Xu Xiadong aka Mad Dog (MMA Fighter)

[laagi]

Probably most of us are familiar with the guy because of his mission to set out and expose "fake" Masters in China. Some of these fights were recorded and made it to youtube etc. Unfortunately it seems that censors and the communist party are coming down hard on the guy! Preventing him from taking part in tournaments (which is his main income) as well as censoring him and his social media output in China.

I'm honest and the guy is certainly a bit eccentric and does at times appear a bit boastful! He does make a valid point though about the current state of chinese Martial Arts. A lot of it is first and foremost business! Shaolin Temple; that's no secret has been set up for this very reason. However, he's taking a bit of a sledgehammer approach. Funny and tragic (for him) at the same time. You can be your own judge.

 

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

He got mauled in some sparring sessions with Kickboxers over there. I think there were a few possible reasons. 1. He isn't as good as the best, so they may have wanted to make that clear, as he is an attention whore 2. He's a shallow thug and a bully, not just to classical frauds, but to people in general. 3. His materialism makes Chinese look bad. 4. Beating a bunch of old, delusional farts is a punk move and makes China look bad. 

So right now, China is on a super nationalistic revenge kick, along with revisionist history that make Fist of Fury's fight scenes look tame, for example. Having some guy go and peel back the onion and make people realize that there is no "there" there doesn't help anything. The reality is, we all love Kung Fu movies, but if you look at the history of China, we have little proof in terms of land battles, recorded duels or cultural norms that China had an effective, continuous system of deadly martial arts. Let's get real, the reality is that Chinese martial arts were held in LOW REGARD for decades and that people like Tang Hao went to Japan and realized they were way behind, even in the 1920s. The reason Asian martial arts became popular was everyone, around the world, was impressed by Judo. Having someone show up the indigenous martial arts of China really hurts the PRC's attempts at making China into 1980's USA- reactionary, self righteous and warlike (without actually going to war for the most part). Wait until he gets old. One day he will "disappear". 

[paimeifist]

I’m here, I love kung fu movies.

 

With that said, as a person who competed and trained in a brutal and competitive martial art/combat sport (boxing) on the amateur and professional level, I feel I can speak on this matter..

 

Traditional Chinese martial arts, or kung fu styles are simply not practical in real combat. I can explain why I feel this way if people want me to. If anyone has spent any time training and competing in any combat sport, including even wrestling, I am sure they understand. 

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

8 hours ago, paimeifist said:

I’m here, I love kung fu movies.

 

With that said, as a person who competed and trained in a brutal and competitive martial art/combat sport (boxing) on the amateur and professional level, I feel I can speak on this matter..

 

Traditional Chinese martial arts, or kung fu styles are simply not practical in real combat. I can explain why I feel this way if people want me to. If anyone has spent any time training and competing in any combat sport, including even wrestling, I am sure they understand. 

I wasted a major part of my life taking styles that could actually get you in more trouble than just going berserk in a confrontation. That included some styles from more than just China. You will run into some guys that are in this style or that who can fight, but many times it is because they could already do it before they started. Or they were really good athletes in other sports. I love these movies (obviously) but most, if not all, have as much to do with real life combat as Star Wars. From what I can tell, the number one aspect of a good fighter (besides athletic ability) is their capacity to do violence against another person and not think twice about it, and enjoy it so much that the damage they take is acceptable so they can get the chance to dominate another person. Almost impossible to turn someone into that from being a non violent, 98 lb weakling, which is what most Kung Fu, Karate and Tae Kwon Do styles promise. If you aren't good at a full contact striking art, you cannot stay in too long. Coaches are not senseis and will not waste their, or your, time. Judo and wrestling seem to be exceptions in terms of building someone up, and that is because there isn't brain damage to contend with.

[laagi]

8 hours ago, paimeifist said:

Traditional Chinese martial arts, or kung fu styles are simply not practical in real combat. I can explain why I feel this way if people want me to. If anyone has spent any time training and competing in any combat sport, including even wrestling, I am sure they understand. 

I admire their rigorous training but when it comes to acutal combat many of these "Masters" are just disillusional. They gather all these students around them which won't question a single thing. At times it has traits of a cult following. I'm not trying to put them down... It's just if they talk pretty big, maybe they got what's coming for them.

I've trained with Masters in China with combat experience and they feel the same. It's just you can't really talk about it. Kung Fu is a national treasure and as mentioned before BIG money. Especially since more and more Westerners flock to famous places like Shaolin and Wudang and are more than willing to spend thousands of dollars.

Even the whole thing about Shaolin Monks. I'm sorry to say but it's a bad joke. Anyone can dress up as a Monk!

I've personally learned more about actual combat within 2 months whilst practicing MMA in the Philippines, then I have in all these years of practicing in China. I have the deepest respect for my Masters but I see their limits. I'd go as far as saying that most of the Masters in China have no combat experience whatsoever. Again not that it's necessary since Martial Arts can be more...

As far as Xu goes, be he a bully or show off, he basically poked a hornets nest. I'm pretty sure eventually he will come out on the short end.

 

[Ah_Tao]

Guy's a dick. I don't see why everyone is going nuts that he's beating up flat-footed martial artists who do not train to fight when many others have been doing it for years. As far as his fighting goes, he's just another fighter who is not doing anything spectacular. Sorry, but beating up some guy who does parlor tricks does not make me go bananas. I'm not going to worship some guy who bullies fools who don't fight. Then when he goes up against a Muay Thai guy he cries that hes going to hard, lmao. Just take up any full contact martial art on the side or find ways to make your style more effective in a combat situation. Aside from that, I'm not going to knock on anybody who takes traditional martial arts at all. Not everybody takes it to go be a badass on the street. I've seen martial arts help people through their cancer journeys, weight loss, overall health, and mental health. 

[laagi]

On 4/10/2020 at 9:47 PM, Ah_Tao said:

Guy's a dick. I don't see why everyone is going nuts that he's beating up flat-footed martial artists who do not train to fight when many others have been doing it for years. As far as his fighting goes, he's just another fighter who is not doing anything spectacular. Sorry, but beating up some guy who does parlor tricks does not make me go bananas. I'm not going to worship some guy who bullies fools who don't fight. Then when he goes up against a Muay Thai guy he cries that hes going to hard, lmao. Just take up any full contact martial art on the side or find ways to make your style more effective in a combat situation. Aside from that, I'm not going to knock on anybody who takes traditional martial arts at all. Not everybody takes it to go be a badass on the street. I've seen martial arts help people through their cancer journeys, weight loss, overall health, and mental health. 

I agree he is a bully. But I'll give him credits for exposing those "fake" Masters. Of course you can argue that they're all just a bunch of geezers but nobody forced them to fight. It was their own delusion who got their asses kicked. And for that I thank the Mad Dog. I wasn't aware of his other bouts with fighting professionals. For what it's worth if that's true, I really can't take him all that serious either.

As for knocking on "traditional" martial arts. I don't have any problem whatsoever with them. I agree everyone regardless of gender, age, physique, religion and so on can find something in Martial Arts. To me that is the real beauty of it! However, I think it's wrong of an instructor, teacher, master or whatever they like to call themselves to give wrong perception of what their Martial Art is or isn't.

In real life that can quickly end up in tragedy... or hopefully just a ass-whooping.

[Ah_Tao]

On 4/18/2020 at 2:13 PM, laagi said:

I agree he is a bully. But I'll give him credits for exposing those "fake" Masters. Of course you can argue that they're all just a bunch of geezers but nobody forced them to fight. It was their own delusion who got their asses kicked. And for that I thank the Mad Dog. I wasn't aware of his other bouts with fighting professionals. For what it's worth if that's true, I really can't take him all that serious either.

As for knocking on "traditional" martial arts. I don't have any problem whatsoever with them. I agree everyone regardless of gender, age, physique, religion and so on can find something in Martial Arts. To me that is the real beauty of it! However, I think it's wrong of an instructor, teacher, master or whatever they like to call themselves to give wrong perception of what their Martial Art is or isn't.

In real life that can quickly end up in tragedy... or hopefully just a ass-whooping.

I agree with that too, but at the same time I've been to schools with damn good teachers and some students train like it's a joke. Then they blame the world for when their playtime turned into a consequence in a real fight. It's a sad world.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

4 hours ago, Ah_Tao said:

I agree with that too, but at the same time I've been to schools with damn good teachers and some students train like it's a joke. Then they blame the world for when their playtime turned into a consequence in a real fight. It's a sad world.

No offense, but there are plenty of "styles" have zero efficacy in the real world. They have been exposed now that we can record them. Some of it is because the weapons are the wrong tool for the wrong time. Knowing some wrist locks is great for a cop to put on someone who is resisting out of pride, but will get you killed in a fist fight with a guy that is a rudimentary boxer. Many of the Kempo techniques were based on a guy just standing there, leaving out his arm- his front arm. No one punches like that in the modern world, they throw a wild right cross and then clinch. On and on. I think a lot of people have been hurt thinking their martial arts would save them, etc. I know I have been at times. The wisdom of some bi polar Hawaii kempo master isn't going to help you with a guy that gets into real fights every other week. It's just not realistic.