How Gunnar Nelson Applies Karate in UFC • Martial Arts Journey

Gunnar Nelson is a UFC fighter with an impressive record who has started his martial arts journey from Karate and kept some of its principles ever since. In this talk he is sharing how he started Karate, what he liked and didn't like about it and how he later implemented his experience into his MMA fighting.
The full talk will be released this Wednesday. Subscribe to Martial Arts Journey to know when it's out!
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Welcome to the Martial Arts Journey KZbin channel!
My name is Rokas. I'm a Lithuanian guy who trained Aikido for 14 years, 7 of them running a professional Aikido Dojo until eventually I realized that Aikido does not live up to what it promises.
Lead by this realization I decided to make a daring step to close my Aikido Dojo and move to Portland, Oregon for six months to start training MMA at the famous Straight Blast Gym Headquarters under head coach Matt Thornton.
After six months intensive training I had my first amateur MMA fight after which I moved back to Lithuania. During all of this time I am documenting my experience through my KZbin channel called "Martial Arts Journey".
Now I am slowly setting up plans to continue training MMA under quality guidance and getting ready for my next MMA fight as I further document and share my journey and discoveries.
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If you want to support my journey, you can make a donation to my PayPal at [e-mail]
SUBSCRIBE to see when the next videos will come out:
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Check the video "Aikido vs MMA" which started this whole Martial Arts Journey:
► • Aikido vs MMA - REAL ...
If you want to support me and this channel on a regular basis check my Patreon page:
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#ufc #mma #karate

[@VincentMMALife]

I hope that one day you can get a job in the ufc or bellator interviewing fighters. I think you would be great at it if you look at the interviews that you have done.

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Thank you! 🙏

[@davidcdun8896]

You can always interview GSP or Lyoto Machida about using Karate in MMA. 👍👍

[@elenchus]

or chinzo, wonderboy, bas rutten, horiguchi and watson

[@cosmicnous7772]

Why do I keep seeing 33?

[@cosmicnous7772]

What about Sage Northcut or Stephen Thompson....

[@cosmicnous7772]

I think Kyokushin is the best form of karate

[@yarinel3251]

I don't think it's that simple

[@zoommair]

I love my karate background! In Muay Thai class, I never have to wrap my hands because my fists are tough, and I bounce around at long distance and snipe with fast entry punches and kicks. Only problem is coach keeps telling me to lighten up my hits for sparring and I'm having trouble going any lighter. I try to go light, but if I connect anything with speed, even a light tap becomes a loud snap, and coach looks over and comments. Another benefit is I can fight both normal stance and southpaw because my old sensei always had us practice both sides.

[@timlinator]

I train Karate and BJJ and have trained kick boxing. Kick boxing is basically a subset of Karate so Karate has all the techniques of kick boxing in it and then some.

[@folksurvival]

It's similar with Judo and BJJ. BJJ is basically a subset of Judo.

[@0181spikri]

Distance management and leg dexterity are things that really stuck with me after 4 or 5 years of Taekwondo. Unpredictability is what is emphasized in Karate and Taekwondo imo.

[@lucastakeo7707]

100%. I feel like I'm better than most at switching stances and finding angles and I think that's due to my TKD background. When I tried other combat sports like boxing that original training helped me progress a lot quicker. Now that I'm training BJJ, the emphasis TKD has on flexbility has been surprisingly useful.

[@TheMeditatingRaven]

To me, what is interesting is how MMA has influenced TMA in ways that have caused both realms to progress. Originally, the mere mention of Karate, TKD, and Capoiera was enough to elicit sneers from MMA fighters, until people started using them heavily, and now they are almost bread and butter for many a fighter's arsenal. This is most ironic thing. TMA practitioners thought that MMA was against TMA, but was really against the inadequate training methods they had adopted or failed to adapt. The more progressive TMA practitioners, your Ian Abernathy's (Karate), Randy Brown's (Mantis Boxing), Sergio Perez of PCMS (Shaolin and Bagua), Practical Hung Kyun, and more are taking the same approach to their traditional fighting styles as mixed martial arts is, and decrying the dogmatists in their camp who refuse to progress their art and its methods. The real enemy here is the extremism from both camps. The TMA practitioners who refuse to evolve in response to MMA, and the MMA fighters who list Western Wrestling, Boxing, Muay Thai, and Jiu-Jitsu as the only arts of legitimacy. At some point, there has to be a middle ground where both camps realize they each had a point.

[@wordupmagazines32]

100% right, good breakdown and info oss

[@meginna8354]

In terms of TKD and Capoeira, it's really just about incorporating some kicks, Karate is the only tma style that works as a style, in terms of the stance and movement and approach that is now widely known in MMA.

[@johnpjones1775]

Originally some of the biggest names in MMA were karateka, so anyone who would have sneered back then was just ignorant.

[@meginna8354]

Not true, some TMA are built around entire systems and principles that don't work. Notice that only point style karate is the only unconventional TMA you see implemented in MMA (TKD and capoeira too but they are more so about occasional moves that can be implemented as opposed to an entire style) that's because it evolved from sparring. Most martial arts have only evolved through theory and have so many principles wrong that they're essentially useless and modifying them would be useless because you would have to change them so fundamentally that it wouldn't even resemble the original style.

[@MixedMartialHelp]

Thanks for this! He's one of my favourite fighters!

[@JustLookinkAround]

I bet in the next one you'll be casually chatting to DC or Jon Jones... Jesus man, awesome stuff, keep going! 👍

[@MartialArtsJourney]

😁

[@jomeraquino]

I have a karate back ground and jiu jitsu I use my karate a lot and I like the in and out and hard fist cause of makiwara specially kick boxing sparring

[@hogger4321]

Very interesting interview thanks for that!

[@MartialArtsJourney]

🙏

[@zilvinasgruodis3434]

Gunner!!! My fav Icelandic and my fav fighter :)

[@blackomega4061]

Rokas is starting to look like Dan Hardy with that haircut and beard! 😂

[@kevingonzalez3673]

He look like a pirate

[@darelldoughboy8888]

What a chill man

[@monkeyx17]

gunni needs this win. I hope he can pull it off

[@Korroth]

Great interview. Some clips of him fighting would have illustrated your point. Other videos called him a judo guy. Intended to be a constructive comment, you’re one of my few subscriptions keep at it!

[@MartialArtsJourney]

🙏

[@PauIdenino]

Another interesting guest, nice. I hope you could get Makwan Amirkhani for an interview sometime, I think he sometimes trains with Gunnie. Anyways, good work, again. 👊

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Makwan already agreed for an interview. Just need to find a time

[@PauIdenino]

Great news 👌

[@hatejethro1164]

Ask them about having knockout power vs tko pressure and how it affects us as martial artist. For example. Ngannou can one hit ko people and then theres guys like jon jones who just pressures people. How would it come to play for us who dont always fight in competition vs in real self defense situations?

[@cesaralvesdemoraes3187]

.

[@bluephantom786]

.

[@RoyBlumenthal]

When are ya gonna interview Connor?!? (Just a hint... Don't refuse the whisky!)

[@The31st]

Is it just me or does nelson now have an Irish accent

[@MartialArtsJourney]

😂

[@MohseenLala]

I'd love to see a fight between Gunner and khabib. How did you approach hm for the interview?

[@MartialArtsJourney]

We got to train and hang out a bunch :)

[@cesaralvesdemoraes3187]

Weight class is a thing unfortunately

[@MohseenLala]

@@cesaralvesdemoraes3187 Are they that far apart? I'm sure someone could buff up or slim down.

[@malchir4036]

Noise removal, use it.

[@taekwondobro]

Do you have your own mma school now like the aikido one?

[@elenchus]

i think he trains at straight blast

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Still learning

[@Bulunderuuun]

gotta improve the sound quality mate.

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Will be buying new mic next week

[@MartialArtsJourney]

Just bought a new one. Future videos will be better

[@sgthrawn]

What about Lyoto or Chinzo Machida?

[@ShinFahima]

Rokas bulked up but he still has a skinny-guy head. XD

[@MartialArtsJourney]

😑

[@ShinFahima]

@@MartialArtsJourney Still moving up in the world, though! :D

[@charlesdourado8292]

Hahahahaha

[@LAVATORR]

Rokas, from one man that can't grow a full beard to another: Please continue shaving regularly. I can tell it's only been like a couple days and your facial hair seems to have leapfrogged from "mild stubble" to "fearsome god of crystal meth".

[@MartialArtsJourney]

I like the sound of fearsome god of crystal meth

[@LAVATORR]

@@MartialArtsJourneyNot gonna lie, the mental image of you in full-blown Meth Warlord Rokas Mode is hilarious because I still see you just respectfully critiquing Aikido's training methodologies *only slightly faster and a little bit louder*.

[@kevingonzalez3673]

He cannot throw punch either

[@ninjamaster7724]

Holy shit,Rokus.You're starting to look like a bad ass now.Tattoo and everything 💪 Your testosterone level has risen 100 fold and your soy level has decreased 100 fold since quitting aikido and starting bjj.Well done.👍

[@japanviewneth]

日本でも武道は学ばれたんですか？

[@MartialArtsJourney]

English?

[@japanviewneth]

@@MartialArtsJourney　Did you study Aikido in Japan?

[@notmyname108]

man, sorry I love your vids but this feels like "blah blah blah from nowhere to nowhere....". Kinda boring and dead. I also expected some illustrative videos from the UFC. Look e.g. at Jesse Enkamp, he's great at interviews. He also includes some action (see the kicking interview with Bill Walace).

[@MartialArtsJourney]

That's why Jesse is Jesse and I'm me. Also, don't you think taking parts of UFC fights is a straight way to get banned from monetization?

[@notmyname108]

@@MartialArtsJourney do not worry about it - it would be FAIR USE! See the lawsuit case h3h3 vs Matt Hoss. They posted almost his whole video and it was not copyright infringement. Monetization of that particular video would be different thing, but probably still possible.