The sport of Mixed Martial Arts has been around a lot longer than most people believe, however; it was introduced to the world on a cold evening in Denver, Colorado on November 12, 1993, and called the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The premise was beautiful in its simplicity: to simply answer the question of which martial art is most effective.

Fast forward over 20 years and we now have a sport that jockeys for top position in popularity in many countries. Although the sport has evolved, the original question that was set out to be answered is still one that intrigues people to this day.

Although not completely a style vs style no rules contest, the video below comes pretty close as a Kung Fu practitioner takes on a Muay Thai fighter under a Muay Thai ruleset.

Even though it may seem the Thai boxer has a distinct advantage this fight is competitive from the beginning but let’s discuss each art before we view the video…

Muay Thai is a combat sport of Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. This physical and mental discipline which includes kicking techniques that primarily focuses on the shin as a point of contact is known as the art of the eight limbs because it is characterized by the combined use of fists, elbows, knees, and shins being associated with a good physical preparation that makes a full-contact fighter very efficient. Muay Thai became widespread internationally in the twentieth century, when practitioners defeated notable practitioners of other martial arts.

Kung Fu is among one of the oldest institutionalized styles of Chinese martial arts. One of the oldest variations, Shaolin Kung Fu is known in Chinese as Shalolinquan or Shaolin Wugong, it originated and was developed in the Buddhist Shaolin temple in Henan Province, China.

During the 1,500 years of its development Kung Fu has seen continued growth and is practiced all over the world. Although there are various styles of Kung Fu, what we see in the video below is a style inspired by Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do and the gentleman we witness in the yellow jump suit is none other than Tony Valente.

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Jacob C. Stevens is a lifelong athlete and cerebral martial arts enthusiast who is also skilled in the art of linguistic manipulation, his published work, Afterthoughts and Handgrenades, can be found here…