Mixed Martial Arts requires the blending of several important factors. These factors can be thought of in two large categories:
1) Striking and 2) Grappling.
Within these two large categories there are several other sub categories; however, the larger and more global aspects must be considered first and last.
That is to say that at the end of the day your striking is going to be more effective if it is a global style rather than some small part of striking (e.g., small crane beak technique is not going to work well for you in comparison to Muay Thai).
Now, how to fight effectively and increase your fighting skills requires using the most global striking art. This happens to be (in the Sport sense) Muay Thai.
Yes, Burmese Boxing also uses the head butt, but, that is now illegal in MMA and is not of consequence in the sport striking. That leaves us looking at using the striking style of Muay Thai as it is the most complete art that translates to the cage or the ring of the MMA world.
The important fact is to use Muay Thai and not kick boxing. The differences are great and very significant. Muay Thai fighters are quite adept at standing (greco) grappling and are actually better than pure greco wrestlers because they also throw strikes while upper body grappling (this is legal in MMA so this means it should be part of the striking training).
A lot of people like to claim that they are Muay Thai fighters or train Muay Thai; however, this is patently not true. There are few real Muay Thai training camps in the World (most are in Thailand) and I can say that the percentage of those gyms around the world that say they train Muay Thai are in fact not training Muay Thai.
It takes a true professional with real world and real ring experience to teach you Muay Thai. What most people try to pass off as Muay Thai is a derived kick boxing style. And kick boxing is not as complete as Muay Thai for MMA.
In Muay Thai you most worry about kicks, punches, knees and elbows, clinch throws, and clinch striking. These are all aspects that are part of MMA.
Kick boxing and boxing are lacking too many aspects to give you a global striking domination in MMA. Here's just one great example from boxing: While you might be great at bobbing and weaving this can easily be defeated with clinch fighting using elbows and knees. Unless you want to be a victim of a brutal knee or elbow knock out you have to get real Muay Thai training incorporated into your MMA training.
Believe me that many are lacking in MMA striking training abilities, and you can exploit this if you do one thing: find your way to getting some real Muay Thai training.
You must find a professional who has "said and done it before". Ths is the only way he is going to be qualified to guide you to new heights in your MMA fighting skills. I wish you luck in getting Muay Thai skills for MMA and injecting a new level to your game.
For more info you can search Christophe Clugston and visit http://www.clugston-fightingmoves/howtofight.html
