Is Krav Maga Banned from MMA?

Krav Maga! It seems like dangerous martial arts.  After all, Krav Maga was developed by the Israeli military for surviving.

Today, Krav Maga seems like the most realistic self-defense system. Part of the philosophy of Krav Maga is going from zero to 100 as fast as you can. It’s for fighting and surviving on the street.

You’ll learn eye-strikes, knees to the groin and strikes to the throat. And did I say Krav Maga teaches use of and self-defense from weapons? Krav Maga training even includes defending against someone with a gun in close quarter combat.

Krav Maga focuses on realism above all.

You’d think that a fighting system that focuses on realism would do well in MMA. After all, MMA is hands down the most comprehensive fighting sport.

MMA fighters seem to be ultimate street fighter, for hand-to-hand combat fights at least (Read: Can MMA be used for self-defense and street fights? – Why MMA sucks for them, and why it’s aweome too)

When you watch Krav Maga practitioners in training, they seem to be able to dispatch their opponents in seconds.

Is it because Krav Maga is banned from MMA?

After all, maybe Krav Maga is too dangerous for MMA. Maybe if they allowed Krav Maga practitioners in MMA, they would kill or main their opponents too often.

After all, “Krav Maga” is Hebrew (the language they use in Israel) for “contact combat.”

What do you think?

Well, truthfully, there’s no such thing as an MMA style. It is true that there are some more effective ways of fighting. (Read: Which martial arts are MMA made of?) However, you really don’t need to belong to any specific fighting style.

However, MMA is really just about what works in an MMA match. (Read: How do MMA fighters train – Answered an MMA fighter and coach)

You could be a boxer, a Judo player or a karateka. You just have to be able to beat up your opponent, submit him, or knock him out.

So won’t a Krav Maga fighter do well in MMA?

Maybe Krav Maga is too dangerous, so it’s banned in MMA…

Nope.

Surprise, surprise. Krav Maga is not banned in MMA.

However, a lot of moves Krav Maga uses are banned from MMA. For example, kneeing the groin, breaking fingers (small joint manipulation), and head butting are used a lot in Krav Maga. Krav Maga is geared towards street fights and surviving deadly encounters. You have to be as vicious as possible. That’s how you have to be in a street fight where the environment, and your opponent are unpredictable.

While these “dirty tactics” are essential to fight as effectively as possible in a survival situation, MMA can’t have them.

Why can’t MMA have them? Isn’t MMA about “real fighting”?

MMA is a sport. Its athletes have to stick around. You can’t have small joint manipulation, groin kicks, and elbows to the back of the head in MMA, at least not sustainably.

Street fighting is similar but still different from MMA.

This leads us to the the plain truth why you don’t see many Krav Maga fighterin MMA. A Krav Maga expert who doesn’t train in MMA won’t do very well in MMA.

Krav Maga fighters aren’t banned from MMA. Krav Maga fighters don’t do well in MMA (compared to say a wrestler or a muay thai kick boxer).

MMA is a pure hand-to-hand combat. The environment is a controlled to make the contest just about fight as much as possible.

MMA fighters can fight in many ways a street fighter can’t:

• MMA fighters can pace themselves. This is good for a controlled environment like an MMA ring. Going all out or going from zero to 100 like what Krav Maga teaches will “gas you out” (tire you out) in the first round of an MMA match.
• MMA fighters can extensively use positions that would normally be disadvantageous in a street fight. (Read: Is Pulling Guard Unmanly, Cowardly, or Gay?)
• MMA fighters can use tactics that wouldn’t make sense in a street fight, such as wearing out your opponent over the round leg kicks, or inducing lengthy grappling matches to catch your opponent in a submission. Krav Maga practitioners are concerned about survival, such as not getting stabbed or stomped to death by multiple attackers.
• There is a lot of emphasis on ground fighting and grappling in MMA. Krav Maga is concerned about just trying to get out of a ground fight or ending it there quickly. An MMA fighter can use strategy in a ground fight.

In a Nutshell…

Let’s wrap this all up in a nutshell. MMA training is best for an MMA fight, thought it has a lot of street fighting applications. It’s purely about hand-to-hand combat.

Meanwhile, Krav Maga is purely for surviving a real fight, such as a street fight.

While there is a lot of overlap between the two, they are significantly different enough that Krav Maga fighters won’t do well in an MMA match.

Krav Maga fighters are not banned in MMA. Many of their moves are banned in MMA, but any kind of fighter can get into MMA.

If enjoyed this article you might be interested in this one: 3 Critical Reasons Law Enforcement Officers (Police) Should Train in MMA.