MMA (Mixed martial arts) is a combat sport which is derived from the skills and techniques used in many other martial arts and most of the martial arts used in MMA generally have a belt grading system.

In MMA, it doesn’t have a belt or ranking system, so you can’t get a black belt in MMA. However, Some martial arts clubs do have their own belt system for MMA, but it is not a recognised standard in any martial arts organisation.

MMA does have championship belts for fighters in competitions, which are in different weight classes. For example a heavyweight or lightweight championship belt. These championship belts are different to a grading belt you will expect to see in a martial arts class, as these championship belts are like a trophy which you need to fight to win or defend it. Read our article ‘MMA championship belts and organisations’ here.

So, unfortunately if you was hoping to find out how to get a black belt in MMA, we are very sorry to disappoint you, but there is no black belt in MMA, for now anyway. However, we will discuss why MMA doesn’t have a belt system and why it could work.

Why doesn’t MMA have a grading syllabus?

MMA hasn’t really been around very long and it’s still relatively new compared to other combat sports or martial arts. Originally MMA was simply a case of different styles of martial artists would come face-to-face to see who had the best fighting discpline. For instance, it would be karate vs Jiu-Jitsu, and neither fighter would be experienced in other martial arts.

Today, MMA has dramatically changed and has become its own style within itself. In the early days of training in MMA, fighters would attend multiple different classes of disciplines in order to merge them together to form their own mixed martial arts style.

Nowadays, MMA fighters can still train in other classes to focus on and improve on certain areas, but now there are solely MMA classes. These MMA classes focus on all the essential training and tuition to create an all-round MMA fighter.

Do you need to be a black belt to compete in MMA?

No. You don’t to have a black belt in any martial art to compete in MMA. For example, both a white belt in Judo or a blue belt in Taekwondo can enter a MMA competition. In fact, you don’t need any belt in a martial arts system to enter a MMA competition.

There are many MMA champions who don’t have any belts. Also, having a black belt in MMA may not be considered as important, as MMA is formed from merging different disciplines, so a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu still may not be as good of an all-round fighter than a fighter who isn’t a black belt. A fighter needs to be able to be skilled at stand up striking, take-downs, grappling and submissions.

Former Muay Thai world champion Kieran Keddle believes MMA doesn’t have the same level of elite fighters compared to Muay Thai or boxing as it currently hasn’t got the best level of amateur MMA pedigree to progress in to the professional circuit. We wrote an article ‘Thaiboxing vs MMA: Which has the more elite fighters?’ here.

MMA has only been going for over 30 years, so there is still plenty of room for improvement that a MMA grading system could be another way in the future to make the sport better.

Final Thoughts

If MMA does get its own grading syllabus in the future it could be a good thing for the sport, as it will standardize certain requirements of tuition and it is a way of monitoring individuals levels of MMA.

READ MORE: What are the levels in kickboxing?

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