Judo black belt Islam Makhachev with beautiful technique and execution

[u/Wise-Self-4845]

can you guys name all of these techniques? I got all except one hahah

[u/powerhearse]

There are nowhere near as many Judoka at all levels of MMA as there are wrestlers, boxers etc. As you mentioned in another comment the IJF and the Judo attitude towards MMA is a big part of the reason for this. In France the Judo governing bodies blocked the legalisation of MMA for decades

No MMA organisation in the world is "filled with former Judoka". That is simply not the case. The only ones are arguably the Russian organisations and generally those Judoka are exposed to MMA adjacent competition rulesets like Combat Sambo a lot earlier

The fact is it isn't a falsehood. There aren't many Judoka in MMA

[u/Mobile-Estate-9836 → u/powerhearse]

You must of missed the part where I said Asia and Eastern European mma orgs. Judo is huge in Asia. Fighters in that region statistically have a high likihood of having trained in it, exposed to it, or competed in it. Same case with the other martial arts that are prevalent over there (i.e. MT, Sambo, TKD). It's similar to wrestling and bjj in America. Maybe not to the same degree, but prevalent. Off the top of my head, Shinya Aoki, Ayaka Hamasaki, Donghae Hyun Kim, Yushin Okami, Yoshiro Akiyama, and Fedor all competed in Japanese or European orgs before ever coming over to American ones. That's not even accounting for those in Pride. You also had recently Olivier Aubin-Mercier in PFL.

Saying there aren't many judoka in MMA is insane when you've literally had 6 of the top 10-15 GOATs of MMA (Fedor, Islam, Khabib, Ronda, Shevckenko, Merab) all have Judo blackbelts.

[u/powerhearse → u/Mobile-Estate-9836]

Oof there's a lot to address here haha

There aren't COMPARATIVELY many Judoka in MMA compared to people from other backgrounds. That applies equally to Asian and Eastern European organisations. Wrestling is absolutely huge in Eastern Europe and there's an absolute shitload of MMA fighters from a wrestling background there, way more than from a Judo background

In Asia there's a huge amount of MMA fighters from a striking background, more than from anything else. You're thinking of the very early eras where MMA was dominated by fighters from Shooto and similar backgrounds, MMA rulesets which existed pre UFC. However, kickboxing was way bigger in Japan than MMA was, and that only changed under a decade ago (in fact it could even still be the case).

And don't make me address this Shevchenko shit again haha. She has an honorary Judo blackbelt and has never competed in Judo

You've listed a bunch of names but not accounted for the fact that the vast, overwhelming majority of UFC champions are from a wrestling background. The overwhelming majority of UFC champions have also been from the US or Brazil, despite the secondary birthplace of MMA being in Japan where Judo is huge.

Even in Pride, the majority of fighters were not from a Judo background.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Judo and I hope more Judoka make the transition as the highest level examples (those you've mentioned plus folks like Karo Parisyan) are truly spectacular. And with the amount of training it requires to transition from ANY other art, the discussion is academic anyway. The fact is the best base for MMA is MMA, nothing else compares

However, your view of the relevance of Judo training to MMA is just unrealistic. Your view of the relevance of gi training to MMA is unrealistic. And its important to point that out so that people stay grounded and realistic about their capabilities

[u/misterandosan → u/powerhearse]

Even in Pride, the majority of fighters were not from a Judo background.

Neither were they wrestlers. Which proves that wrestling is only a large factor in the UFC because of the convenience of having a local wrestling culture in the US.

If you normalised the amount of competitors from each country that do wrestling, and how many of them become champions vs judo and other martial arts backgrounds, the ratio wouldnt be good.

Saying the majority of champions have a wrestling background when the UFC has been flooded with excollegiate wrestlers from the US is biased. If the US had a more diverse martial arts culture, yet champions were still from a wrestling backgrounds, you would have a point.

It's not really about the martial art a lot of the time but how you apply it. If hundreds of US wrestlers enter the MMA scene, at least a few are going to champions based on attrition.

relevance of Judo training to MMA

This is true in that beginners shouldn't pick up judo for MMA, the learning curve is far too steep to start as an adult, but learning judo principles can help overall grappling.