The MMA can be considered the most growing martial arts of the last decades; it makes a perfect profit point for all the fighters worldwide.
One of the most spectacular things is that anyone can practice MMA, making attention that the fighter has at least a solid experience in one martial art and then known other martial arts to cover the gap where he is missing his knowledge.
The MMA fighter must know about striking and grounding martial arts.
In general, over the past years, the more efficient martial arts seen are Wrestling, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), Boxing, Kickboxing, and Karate.
Contribution of Karate in the MMA
The MMA is becoming one of the most love combat sport, probably due to the match’s unpredictability, and that the fighters that fight inside the octagon are complete fighters, with the knowledge from the striking to the ground.
Over the past years, we saw many fighters that shine in some martial arts; in particular Today I want to take your attention to Karate, in the detail, who is the MMA fighter that uses Karate in this fantastic combat sport.
MMA FIGHTERS AND THE USE OF KARATE AS PRIMARY STYLE
Because of MMA’s nature, which requires unpredictability, fighters have tried differents way to put in trouble in the last years their opponents.
One of the styles that have given more result in the point of view of the unpredictability is Karate.
The karate style on the MMA fighter always bring fascinating match, and in almost of the case the fighters that are against a karate fighter on the MMA, if not adequately trained to fight against he/she, the match will finish with some spectacular KO with the winning of the karate fighter.
Some of the most know name as karate fighters on the MMA are:
- Guy MezgerRobert Whittaker
- Bas Rutten
- Chuck Liddell
- Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson
- Georges St-Pierre
- Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida
- Michelle Waterson
- Sage Northcutt
- Gunnar Nelson
- Kyoji Horiguchi
In particular, these fighters had used the Karate Kyokishin, during their match of MMA, to win against their opponents who were shocked about the amazing combination and fantasy that these fighters owned in the very large of the match.
Now it is time to see more on specific these excellent MMA fighters that use Karate in their fight.
Georges St-Pierre, the most famous MMA fighter that uses Karate
Georges St-Pierre is the perfect example of the MMA fighter who uses Karate on MMA; thanks to his background in Karate Kyokushin, he becomes the most famous and winning fighter in the UFC.
How Goerges St-Pierre start karate
Georges St-Pierre has officially declared that he starts to practice Karate at the age of 7; some schoolmates bullied it for years.
Starting from that day at the karate gym, Georges found something that likes him, and a few years later, he found a more depth motivation to continue and, in particular, to start MMA after watching the ufc one ray Gracie in action.
At that point, he decided that he would like to become the new champion of the mma.
He continues to dedicate all of himself to the Karate’s practicing and in conjunction with other critical martial arts, to arrive on the octagon as complete as possible.
After years of dedication, he became the UFC Welterweight Champion in 2006.
The record of this fantastic MMA fighter that applies the karate style are the following:
Twenty-six wins (8 by knock out, 6 by submission, 12 by decision) 2 defeats.
Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and his karate style on UFC
Lyoto Machida is another excellent fighter that brings the karate style on the MMA with great honor.
Lyoto began to practicing Karate at the age of 3, and he gained his black belt at the age of 13.
In conjunction with Karate, he starts training in sumo, Bjj and boxing.
His carrier starts in the best way after winning some amateur match of Karate.
The karate style that this MMA fighter use on his match of MMA is the Karate Shotokan;
What is the karate Shotokan? The Karate used by Lyoto Machida.
The Shotokan is a specific type of Karate, in more details, the characteristic used by the Karate Shotokan is divided in three parts:
The Shotokan is considered as one of the most effective karate style, in particular:
A dynamic, powerful karate style.
Karate style of Lyoto Machida
Due to his immense background in martial arts, the style of fighting on Lyoto Machida is fascinating. His style is focused on using Shotokan karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and some characteristics of sumo and wrestling.
During the match of Machida, is effetely visible the control of the range, and the ability to counter attack.
Lyoto Machida Match in mma
Lyoto Machida has a total of 36 matches in his MMA story with 26 wins, and 10 lose.
Guy Mezger
Guy Mezger is an American MMA fighter, most known for his presence on the MMA scene.
Mezger started to practice martial arts, and in particular, wrestling and Karate at the high school.
Mezger makes his debut in professional mixed martial arts in the Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC 4.
Mixed martial art is not the only sport that made Mezger victorious; he also competed as a professional in several combat sports, including boxing, kickboxing, and full-contact Karate.
During the years of Mixed martial arts, he fights in the light heavyweight and heavyweight.
The total number of matches done by this fighter in martial arts is 46 fights with 30 wins, 14 losses, and 2 draws.
While in Karate full-contact karate, he made 43 fights with 42 wins and 1 loss.
Regarding Karate, Mezger has reached the 6th Dan black belt in Kyokushin Karate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTDH8lAt_A8
Robert Whittaker
Robert Whittaker is a New Zealand fighter fighting for the most famous mixed martial arts competition, the UFC.
The approach of Rober Whittaker with the martial arts began when his father decide that Robert have to learn self-defense to have more self-confidence.
Robert Whittaker starts to practice martial arts at Goju-ryu Karate school.
After spending eight years, the father encouraged Robert to try others’ disciplines after received the black belt on karate.
With almost no hesitation, Robert began the carrier as a mma fighter.
His first debut was on Australia’s Xtreme Fighting Championships on 14 March 2009.
One of the most important steps for his life was on participating in “The Ultimate Fighter”. After a selection and series of wins, he made his first debut on UFC, particularly for the show called “The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes Finale”. Whittaker won the fight via unanimous decision and become the first winner of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes.
The Whitteaker fight style is very impressive and full of power; this fighter’s fantastic thing is the capability to apply his karate background to MMA.
The professional record for Robert Whittaker is 27 matches, with 22 wins and 5 losses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrFJJJZ4yKw
Chuck Liddell
Chuck Liddell starts to practice martial arts, and more precisely, the Karate, at the age of 12.
In particular, Liddell attended the Koei-Kan karate, and after the start of this discipline, he makes it a style of life and never left it.
His passion for the Koei-kan karate made him reach the black belt and the 8th Dan black belt in Kajukenbo.
After practicing with passion the Koei-kan karate, he decided to move on to MMA. Thanks to his great background on Karate, kenpo, kickboxing, decide that was the time to start a grappling discipline, so here is the beginning of Brazilian jiu-jitsu for Chuck Liddell.
The first debut of Liddell on UFC was in 1998 during UFC 17 in Mobile, Alabama, where he won over Noe Hernandez.
Chuck is very memorable for many fights and matches and for his aggressive characters.
In total, the matches disputed as professional MMA are 30, with 21 wins and 9 losses.
Bas Rutten
Another memorable name for making a contributing to bring Karate on the MMA is Bas Rutten.
The starting of Bas Rutten is a little different from the other MMA fighter.
Bas Rutten starts Karate approach as martial arts at the age 21, where he started learning Kyokushin Karate and earned a 2nd degree black belt.
Bas’s beginning on martial arts has started with boxing, but only for joke, with some of his elementary school friends.
The spark for the martial arts snapped as soon as Bas Saw the Bruce Lee film in a local movie theatre.
He starts to train on taekwondo with excellent results as well.
Bas Rutten because famous for his fighting on Pancrase, where the dominant presence of Karate as a primary style of fighting and a solid background of Taekwondo, made him an incredible mma fighter.
Other important characteristics of Bas Rutten are his aggressive and deceptively technical.
Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson
Thompson is another MMA fighter with a solid background in Karate.
Under the guidance of his father Ray Thompson, Thompson starts training at a very young age; he was a professional kickboxer and owned a karate school.
You can imagine a beginning at the age of 3, in kickboxing and Karate, and under the guidance of a father, what can be come out.
Stephen Thomposon is the example, a mix of power and velocity, that made his match a fantastic piece of inspiration to to draw inspiration from.
The first debut on UFC was on February 4, of 2012 where he won for KO (head kick).
As a professional MMA fighter, Stephen made 20 matches, with 15 wins and four losses.
Michelle Waterson
Michelle Waterson is a UFC women’s strawweight that is also called “The Karate Hottie”.
Michelle started her martial arts journey at the age of 10, where she began to practice Karate.
The debut of Michelle for the MMA starts on February 16, 2007, at Ring of Fire 28: Evolution against Andrea Miller.
After some matches in different competitions, she started to fight for the UFC, with a good result.
The match that Michelle Waterson involves is full of punch and kick techniques, all coming from the massive karate background generated during all these years.
As her nickname suggest “The Karate Hottie”, she is a very representative of karate fighter on the MMA.
In total, as professional Mixed martial arts, she made 26 matches, with 18 wins and six losses.
Sage Northcutt
Sage Northcutt is an incredible MMA fighter that carries the flag high of Karate on the mma.
He starts to practice Karate at age 4, and becoming a few years later, the youngest karate fighter at age 9 to be shown on the cover of a sport Karate Magazine.
The karate worlds’ success is not finished yet, because at age 15 he was also inserted into the Black belt magazine Hall of Fame after winning 77 youth championships.
On October 3, 2015, at UFC 192 He made his debut, winning via technical-knockout (TKO) in 57 seconds.
Afters some match he left the UFC and signed with One Championship in Japan.
For the moment, he made a total of 14 matches, with 11 wins and 3 losses.
Gunnar Nelson
Here we are with another exponent of Karate into MMA, Gunnar nelson knows as the training partner of Connor McGregor; he starts his carrier at age 13, training Gōjū-ryū karate.
The early training on Karate for Gunnar Nelson brings him numerous titles. He was a three-time Kumite champion in 200-2005 at the age 16, and he also received recognition as the best karate fighter in Iceland.
The first approach on the MMA worlds for Gunnar Nelson happened In May 2007, when he fought for the first time in Copenhagen, Denmark.
After some experience in different promotions, Gunnar signed a contract with the UFC in July 2012.
In total, Gunnar Nelson made 23 matches with 17 wins and five losses.
Kyoji Horiguchi
Our list of the best MMA fighter that uses Karate as style on MMA matches with Horiguchi.
Horiguchi started training in Karate at the age of five, and in a very short period, he began to compete in full-contact competitions, winning a series of regional champions.
At the age of 16, after watching a PRIDE Fighting Championships event, he becomes fascinated with mixed martial arts.
So he starts to train also on another discipline as judo, and Brazilian jujitsu.
He is fighting for Bellator, but before he competed in the UFC and Japan MMA organization RIZN.
In total, as professional mixed martial arts, he made 31 matches, with 28 wins and 3 losses.
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Conclusion
As you can see, many MMA fighters use Karate during their MMA matches; the name listed are some of the most famous.
Karate in MMA is considered a particular weapon because it made the fighter unpredictable.
I hope that this list of the best MMA fighters that use Karate was helpful and motivated for you.