MMA Fighting Styles Explained: Strikers, Grapplers and Everything Between

Image: Sgt. Malcolm Cohens-Ashley, U.S. Army (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Mixed martial arts has no single style of its own; it is a rule set that rewards whichever disciplines work best together. That was obvious from the first card. UFC 1 took place on 12 November 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, an eight-man tournament with no weight classes and no judges, and the line-up was a museum of martial arts: jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, sumo, boxing, shootfighting, savate and taekwondo.

Royce Gracie won it, beating boxer Art Jimmerson, shootfighter Ken Shamrock and savate fighter Gerard Gordeau, all by submission. Brazilian jiu-jitsu looked unbeatable because nobody else had trained for what happens when a fight hits the floor. The early 1990s were a story of grapplers exposing strikers who could not defend a takedown, and the history of the sport shows how quickly the answer arrived: strikers learned to stay upright, and grapplers learned to punch.

Wrestlers did most of the early adapting. Mark Coleman said at UFC 14 that his plan was to "ground him and pound him", which may be the first televised use of the phrase, and Dan Severn and Don Frye built similar games around takedowns followed by strikes. Modern MMA is the long result of that cross-pollination. Almost every elite fighter now has a base style they trust, plus enough of the other disciplines to avoid being exploited.

The rules shape what works, too. The Unified Rules ban 12-to-6 downward elbows, kicking or kneeing the head of a grounded opponent, and stomping a grounded opponent, according to the UFC's published rules. That is why a Muay Thai clinch, a wrestling single-leg and a jiu-jitsu guard all behave a little differently in the cage than they do in their home sports.

Boxing gives an MMA fighter the best hands and footwork in combat sports. A jab, a slipped counter and the ability to cut angles are the core of it, and plenty of UFC champions started here. Conor McGregor began boxing at 12 at Crumlin Boxing Club before moving into MMA, and his left hand produced a 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo at UFC 194 in December 2015, the fastest finish in UFC title-fight history. The limits of pure boxing show up fast in MMA, though. A boxing stance has no answer to leg kicks, no clinch game, and nothing to stop a takedown.

Muay Thai is "the art of eight limbs": fists, elbows, knees and shins. It adds the clinch, which boxing deliberately breaks, and the ability to hit with the shin rather than the foot. Muay Thai's rules were codified under King Rama VII between 1925 and 1935, and its elbows and knees translate directly to a sport that allows both. Valentina Shevchenko is a textbook example. She comes from a Muay Thai family, won eight IFMA world golds, and is one of the few fighters to have won professional titles in MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing.

Kickboxing sits between the two. Rulesets vary by organisation, but the common thread is punches and kicks with knees and elbows restricted or banned, which tends to produce fighters with quick, clean combinations and sharp timing, but fewer clinch weapons. Israel Adesanya is the obvious case. He started kickboxing at 18 after watching a Muay Thai film, went 32 and 1 as an amateur, compiled 75 wins as a professional kickboxer, and brought that distance management to the UFC middleweight title.

Alex Pereira is the other side of the same coin. He won Glory titles at middleweight and light heavyweight, and became the first fighter in Glory history to hold two belts at once. He beat Adesanya twice in kickboxing before their MMA meetings, then won the UFC middleweight title from him at UFC 281 in November 2022 with a fifth-round TKO. Adesanya took it back at UFC 287 in April 2023 with a second-round knockout. Two elite kickboxers, two very different nights: proof that style alone never settles a fight.

Anderson Silva showed what a striking base plus a wide toolkit can do. He trained in taekwondo, capoeira and Muay Thai as a teenager, holds a BJJ black belt, and ended Rich Franklin's night at UFC 64 in 2006 with a knee to the face. His 2,457-day middleweight reign remains the longest title reign in UFC history.

Wrestling decides where a fight happens. A wrestler controls distance, takes the fight down or refuses to be taken down, and can hold an opponent against the fence. Freestyle wrestling allows attacks on the legs, which is why it supplies most of MMA's takedown artists, while Greco-Roman forbids anything below the belt and builds clinch throws and upper-body control instead. Both are Olympic disciplines, per the wrestling overview.

Jon Jones won a New York state title at 189lb in 2005 and a junior-college national title at Iowa Central, then used his wrestling to manage range, clinch and control in the UFC, where he became the youngest champion in history at 23. Kamaru Usman, an NCAA Division II national champion at 174lb in 2010, beat Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 to win the welterweight title and went on to defend it five times.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is ground fighting built on leverage. It grew out of judo: Mitsuyo Maeda, a Kodokan black belt, reached Brazil around 1914 and taught Carlos Gracie, whose brother Hélio refined the ground work because of his smaller frame, as the BJJ history records. The idea that a smaller fighter can beat a bigger one with position and submissions made Royce Gracie a star at UFC 1.

Charles Oliveira is today's poster child. He is a BJJ black belt who holds the UFC record for submission wins, 17, and he took the lightweight title with a second-round TKO of Michael Chandler at UFC 262 in May 2021, which shows how grapplers finish with punches once they are in top position.

Judo is throws and control. Jigoro Kano founded it in 1882, and its throwing techniques are designed to put an opponent on the ground with force. Competition judo bans striking, awards points for throws and pins, and has been Olympic since 1964 for men and 1992 for women. Ronda Rousey won Olympic bronze in 2008 and became the UFC's first women's bantamweight champion. Ten of her 13 professional wins came by submission, including a 14-second armbar of Cat Zingano, the fastest submission in modern UFC history.

Sambo is the Soviet Union's answer, created in the 1920s for the Red Army; the name abbreviates the Russian for "self-defence without weapons". It draws on wrestling, judo and folk styles. Sport sambo allows leg locks but not chokes, while combat sambo adds punches, kicks and elbows, as its history explains. Khabib Nurmagomedov wrestled from age eight, took up judo at 15 and combat sambo at 17, and became a two-time combat sambo world champion. Islam Makhachev, a combat sambo world champion in 2016 and a judo black belt, won the lightweight title with a second-round arm-triangle choke of Oliveira at UFC 280 on 22 October 2022. The pattern is clear: sambo teaches takedowns, control and leg attacks under pressure, which is exactly the skill set that wins in the cage.

Elite MMA is about chains, not individual techniques. A jab sets up a level change, the level change becomes a single-leg, the single-leg puts the opponent on the fence, and the fence creates a choke or a ground-and-pound barrage. Every martial art contributes a link. Boxing supplies the feint, wrestling supplies the entry, judo supplies the trip or throw, BJJ supplies the finish.

Some fighters are built around one trusted base and cover the rest. Khabib's record of 29 wins and no losses rested on sambo and wrestling pressure, and he still holds the UFC record for takedowns in a single fight: 21 from 28 attempts against Abel Trujillo at UFC 160. Others build the hybrid from day one. Georges St-Pierre began Kyokushin karate at seven, then added wrestling, BJJ, boxing and Muay Thai, and became a two-division UFC champion after nine consecutive welterweight title defences.

St-Pierre's career also shows the limit of versatility. Matt Serra stopped him in the first round at UFC 69, and he responded by rebuilding his game and winning the rematch at UFC 83.

Two habits now define high-level MMA. First, strikers train takedown defence as seriously as combinations, which is why so many fighters from kickboxing backgrounds spend years drilling sprawls and cage wrestling. Second, grapplers learn to set up takedowns with strikes, because walking in with a naked shot gets punished. The phrase "well-rounded" stopped being praise years ago; it is the entry requirement.

A striker wants space; a grappler wants contact. The whole fight is a negotiation over distance. The striker circles, kicks the legs, frames with the lead hand and looks to stay off the fence. The grappler feints, closes range behind a jab or a low kick, and tries to catch a leg, clinch or cut off the cage.

Judges reward effective striking and grappling first, then effective aggression and cage control, which our recent guide to UFC scoring covers in detail. That matters here. A grappler who lands takedowns but does nothing on the floor can lose rounds, while a striker who is taken down repeatedly but gets back up and lands a damaging strike may still steal one. Position alone does not win a round if it does no damage and creates no real threat.

Three fights show the range. At UFC 229 in October 2018, Khabib, the grappler, submitted McGregor, the striker, with a neck crank in the fourth round, and the event drew 2.4 million pay-per-view buys, the most ever for an MMA card. In November 2015, at UFC 193, Holly Holm, a boxing and kickboxing specialist, stunned Rousey, the judoka, with a head-kick knockout that ended her unbeaten run. Striker beat grappler.

The reverse happened at UFC 270 in January 2022 at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Francis Ngannou, the most feared puncher in the division, outwrestled interim champion Ciryl Gane to win a unanimous decision by scores of 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46. The champion used a grappler's plan because the striking exchanges were not enough, and his opponent had clearly prepared for the wrong fight.

Pereira and Adesanya represent the striker-versus-striker case, where small tactical differences in range, rhythm and feints matter more than raw skill. That pair swapped the middleweight belt twice inside six months, and neither needed a takedown to do it.

You can work out a fighter's base in the first two minutes. Watch the stance, the first reaction to pressure and what they do when the fight touches the fence.

• Upright stance, lead-leg kicks, hands high: usually a kickboxing or Muay Thai base. Watch for teeps, calf kicks and a clinch game built on knees.
• Bouncy, shoulder-rolling footwork with a long jab: boxing pedigree. Expect fewer kicks and a preference for head movement over checking.
• Low stance, constant level changes, heavy hand-fighting: wrestling or sambo. Fences and clinches are where these fighters live.
• Comfortable on the back, hunting sweeps and submissions: BJJ. Being pulled into the guard is often part of their plan.
• Hip-heavy entries and throws from the collar tie: judo, often blended with wrestling.

Use that lens on the next card and the chess match behind the violence becomes easier to follow. If you want to watch more of it, Watch MMA covers how to tune in, rankings, rules and fighter deep dives in plain English.

• Wikipedia: Mixed martial arts
• Wikipedia: UFC 1
• UFC: Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts
• Wikipedia: Ground and pound
• Wikipedia: Muay Thai
• Wikipedia: Brazilian jiu-jitsu
• Wikipedia: Judo
• Wikipedia: Sambo (martial art)
• Wikipedia: Wrestling
• Wikipedia: Khabib Nurmagomedov
• Wikipedia: Israel Adesanya
• Wikipedia: UFC 270

What is the best martial art for MMA?

No single art is best, because MMA rewards combinations. Wrestling is widely seen as the most useful base, since it controls where the fight happens, while Muay Thai, boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu cover striking and submissions. Most champions blend at least three disciplines and train their weakest area hardest.

Who wins, a striker or a grappler?

Neither wins by default. Khabib Nurmagomedov submitted Conor McGregor at UFC 229, but Holly Holm knocked out Ronda Rousey at UFC 193. The fighter who controls distance and cage position usually decides it, so takedown defence for strikers and striking setups for grapplers are what matter most.

Is Muay Thai better than boxing for MMA?

Muay Thai has more tools that work in the cage: shin kicks, knees, elbows and a clinch game. Boxing offers cleaner hands and head movement. Many UFC fighters train both. Muay Thai generally transfers a little more directly, but boxing skill is often what separates close striking exchanges.

What is sambo and why do so many UFC champions use it?

Sambo is a Soviet martial art from the 1920s that blends wrestling, judo and folk styles; combat sambo adds strikes. Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev both came through it. It emphasises takedowns, control and leg attacks, which suit the cage very well.

Why did Brazilian jiu-jitsu dominate early UFC events?

Royce Gracie won UFC 1 on 12 November 1993 by submitting three opponents who had little ground-fighting training. BJJ offered an answer to fights that went to the floor, which most strikers had never drilled. Once fighters learned takedown defence and submission escapes, the early advantage faded.

What does ground and pound mean?

Ground and pound is striking an opponent from a dominant position on the floor, usually from top control. Wrestlers such as Mark Coleman, Dan Severn and Don Frye popularised it in the 1990s. Modern rules still ban downward 12-to-6 elbows and kicks or knees to the head of a grounded opponent.