Taekwondo and its usefulness

UFC 95 happened over the weekend and it was a good one. The fight ended in spectacular ways and it was generally enjoyable to watch.

Every now and then I also download the older UFC events just to see what happened in the past, as I was never able to watch it in South Africa. It is interesting to see how MMA evolved.

I am up to UFC 51 already. At one point the two commentators  are discussing how the fighters entering the ring got started in MMA. This specific fighter was doing Taekwondo when a Brazilian Jiujutsu guy saw him and asked if he wanted to test his skills. Long story short, he dropped TKD, started BJJ and later fought in the UFC. Right after telling this the conversation went something like this...

Joe: It’s quite amazing to me that people are still doing Taekwondo, and this is coming from a guy who used to teach it for a living. I fought in many TKD tournaments and I used to teach at Boston University, and I think it is basically almost useless.

Co-commentator: You didn’t so back then thought, did you?

Joe: No, you learn. That’s that the UFC is about. Now we know what works.

That is basically my feeling about it. I have respect for the abilities of people who do TKD. No one can attack wooden boards like they do, but I just don't have enough respect  to do it myself. That is the main reason why I held out so long from doing a martial art here in Korea. However, I was in the dojang  two weeks after seeing Hapkido for the fist time.