Issue 222
October 2025
Ray Klerck explores how artificial intelligence is stepping onto the mats, testing whether discipline, instinct, and centuries of combat wisdom can survive when the master is made of code.
Be like water. It’s the immortal advice Bruce Lee gifted the world. The thing is, since his time, water has changed. It’s learned a few new tricks thanks to AI, which has seeped into every corner of human skill acquisition. You’d imagine that MMA, with its centuries of discipline and intuition, would be the one area that’s immune to AI’s hungry tentacles. Yet, these two entities are destined to collide, especially when you consider this is already happening across Chinese dojos. Algorithms are being moulded across AI instructors that are starting to analyse, correct, and anticipate fight movements in ways that are turning instincts into measurable data. These results might offer more than better-skilled students. It might redefine what MMA mastery looks like when the master is coded in silicon. And for the first time, a machine might teach what martial artists have spent lifetimes trying to feel. The perfect flow.
COMBAT CODE
Everything starts with movement. However, with AI it's muscle memory measured by a machine. Researchers from Harbin Sport University built an AI-based classroom that used deep learning algorithms to track martial arts students in real time. The software mapped every limb and joint as a constantly changing equation. This means that kicks, stance, and guards became a data point that let the AI predict how a body might move a fraction of a second before it does. If there was a wobble thanks to a misaligned knee, the AI understood it because the person’s skeleton was mapped in 3D space. The software instantly highlighted the mistake and offered visual cues for correction. Over time, the students started to learn how to improve, almost like a game, thanks to the constant feedback. They were told what they could do better and how to fix it in a never-ending feedback loop with some serious results.
STUDENT BECOMES THE SYSTEM
The differences were straight out of The Matrix. After just 4 weeks, the students’ curiosity rose by 20%, participation increased by 25%, and problem-solving improved by around 30%. It’s not quite Neo’s “I know Kung Fu” moment, but it’s a hint that the master-student dynamic may be changing, where there’s no more nod of approval or disapproving look, just a real-time correction that flashed across their screen. It’s easy to see how this approach to training was gamification at its finest. Of course, this is just technique management, not combat, so the dojo is unlikely ever to go digital. But to sanity-check all of this, we can look at Harvard research published last month that conducted a head-to-head test pitting an AI tutor against a human teacher. Sadly, the bot took the belt. Students who learned with AI absorbed twice as much and finished faster. They also said they felt more engaged and motivated. It’s enough to raise an eyebrow because it is a coach who doesn’t get cranky, who won’t ever disappoint you, and who won't ever yell at you to make you better. Perhaps that's the brand of human we want or need as a coach.
THE DIGITAL SENSEI
AI is destined to slither its way into MMA, but its role is likely to be around more intelligent systems that it teaches to fighters. A global survey done last year on the topic mapped how AI is reshaping every corner of combat sports by learning what coaches may miss. It can break down a fighter’s form frame by frame, measure the angles of a roundhouse, score the precision of a punch, and even simulate new techniques before a human tries them. These innovations mean that the same tools that power sports betting models are teaming up with motion-capture animation to create intelligent training systems that evolve with the fighter. And that very same tech is looking for ways to outthink the results before they even play out. A study at the International Symposium on Innovation and Interdisciplinary Applications of Advanced Technologies used machine learning algorithms trained on UFC data to predict fight winners with almost 92% accuracy. It was cold data reading the minute little patterns that can be found in strikes, takedowns, and control times to forecast who gets their hand raised. That’s an unnerving level of precision, and all we can do is hope they never know who wins before the first punch is thrown. It could make the most exciting and seemingly unpredictable sport in the world almost predictable.
THE SMART GYM ERA
AI and MMA aren’t a next-year thing. It’s already got the wraps on and quietly working the pads behind the scenes. Products like bright gloves aim to track punch speed, power, and accuracy so a fighter can get real-time stats. Much of the tech MMA fighters will soon rely on is already in the fitness space, which is leaning into technological advances. Whether it’s AI-enhanced treadmills, wearable sensors, or breathing rhythm monitors, they are all helping athletes to pace their recovery between bursts of pressure. Naturally, coaches are using AI-assisted video reviews to slow the chaos right down to break footage down frame by frame, tagging tendencies that a tired human eye might miss. The next step is predictive fight analysis with virtual sparing simulations against your opponent, which will blur the line between data and discipline. This may mean that fight IQ and game plans become an even more strategic key to victory. MMA has entered the smart gym era, and the sparring partner may be an algorithm that knows you better than you do.
THE AI TRAINING EFFECT
The key to improvement in any sport is feedback. It’s this feedback that we’re likely to see the first advances in the game. A new review in the Journal of Sport and Health Science found that AI is already assuming the role of a trainer, analysing movement patterns, adapting workouts, and predicting performance outcomes. They reviewed 24 studies on the subject and found that AI is well-suited to personalising training plans, tracking fatigue, and correcting technique, with up to 90% accuracy. They’re systems that react to things the way a coach might, doing stuff like flagging a weak spot before it becomes an injury. The fascinating element is how personal this is becoming, where certain prototypes are allowing athletes to upload short training clips of themselves and are then given 3D motion analysis that can pinpoint balance issues or sluggish transitions. We’re most likely going to see the wearable sensors infiltrate this space first to build out a digital profile of a fighter that details how they move, breathe, and recover. This will help create an ever-evolving blueprint for their performance, which will affect their training camp time and duration. Still, while an AI coach might perfect your technique, there are plenty of hyper-successful athletes across all sports with unconventional technique. Just look at Dricus Du Plessis and his surge with a fighting style that’s uniquely his own. And the AI will never understand why you fight and who you do it for, so it’s unlikely to read your hesitation before you throw or sense a confidence dip after a rough round. It will refine your form to textbook levels, but the art of fighting, the human part, will always be in the heart.
THE FINAL CODEX
So do Bruce Lee’s famous words still hold water? Probably more now than ever because while machines aren’t here to steal the soul of MMA, they’re just here to measure it and maybe correct you along the way. It will be hard to respect a digital coach who doesn’t have the cauliflower-eared experience that you need to react when you get punched in the face. It’s their beloved death stare that might make you do an extra ten sprawls to get in their good graces. Learning to train with AI is like the 1980s North Shore movie where a kid learns to surf in an Arizona wave pool, then tries to win a surf contest at Hawaii’s grinding Banzai Pipeline. It’s an excellent script for a movie, but it would never happen in real life. One day, fighters may debate the algorithm updates instead of referee decisions, but no matter how clever the code gets, it will never know the crush of a clean KO. MMA has always been about people. It’s the people who get you there. The people who support you. The people you fight. It’s probably the most human thing we can do, and while AI might make you better, it will never make you a more deadly human.
