UFC is a sport promotion within the sport of MMA. UFC, Pride, Bellator are all promoters of the sport of MMA.
Yes, MMA is a sport. The UFC is like the NFL for MMA. The styles used in MMA are martial arts, though. If you go to an MMA gym, it's not like going to a football practice where you're only learning how to play a game. An MMA gym will teach you a combination of Martial Arts that cover striking and grappling and then they will ALSO teach you how to mix them together for the sport of MMA. You will still get the self defense aspects from the martial arts more often than not, especially since a LOT of people who train in MMA gyms are there to learn self defense and have no plans to fight in the sport at all.
Usually an MMA gym has a teacher that specializes in Muay Thai, Karate, or Kickboxing and then another teacher that specializes in Jiu-Jitsu or another similar grappling art. They teach full on classes in those styles, and then other classes will cover putting it all together.
Yes it's a sport bevause it invokes physical exertion and you compete against other people
It's a format that has a competitive outlet. I know plenty of people (myself included) who use it primarily to build unarmed fighting skills that are applicable to "real" fights as well as a full-contact, limited-rules competition.
MMA is not a "style" as such. GSP trained Kyokushin karate, Brazilian Jiujitsu, Freestyle wrestling, boxing, and Muay Thai; what made him an MMA fighter was the format that allowed him to blend his skills together (using boxing jabs to set up wrestling takedowns, passing guard with BJJ to lay in ground-and-pound utilizing karate techniques, etc). Same with Anderson Silva. He studied Taekwondo, Muay Thai, BJJ, and boxing, but MMA allowed him to blend his skills together.
There are what might be referred to as "MMA styles" in that they focus on building unarmed fighting skills in a format that can be transferred to the cage or ring. Satoryu Sayama's Shooto, Erik Paulson's Combat Submission Wrestling, and Mark Hatmaker's Extreme Self Protection are examples of this.
It's really both. In it there are a mix of martial artist and meatheads. Not all competing are martial artists but they are fighting to gain a "prize" and has rules as it needs to. That makes it a sport as well. But people get confused about that thinking what these guys know and do is really not going to help them if they get attacked outside the ring/cage. They know how to fight and outside the "sport" would know how to fight with no rules
Yes
Yes, any physical competition held under set rules is sport, no matter what your background is.
Yes it's a sport. Though some of the fighters are indeed martial artists, MMA and UFC is a sport and trains as such. There is a strict rule set. If there wasn't the possibility of death would be very possible.
So yes. It's a sport like boxing is a sport and Muay Thai fights are sports.
Any competition fight where there is a rule set is a sport.
yes.
Is mma a sport so I mean UFC by mma loads of people watch it like it's a sport with pay per views and that stuff but I know the top ones like Gsp and silva have all been trained in a specific style before going to UFC so is UFC a sport or a martial art
