What martial arts are best for a mixed martial artist?

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well its more the person than anything
but judging by what most mma schools and what a lot of people do
is bjj and muay thai

but i personally wouldnt do just them
I like traditional tkd, some muay thai, some judo throws, wrestling take downs, bjj

Kick Boxing or Muay Thai for strikes, Judo for throws and take downs, Wrestling for ground.

In MMA, you’re not going to be relying on the high kicks you’d use in TKD, they’re more used for chopping at an opponent’s legs to make them easier to take to the ground. Since you say you like take downs (I’m guessing you have some familiarity in them) I’d definitely suggest some BJJ. With BJJ you’ll have good ground defense as well as have the ability to do something once you take your opponent down (or vice versa). Having a good standup game is also very important. If you look at most MMA legends, they will typically have a strong Jujitsu or Wrestling background. For Standup, Muay Thai and boxing are best. Muay Thai will give you some good kicks as well as strikes when putting someone in the clinch (as well as learning clinch defense). So to answer your question, the best stuff to know is: BJJ, Muay Thai, Boxing and wrestling. If you sign up for any MMA gyms, they’ll offer all these classes at 1 cost, where as if you stuck to 1 discipline, you’d pay the same amount of money and just learn that one style. When you learn any particular style, you end up with good/clean technique, when you mix it together for mma, your technique will tend to get sloppy. ie: if you’re just doing muay thai, you wanna focus on kneeing someone with perfect technique and at the right angles, whereas in mma you just want to lant it well enough to knock someone out.

muay thai and jui jitsu is a kick a** combination!

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

if you want my honsest opinion i would try and forget the tkd..

there are three main aspects in an mma fight. the striking phase, the grappling (stand up) phase and the ground work phase.

tkd is not very efficient as a stand up striking martial art in tournaments such as ufc, pride etc. this is due to the fact that tkd has many limits,( no hand strikes to the face, no elbows, no knees) another factor that makes tkd inadequate in mma is that due to the point scoring system used, in tkd the kicks are intented to be fast and snappy, high and flashy and generally not very powerfull, so as to gain the maximum amount of points.

i personally believe that muay thai represents the ultimate in stand up striking. there arent many limitations the only ones i can think of being no groin shots, no eye gouging and no headbutts. there is also a different mentallity to most other martial arts including tae kwon do. muay thai also trains clinch work so a little bit of stand up grappling would be addressed.

tkd is obviously not very efficient for stand up grapppling. for this aspect i would recommend training in one of the folllowing: wrestling, brazilian jiu jitsu, judo, muay thai or boxing.

the ground work phase of an mma fight is arguably the most important with something like 60% of mma fights ending on the ground. the most efficient and effective ground fighting style is by far brazilian jiu jitsu and i believe it is mandatory now in australia, to have some bjj training to enter an mma competition. plus it is also a great martial art for street defense.( 1 on 1 that is)

hope that helped in some way

Muay Thai Kickboxing, Jiu Jitsu and Wrestling.

For the stand-up game, I think there is no better art than Muay Thai. Effective leg kicks mixed with boxing and, most importantly, working your footwork to create angles are very important. Muay Thai encompasses all this.

I like Wrestling for takedowns and positioning. Jiu Jitsu alone will be good (more on that in a moment), but Wrestling is where you will learn positioning, balance and control. I like the transitions from a Muay Thai clinch into a Greco-Roman takedown. I like the speed and athleticism it takes to shoot in for a double-leg takedown. Wrestling is, in my opinion, by far, the most successful base in all of MMA.

But to complement your wrestling, you need to have some good Jiu Jitsu. Wrestling alone won’t win you a fight. Once you have your opponent down and you are punching him square in the face, but he has decent defense against the strikes, you need to come up with an alternative plan. This is where Jiu Jitsu comes into play. Use your wrestling to position yourself to attempt a submission or two.

Learning Jiu Jitsu is also a good way to learn how to avoid being submitted, which is another plus. If you’re fighting a really good Jiu Jitsu fighter, you can feel when he might be going for a submission of his own and you can posture up or take his angel away and get out of the bad position.

All in all, it really comes down to what you feel comfortable with. The ground game is something that came naturally to me, because I was a High School Wrestler. I had to force myself to learn how to strike. But, to each his own.

You really just need three essential styles: a striker style, a wrestling style, and a judo style. If you have these you have all you need for MMA

OK, if I were to have my son on a path to train in MMA, first and foremost I would start him in wrestling. Forget Karate, TKD, Kung Fu, etc. Although, I will say that kicking correctly, as used in Karate and TKD, could give one a “leg up”, pun intended.

I would move on to boxing, then kick boxing. NOT western style or K1 style, but Mui Tai in particular. It incorporates knees, kicks, punches, elbows, etc. Basically all strikes allowed in MMA.

Finally, BJJ. You could, and I have seen, many many people win MMA fights with wrestling skills and Mui Tai skills, but to be in that top 5 percent, a black belt in BJJ is almost a necessity. Be patient though, as obtaining a black belt in BJJ takes roughly 6-8 years to obtain. Sure, BJ Penn got his in about 4 and a half, but he’s BJ Penn.

In summary, wrestling, mui tai, and BJJ. You can see by the UFC that those who are well rounded and great at these three disciplines are the top 5 percent, so in a perfect world, these three should be the staple of an MMA fighters regimine.