this is it the great thing about mma its shown which martial arts are effective in real combat
I remember Rorion Gracie told me that when he was developing the UFC. He said most martial arts are worthless because you never do any free training (that's a term in Jiu-Jitsu where you just go at it).
That's why you will never find more out of shapes guys than you will in traditional martial arts. Even Bruce Lee realized just how physically out of shape he was when he accepted a challenge match when he live in San Fran in his twenties.
Despite all that talk about chi/ki, spirituality, and mental discipline it's still a physical endeavor where strength, flexibility and endurance matters a lot.