Uh, okay. Professor Visitacion was a great Kali man who will be missed. A lot of his small joint manipulations are REALLY tough to pull off without the use of a weapon against a skilled resisting opponent. Rigan, John, JJ, Roger Machado were in the PI during the filming of Kickboxer 4, the rebellion as part of a stunt/extra/martial art choreography team led by Burton Richardson. All Machado brothers quickly learned that the anti weapon defense they learned as part of the Gracie curriculum left something to be desired against ARMED combatants (Chris Ricketts in this case), but unarmed, they were having their way with ALL of the martial artists who were either in the movie, or locals who practiced Kali/Escrima/Arnis. Modern MMA is perhaps best suited for one to one encounters against SKILLED, ATHLETIC and RESISTING opponents.
You learn attributes like distance, timing, rhythm, line familiarization and get to exercise KILLER INSTINCT constantly in training. Not to mention, you must be fit, resilient. Most TMAs (Kali is my second favorite art, and I still train to this day) do not spar enough or get full contact training in against resisting, aggressive opponents (Dog Brothers excluded from this). I was fortunate to have trained with "Tatang" Illustrisimo before his death, I have trained with Ben Largusa, Cacoy Canete, the late, great Punong Guro Edgar Sulite, Sifu Bustillo, Guro Inosanto, GM Leo Gaje. And all of these men would have their way with any MMA athlete with a weapon in their hands. But unarmed? NO WAY, NO HOW.
