MMA outfits

Fedor Emelianenko is a very successful heavyweight MMA fighter. He fights in all sorts of organizations that have all possible variations of rules. Most are pretty standard.

I've seem him fight a few times under ordinary MMA rules.

Recently, I got to see one of his bouts that had very standard rules except in one area. The two combatants came out wearing Judo uniforms.

You may think that this would be a trivial difference, but it's really huge.

Usually, fighters come out wearing only a pair of shorts. In no time both guys are glistening with sweat. All that sweaty skin makes grappling incredibly difficult.

Wearing Judogi changed this. The two guys came out, threw a couple of punches and kicks and then grabbed each other. No slippage occurred. They were able to toss each other around using classical Judo throws.

With sweaty, semi-naked guys this doesn't work. Without clothing the best takedowns are the much simpler and direct wrestling moves.

I enjoyed it much more, and it invoked memories of the early UFC tournaments when Royce Gracie dominated while wearing a gi.

I’d love it if the UFC permitted competitors to choose either gi, or no-gi. Grapplers would surely wear the uniform, as it would act as a non-skid surface against the skin of no-gi participants. It would also act as a tempting handle which would encourage their opponents to try and grab as well.

It would add flavour, colour, more grappling, more throwing, and more strategy into the game.

Punchers would hate it.