Basically, MMA is a mix of different martial arts disciplines including boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, wrestling and many other more. Unlike Boxing or Muay Thai, the match is allowed to continue when the fight goes to the ground.

All types of Martial Arts are great to train and beneficial in their ways. However, they do not teach you how to fight.

• Boxing teaches you how to punch, but if the fight goes to the ground, the boxer is done.
• Same thing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu teaches you how to fight with a bigger opponent with an armbar or joint locks, but it does not teach you stand-up fighting skills.

Put all the different martial arts disciplines together will get you Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

There are many benefits of learning MMA. Here are the top 5 benefits:

Undeniably, MMA helps you to build confidence and boost your self-esteem. People who learn MMA tend to have more self-confidence in themselves and this makes them feels good. They react better when confronting with the opposite sex.

You will become powerful, not only in physical state; your mind tends to be calmer and more determined. The higher the mastery of your MMA skills, the more confident you will become. It makes you become more comfortable in taking risk in your daily life. Having great self-confidence encourages you to step out of the comfort zone in your life as well.

MMA requires great discipline if you wish to be good in it. It teaches discipline of your body and mind. In order to have a good looking and strong body physique, you have to eat right, sleep tight and train hard. These seem to be easy, but they really require good self-control.

Believe it or not, most of the martial arts artists prefer non-violent conflict resolution to the violent one. It teaches you to refrain from violence. People who practice martial arts are taught to use what they learnt only for self-defense and when it is the last resort. In the real world, dumb people are everywhere and we really need good mental discipline to avoid ourselves in getting into fights with them.

Besides, MMA teaches honor and respect. Traditional martial arts teach you the importance of respecting your ‘sensei’ and putting your ego aside. For instance, Muay Thai fighters will dance (wai kru) before their fight to show respect to their teachers and trainers as well. MMA fighters learn to show humility even though they are some of the best fighters in the world.

Learning and training MMA is a really good physical workout for everyone. Sparring and grappling routine every day is definitely brutal cardio. Besides, fighters need to be in top notch physical condition so that they do not get fatigue easily during the fight. Fighters need to have excellent fitness in order to excel in MMA fights. It means that people who are really into MMA will have good stamina, power, strength, speed, flexibility and endurance. Undeniably, most of the martial arts artists are in good shape.

Apart from physical strength, learning MMA also strengthens your mind and spirit. It trains your mental focus. This will push your body to the limit and you would not believe what incredible things your body can achieve.

If case anything bad happens, you will be able to defend yourself and even your friends and family. Robbers and snatch thefts are everywhere these days. You would at least protect yourself from getting hurt if you are good in martial arts, not with armed robbers though. However, I think it is more than enough to fight with the punks on the street.

One of the biggest reasons males nowadays have no confidence is lack of masculine hobbies or sports. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) gives everyone a perfect platform to fight legally. Fighting in a controlled environment can reduce violence that happened on street indirectly. Besides than that, it also promotes many values like courage and determination.

Moreover, learning MMA relieves stress. It releases aggression in men. Imagine punching and kicking sandbag for an hour or more, there is no more space for stress I guess.