The UFC is as real as it gets, as is MMA. However, Greg Jackson’s recent decision to endorse belt rankings in MMA has people questioning that fact.
Specifically, concerned fans point to the recent news as an example of MMA becoming a McDojo sport the likes of Karate and Taekwondo.
There’s some merit to their concerns, but the most fervent critics of Jackson’s new policy tend to exaggerate.
Pat Miletich used belt rankings many years ago, and nobody was upset over it, so Jackson isn’t doing anything new.
Where critics have a point is that there is a trickle-down effect involved. If Greg Jackson’s MMA—arguably the most prestigious MMA gym in the world—starts using belts, it’ll give the lower-level McDojos and hole-in-the-wall gyms an excuse to award belts in MMA that are of dubious nature.
But is this anything new?
Shady gyms and black-belt mills began offering “MMA” and low-level grappling (which some on the Internet call “crappling”) once the sport started to become popular; MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu are the martial arts du jour the same way Ninjitsu was during the days of the Ninja Turtles.
Those schools would still use those practices with or without Jackson’s MMA belt-ranking system.
Bad schools will always use belt ranks because belt ranks mean testing fees which mean more money. Students also get a false sense of accomplishment out of the whole scam.
Jackson’s, however, is a reputable, high-profile gym that’s using belts. Surely, that must be a bad thing, no?
No, if Jackson’s gym isn’t scamming people with outrageous belt-testing fees or any other practices of “bullshido,” then there’s nothing wrong with the belt system. MMA fans just like to complain.
True, boxing and wrestling are fantastic combat sports that don’t use belt ranks and are probably better off for it, but a legitimate belt system applied to a legitimate system of martial arts isn’t a bad thing.
Do people complain about belt ranks in BJJ or Judo? Does that make them less applicable or valuable in MMA?
The whole issue is born of the fact that MMA fans are a miserable bunch prone to severe bouts of complaining. They also hold grudges. Many of them blame Greg Jackson for making fighters such as Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit “boring” point-fighters.
Thus, when they saw that Jackson’s system was adding belt ranks (which it actually had before, he had just called his art “Gaidojutsu” rather than MMA), they were quick to crucify him on the Internet.
There’s no problem with what Greg Jackson is doing at his gym the same way there is no problem with what BJJ and Judo schools have been doing since time immemorial. The problem is not with belt ranks, but with the pedagogy behind them.
If the belts are like those in countless “Karate” schools—meaningless stepping stones that cost lots of money—belt ranks are bad. But if belts are the result of tireless work, fortitude and knowledge of an effective martial art, they’re a thing to be proud of—not hate.
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