1,000 UFC fights and trained in MMA for two months, and claim to be experts, and in some cases, professional fighters themselves.
I apologize if I came off a bit too abrasive in my first comment, Mark, but I felt the need to defend Jackie, as I had erroneously thought you were attacking him. In any case, MMA, to me: Fantastic concept, albeit hardly a new one, that's needs a dose of fighters who conduct themselves with honor and who display genuine skill.

I agree 100%

The good thing about being a human being is that you are NOT bound to like anything for that matter, so i must then be spaking out of my ass accoriding to you. Cause i do not enjoy watching fights where they laying down and run albows into eachother eyesockets. It's the way pussies fight in the street. no honor message in it what so ever. many many many thumbs up to Jackie who will be remembered 100 year after his death the fighter in MMA will not

Me personally don't find it entertaining. I rather watch dolphins jumping in the water.

But it happens don't it? eye injuries?
Yes its my human right to speak freely you know, or do you prefer nodding dolls who agree on everything?
The whole consept should be banned had it been up to me. ask a not bought doctor what he think about it…!
neither way it's boring to watch. and there is alot of people who think the same. I rather see staged fighting not wrestling

They were used to kill I'm afraid. But the thing that always gets glossed over is that traditionally the martial arts were mainly weapons based. The hand skills were used to build character, but weren't regarded as much practical importance. The reason being that the martial arts were for armies to be used on a battlefield where weapons were the main way of fighting.

It is only in relative modern times and when weapons for civilians were banned that empty hand martial arts really flourished. Make no mistake though, they were still meant for doing serious damage. The idea that martial arts are about honour and not fighting is a load of rubbish.

Some of the most famous Chinese martial artists were bandits! The whole thing about being spiritual and honourable seems to have stemmed from the supposed connection with Shaolin Temple. But as any historian knows the Shaolin Temples real connection with the development of Chinese martial arts is patchy at best, and unfortunately most of what people think they know about it has been learn't from HK movies rather than real history.

JRServer, you can't have it both ways. You use Royce Gracie as an example of a UFC fighter who displayed superior technique to beat out superior athleticism, strength, speed and size. Then you tell me that Matt Hughes has neither technique nor athleticism (strength, power, conditioning, etc.)

Well, when Matt Hughes fought Royce Gracie, Matt Hughes beat Royce Gracie so badly he might as well have been fighting a 12 year old girl. So tell me, was it Hughes' superior athleticism or his superior technique that led to this victory? Or are you suggesting it was fixed? Or perhaps you'd like to blame it on Royce's age. But isn't age merely a way of saying Royce was diminished athletically? In which case, my point that brute force and athleticism can overcome superior technique has still been proven.

You say you “don't see any perceptible level of skill present” because Highes' style “looks like something out of pro wrestling.” In other words, Matt Hughes' skills, techniques and tactics don't resemble your preconceived, narrow and limited mental image of what a fight “should” look like. And in your close mindedness, YOU'RE the one who has fallen in to the trap Bruce Lee most wanted martial artists to avoid: self-imposed limitation. After all, Lee himself was, at the time of his death, avidly studying grappling and groundfighting and incorporating it into his arsenal. Wrestling is an art form, and for all you want to disparage “pro wrestling,” those guys are world class athletes and stuntmen just as skilled and tough as Jackie Chan.

As for Jackie's injuries: I know about as much as you, if not more. Sure, Jackie's suffered a lot of injuries, many of which were serious. And sure, he works through pain. But there is ALWAYS at least five minutes–if not hours–for Jackie to regroup mentally, to refocus, to brace himself, to take painkillers–before he needs to go again. Because if nothing else, they need to re-set up the shot–the props, the cameras, the set, the wardrobe, etc. That Rumble in the Bronx scene you mention? What, you think that cast on his foot set in a few seconds, and then they were able to paint the hardened cast to resemble a sneaker in 10 seconds? Nope, without a doubt, even if they had a doctor set the cast on set right away, there would have been another few hours before it hardened enough. Of course, by then the light would have changed, so most likely he had an entire day to take painkillers, rest up, and mentally refocus.

In a real fight or match, you generally don't have the luxury of taking a few minutes to recompose yourself and shake the cobwebs out of your head when you take a nasty hit–the next hard shot is coming down the pipe, and so is the next … and the next one … and the next one. I'm not convinced Jackie has the kind of mental training and toughness that is required for that kind of thing.

In short, your assessment of Jackie's real-world fighting capabilities and of Matt Hughes' skills and athleticism show that you clearly are neither an athlete nor a knowledgeable martial artist or fighter. Clearly you have never sparred with any level of contact, nor have you worked with a top caliber fighter or athlete. Your opinions about fighting are clearly derived from Hong Kong cinema, which is hardly known to represent the epitome of realism.

Jet Li, who worked with a few UFC fighters (Liddell, Couture, Ortiz) in Cradle 2 the Grave, opined that he wouldn't last 10 seconds in the ring with those guys, as far as a real fight or match goes. I'm pretty sure Jackie himself would say the same.

In other words, I'm pretty sure even Jackie would disagree with you.

In what world is “being able to throw a proper roundhouse kick” a requirement for being considered a martial artist?

Most judo, wing chun, aikido, escrima, taiji, xingyi, and BJJ guys can't throw a proper roundhouse kick. Are you telling me that Hawkins Cheung, Chen Xiaowang, Jigoro Kano, and the Sayoc's weren't “real martial artists”?

And what kind of “honer” (sic) and “spirit” did you want the fighters in the UFC to display? Most matches begin with fighters touching gloves out of respect and end with the loser shaking hands with or hugging the victor. And in most cases, most matches involve fighters who abide by the same rules and fight back from setbacks and hard knocks, displaying heart and determination.

That sounds like honor and spirit to me.

I don't like gratuitous violence or brutality even in my beloved movies. So it's safe to say that I don't like MMA either. However, I love martial arts because its essence contains none of the above.