I came across JudoMMA.com a while ago and thought it was a neat idea that would help some Judo fans in their endless arguments with Brazilian JiuJitsu and Wrestling fans about who's martial art is better for MMA.

While I think that no matter what background martial art a fighter comes from, his success in MMA is largely dependent on how he adapts his strengths and expertise, how he strengthens his weaknesses and evolves to a more rounded MMA fighter. So I don't believe in fighter's background being a large factor for long term MMA success, at least not for everybody. I believe the ability to adapt and evolve is the key. Be that Judo, BJJ or Wrestling, or TMA's in George St. Pierre's case, the top athletes coming from those sports have a little more aptitude for being more adaptive and hard working on improve the aspect of MMA game they're lacking at.

Back to JudoMMA.com. They compiled some interesting statistics here:

MMA Record of top National and International Judo players: 167-77-4 (67%)

There are more interesting statics on the the site, but the above seems interesting to me because general perception in MMA that Judo isn't good at all for MMA. But this combined record isn't that bad and is actually pretty good.

One fighter to point out with strong Judo background is Fedor Emelianenko. I know many will say "Fedor is a sambo guy, not Judo", but if you even remotely know anything about Judo/Sambo coexistence in Russia you would know that those athletes cross train a lot and Judo is more prestigious as the level of international competition is much higher. Fedor would be more known for his Judo if it wasn't for the fact that Fedor himself said he had problems with corruption in Russian Judo associations/administration and couldn't get to the top top ranks because of that.

Plus, luckily for us fans, Sambo has it's "Combat" version of it's competitions, Judo doesn't, and Fedor was interested in the combat aspect of it. Combat Judo isn't a bad idea, though. In fact, if you ever saw the "jacketed" MMA tournaments, Lumax Cup - Tournament of J, from Japan circa 1995 with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and latest UFC addition from Japan Akihiro Gono, you'd probably enjoy it quite a bit.

If you're planning to argue about Judo's place and impact in MMA, JudoMMA.com could be a nice resource for you