MMA, the methods it employs in it’s sparring etc, is not the only way.
There are a lot of people who simply do it bare knuckle.
I would say to wear a cup is a good idea, and a mouthguard, but are gloves always necessary? or headgear? NO.
sparring is not competition, it’s fnding gaps and sealing them, looking for holes and going into them.
sparring is not competitive fighting, perhaps that is why so many people do it poorly? Wrong intention expressed.
anyway, mma in the states is fairly pussified compared to Muay Thai as found in Thailand or Burmese boxing.
mma has unfortunately gotten itself a fratboy image. The elite of the sport are interesting to watch for sure, but the fans are mobbish really and quite often uncouth, ill mannered, tactless, belligerent and well, what you see here when you take a look at some of the posts.
Tell me, how does mma train double bladed weapons? What does it offer for throwing weapons? Situational awareness?
I mean, outside of getting in a ring and fighting competitively, what does an mma path offer a person?
It’s not rbsd, it’s mma and it is trained specifically towards the ruleset it uses in competition.
Nothing against that, but if it’s not your goal to get into a ring and fight, why bother with mma? there isn’t anything else offered by it. Is there? I mean what else is there to it that gives it depth and superiority over any other martial art practice?