Is Muay Thai and Karate a Good Combo?

I do Muay Thai Kickboxing at home and know it pretty well. Im gonna start karate next monday and im wondering if you guys think its a good combo. im talking about standup fighting. and also what are some things karate could help with in mma.|||Seems like you%26#039;re just training the same thing (i.e. standup) in two different (and possibly counteracting) ways. You might be better off just going to more Muay Thai lessons, assuming that%26#039;s possible of course.





If you%26#039;re looking at MMA, you need to add some grappling to your training - wrestling, judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, you can%26#039;t do MMA without some degree of grappling skill.|||Actually, such a style already exists. Kyokushinkai, back in the early days of tournaments, had Muay Thai versus Karate competitions. Several of Mas Oyama%26#039;s leading competitive students ended up training in Muay Thai and then blending it with kyokushinkai. This is why Kyokushinkai of today gets in closer than most Karate styles, using knees and elbows and short punches, while also using fewer of the traditional blocks common to Karate.





I%26#039;m sure that if you look into this, you will find all of this previously recorded. Although many people berate them, Wikipedia has some the best history articles, and better articles there will offer a list of references and links to verify what has been said. Go to Wikipedia and look up Kyokushin Karate or Mas Oyama. One of those two articles should cover the old tournaments (the original MMA events, and also the origin of Japanese Kick-boxing, if I recall; so, the kickboxing article may be another reference to check there) and the splinter art that came from the blending of Kyokushin and Muay Thai.|||If you want to look at how karate is used in MMA look at Lyoto Machida. He actually took the art of karate point scoring into the Octagon and has frustrated opponent after opponent with his unorthodox stance, techniques and approach. Hit, fade, look for an opponent, hit hit hit, fade, etc.





There%26#039;s something already with that combination started long ago.


The sport of %26quot;kickboxing%26quot; is a combination of Muay Thai and Kyokushinkai Karate.|||It%26#039;s fine. If you learn how to blend them, they can be a formidable combo. A lot of MMA guys mix the two as their standup. I did something similar with Tae Kwon Do, Boxing and Kickboxing as my standup when I practiced MMA. I practiced all of them at schools though (Which if you can get an instructor for both: It would be much better)





As for how it can help? It depends on the school and how they go about it really. They might teach you defensive tactics (Good), to be aggressive (Also good), or balance both. Your standup will be a combo of what they teach and what you do yourself, however.