I had the opportunity to view this video on the Human Weapon vs Ninjutsu and have to say, it was a big disappointment however, I expected it to be prior to watching it. I never did liked the show in the first place or other shows like it. These guys are not real Martial Artists, only tournament fighters, there is a big difference between the two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uUeHEqDe40

To even have considered a match between MMA fighters and Ninjutsu is absurd to say the least, but I can see how it could be some good publicity for Bujinkan or perhaps it might discourage the sport enthusiast from training given the nature of such demonstrations. There's always Kyojitsu behind everything Hatsumi Sensei does, so I never question why.

It was still fun to watch in the sense of what not to do :)> I would have used real wooden bokken or metal training swords, MMA fighters can handle the realism, can't they ?

For me, it's not so much the notion of wanting to display the differences as it was putting on a good demo. In this case it was not a good demonstration of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. If we want MMA fighters to appreciate our art, we should give them the real deal and it must be demonstrated by practitioners who reallly know how to deiliver it.

The first Demo wasn't bad, although it was more conservative and lacked Shinken Gata, in a real fight it would have been very different. We could always pretend, he was just being careful not to injure the MMA fighter. The second Demo was a joke, it too lacked Shinken Gata, more importantly it looked more like a Karate Tournament then Budo Taijutsu.

It always amazes me when high ranking students (foreigners mostly) put on a demonstration and instead of Budo Taijutsu, they resort to rigid fighting techniques. I think somewhere in the video, it said these MMA fighters would be up against two of the toughest Bujinkan fighters. I can tell you with certainty, they are not Bujinkan's toughest fighters, far from it.

I remember one demonstration in particular at the Honbu Dojo, for some TV station, The foreigners who were demonstrating in my humble opinion gave a bad impression of Budo Taijutsu, you couldn't even call it Taijutsu. I can understand being under a camera people get nervous, but this is our Art they are representing. In a real fight, a master student's first instinct should be zero, natural.

Nagato Sensei on the other hand ( a Japan shihan ), who also was in the demo, executed pefect Taijutsu, it was amazing to watch and Budo Taijutsu all the way, very nice. If you want to see good Taijutsu watch Japanese Shihan and of course Hatsumi Sensei.

Sometimes, we may all wonder why Hatsumi Sensei allows such Demonstrations to take place, especially when he has stated on many occasions that we have enough students in the Bujinkan and we really don't need any more.

I think it's important to understand the Kyojitsu behind all this, on one hand, we want more good students training in the Bujinkan and on the other hand we have more than enough and would think to discourage too many, especially tourists.

Since most people today only have exposure to Sport Martial Arts, seems only natural to approach this arena in order to attract students, after all, many of us had our start in sport Martial Arts and typically, it's the MMA fighter who will find their way to Bujinkan training. The most important thing to remember though, is to never demonstrate sport vs sport, instead we should show them our Bujinkan Marital Arts the way it was intended.

I can not say I approve of comparing MMA or any other sport to Ninjutsu but, I understand the reasoning behind it and it's all good.