Disclaimer: I’m just comparing real MMA with Street Fighter, since this is in a Street Fighter Thread.
But there are a multitude of differences (and some similarities) when comparing MMA/UFC with the fighting game classic Street Fighter.
**1. Dimensions
**
Probably the most glaring difference between real fighting sports vs SF are the dimensions. Street Fighter (excluding the EX series) is solely a 2D fighting game. Where you can wither move forwards, backwards, duck, or jump. But with MMA, you can move in a 3-dimensional area, utilizing the space to your advantage.
**2. Weight classes
**
In MMA sports, they have weight classifications, ranging from Strawweight to Super Heavyweight. And more often, they try to pit fighters that are in similar weight classes against each other. This is because if you put up a really lightweight fighter vs a super heavyweight fighter, even though the lightweight fighter might be faster, the strength and power from the larger fighter clearly gives him a huge advantage. That way, when fighters of the same weight class are put against each other, it often comes down to the individual skills of the fighters.
In SF however, the whole concept of weight classes is thrown out. Take SF’s heaviest fighters: Gill, Birdie, and Hugo. Sometimes, these 3 fighters outweigh the rest of the SF cast by hundreds of pounds in a fight. However, that difference is ignored as any fighter can be matched against anyone, despite the glaring weight difference. Weight doesn’t make much of a difference in teh world of SF, however, it does have a correlation to walk speed, and punching power (lk does in real life)
**3. Fireballs and other “fantastic” moves
**
Simply put, SF has visually stunning moves. The hadokens that we love to spam, the Lighting Legs kicking a fighter helpless, and even stretching your limbs to punch your opponent from the opposite end of the screen. SF gives us fan a multitude of special moves that makes real fighting sports feel lackluster. You aren’t gonna see Connor McGregor throw a shoryuken, knocking a guy ino the air. Also, not to mention the crazy physics defying Spinning Bird Kick from Chun-Li.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DRHU1-SnvM&t=4s
But because SF is a video game. Their world allows us to bend the laws of reality and do the fantastical things like throw fireballs, psycho crushers, etc that you can’t do in a real fight. Plus, it makes watching SF all the more exciting.
**4. Weapons
**
This one is interesting because there are some MMA sports that allow weapony (Kendo, Fencing), however, nothing that would kill intentionally (Vega’s claw, Cody’s pipe/wrench, Rolento’s f*cking grenades). In a regular fight, it’s simply fists v. fists. And any sort of gadgetry, weapons, and tools would be removed.
**5. Ways to win
**
Ways to WIN in MMA
- Knockout
- TKO (where a ref mercifully stops the fight if they see you’re helpless in defenind yourself)
- Submission
- Decision (unanimous/split)
Ways to WIN in SF
The way to win in SF is so much more simpler: Deplete your opponents life bar before he/she depletes yours. And if neither can achieve that before the timer is expired, the one with the most health remaining wins.
There is no “decision” on “who won each round” “who landed a more significant strikes” " who was more aggressive" “who controlled the space”. The one way to determine the victor is with the life bar. It doesn’t matter if you threw more strikes, if you were on the agressive end more than your opponent, etc. If your life bar hit zero, you lost.
Also, there is no submissions, Sometimes, you get locked in a painful armbar (courtesty of Laura or Cammy), and it it on’y does a set numerical value of damage. You can’t wear out one’s limb and force them to submit.
But with MMA, if a fight can be stopped with TKO’s as well as submissions (as well as knockouts), therefore encouraging fighters to be well rounded instead of being the better striker.
And with the “decisions” they factor in a number of things before they decide a winner. But as many MMA fighters will tell you, they absolutely HATE when the fight has to go to a judges decision, because it’s out of their control.
Where as in SF, everything you do in the fight is under your control, and whether you win or loss can only be dictated by you.
**6. Anatomy Realism (Damage + Fatigue)
**
SF is a video game, but let’s be honest, there were some overly violent moments in SF. Back then in the day, there was blood flying everywhere. A fighter can vomit after taking a fierce stomach hit, and even when a fighter was beaten to the point of dizziness/stun, there was no stopping the fight, even though they are helpless to defend themselves.
Balrog’s gigaton blow can kill an elephant. He punches R. Mika in story mode and she shrugs it off (that, or her jaw must be made of f*cking diamond). But in a SF fight, if Balrog were to land that punch on another SF fighter, it would hurt, but the fighters would keep going. If a normal MMA figher were to take Balrog’s punch, they would mean severe injury, possibly even death.
Also, we have to rmemeber that MMA fighters are human. And despite being well conditioned athletes, they are human, and they can tire and fatigue after a long grueling match. In a competitive SF match, fighters don’t get fatigue. Ryu fighting when his life bar is at 100% is still the same Ryu when his life bar is a 1%. Fatigue does not play a factor in SF matches, and it doesn’t deter from their fighting strategy and style.
**7. Athlete v. gamer
**
Before each fight, the MMA athlete would undergo vigorous training of their body. (Strength, conditioning, strikes, grappling, sparring, etc).
Same with SF: To get to where they are now, each fighter has spent years training, honing their martial art, to become the best that they can be.
But the difference between SF and MMA is that while the fighters in MMA are in control of their own bodies, their own mindset, in SF, each fighter is being controled by someone else.
And just to humor everyone, if you put Daigo next to Ryu, you can easily tell which one is more built, and which one is the “REAL ATHLETE” between the two.
But humor aside, from a casual perspective, MMA fighters win because they beat the crap out of someone. In SF, gamers win because they press buttons and move the stick so they can use a fighter to beat the crap out of someone.
Overall
I don’t want to take anything away from McGregor, Nunes, or any of today’s renowned fighters. i highly respect them and believe they are great at what they do. But to be honest, I can’t see any of them go toe to toe against anyone in the SF cast (except maybe Dan). The fictonal element of SF not only gives the SF cast a major advantage, but today’s mma fighter don’t have anything to match it. That being said, and no offense to anyone, but I respect MMA fighters more and consider them to be taken more seriously as “athletes” than the professional SF gamers. But to be honest, i get more excited watching a fighter doing work at his craft than watching a gamer move the stick and press buttons to do a combo.
But that’s not to take anything away from the SF universe. The reason SF is exciting to watch is BECAUSE it is different from the MMA sport. If SF was implemented by MMA rules, it would be so much more restricting and less exciting.
I say, as a fan of both (although I’m more into the casual/single player content than competitive tournament play when it comes to SF), let’s appreciate and respect both have to offer.
