In which martial art is strength the most important thing? Wrestling, boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai?
See this guy? That’s Mariusz Pudzianowski. He won the World’s Strongest Man competition five times. He then launched an MMA career. He was undoubtedly stronger than any opponent he’d ever faced. How he won and lost should help us determine where strength is more and less important.
You might think he’d win all his fights by relying on submissions against his much weaker opponents. Turns out, that’s not the case. Going to the ground hurt Mariousz. Four of his seven losses were by submission. On the other hand, none of his victories were due to a submission. Apparently, no matter how strong you are, you can’t just use brute strength to wrestle or force people into submission. His strength proved very useful for knocking out his opponents with punches. That’s basically how he won all his fights.
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Based on this, it seems that skill is more important than strength in all fighting styles, since Mariousz isn’t 30–0 and is a UFC Champion (though he’s still a pretty good fighter). If I had to choose an area where strength is a bit more important, I’d have to go with striking, not submission, arts like boxing and Muay Thai. Striking has been his strength, both offensively and defensively, since all of his wins and only two of his losses were due to punches and other strikes. On the other hand, it seems that all the strength in the world hasn’t stopped wrestlers and BJJ players from repeatedly submitting him.
Therefore, contrary to popular belief, it appears that strength is more important in striking disciplines than in grappling disciplines.
