Hey guys/gals-

So, last night I am at a bar with my roomate watching the UFC thing on Spike TV. You know that kind of behind the scenes show, it was the first time I actually watched it. There were these two guys on there that were training to fight each other (totally forgot the names sorry ). So I decided to watch the fight, and I watched the whole thing, and I noticed that none of it really followed any wing chun principles at all. I was curious after watching this fight that if wing chun principles were applied, would it have changed the outcome of the fight.

For example I saw the following:

sloppy circular hooks
backing off and retreating
chasing limbs
over commitment

Now, I am not saying that wing chun principle is the only way to fight, obviously thats not the case. What I am curious about is would a good wing chun fighter survive against this type of stuff. I was watching the fight and noticed a lot of close quarters stuff happening, lots of clenches, etc. However, the fight never once went to the ground, they both stayed on their feet.

Now, a few times in the clench I saw many opportunities for peeling and covering elbows. Which can really hurt someone is done right. I saw many opportunities for one of the guys to rush in, like when their opponet gave them a circle kick. They could have rushed in and attacked right then.

A lot of the fight was both of them playing in each other's kill zone. By this i mean at the end of their techniques. One concept of wing chun is to be inside and close to your opponet. A lot of times the sword analogy is used. Would you rather be out away from your opponet in stabbing range, or would you ranger be close next to the hilt, where they could not stab you. Not once was anyone sticking to an opponet. You don't stand out at an arms length from your opponet, you are asking to get hit really hard that way. Instead you move in and dominate and control. At least that is how wing chun has been for me.

Now, with all these recent threads about wing chun for sport, or the 0 to 100, or the wing chun in the UFC, etc. I thought I would post this. I thought it was weird since there was no angle stepping, no centerline attacks, nothing really that wing chun stresses as a core.

These guys were good fighters don't get me wrong. They both had MMA training with what looked like bjj and muay thai, or at least it looked that way to me.

Now, the whole time I watched this fight I was curious, that if I could work out with one of the guys for 6 months and train him some basic wing chun stuff, would it have made a difference. I am talking basic concepts, foot work, and centerline theory. Who knows if it would have made a difference, but I was still wandering if it would.

A lot of people say wing chun has a bad rep in the ring because its too dangerous of an art. Others claim that the art is designed for combat and it cannot be adapted to ring fighting rules. Some people say that gloves hinders our ability. After watching this fight on the UFC spike TV thing, I know that a good wing chun fighter very well could have won against either of those two guys fighting. It would just require someone young, and in shape to train wing chun for the ring. I am not volunteering by any means, full contact ring fighting is not for me, I like to be injury free, and I would like to be able to not have any permanent injuries.

There were so many occasions where wing chun elbows could be applied. Chi sao skills could have definately helped while in the clench. Centerline theory could have been applied everytime a circle kick (round house) was used. These things would require timing and proper training but I can easily see that they could be applied.

I do not really watch a lot of k-1, NHB, or UFC as of late, but after watching it last night I think I might start to watch it more often.

The purpose of this thread was just an observation I saw last night while watching a UFC match. People who say wing chun is not for the ring are wrong IMHO. During the fight I found myself saying stuff like, "Go IN!" "attack the center" "Cover your center" "Angle step that" so on and so forth. So, I saw tons of times where wing chun could have been used, and could have been used effectively.

However, I digress, if you did train wing chun for the ring you would have to do some physical conditioning outside of wing chun forms. You would have to be in pretty good shape is what I am saying. Other than that, I can totally see wing chun be really effective in the UFC. If done proper of course.