It has been brought to my attention that some private police and military training companies state that the skills needed to compete in a cage fight, better known as Ultimate Fighting, have no place in the police or military world.   They make several uneducated statements and claims I feel compelled to discuss, which leads me to writing this article. The fact I have gained immense knowledge from others in both the fighting world and the police world over many years has led me to find this an easy subject to debate.  I become frustrated when reading certain articles that disrespect the fact that officers are learning these skills to help them survive the attack they hope will never happen. We must address the motives behind articles of this type. I have always been a believer that every system has something to offer, however small that something might be. This is the true essence of Mixed Martial Arts fighting. When an individual writes an article of this nature I feel a sense of fear and lack of being open minded on their part. Perhaps more likely is they feel a little threatened as far as loss of business.  They also do not understand the years of experience and development that goes into bringing these two worlds (police training and ultimate fighting) together to save lives. After all, are we not in this to gain knowledge that will save lives? And the people who have truly done their homework in the two fields have come to an understanding of the mixed martial arts material that is appropriate and applicable to police work.  As in the martial arts world, many traditional martial artists make ludicrous claims stating that they do not compete in ultimate fighting because they would kill someone with their one strike, one kill techniques. The other one I hear is that we are not martial artists. I find that hard to believe when I have black belts in Karate, two forms of Jiu-Jitsu, held a title in Muay-thai kickboxing, wrestled for 20 years, was unbeaten in pro boxing and held the world title in ultimate fighting for 3 1/2 years. I have also been either lucky enough or good enough to train more pay-per-view and world champion fighters than anyone else in the game.  The previous statements about myself are not an attempt to toot my own horn, but rather to make a point. I do understand how to handle a human body. I did not, however, understand police use of force rules, lack of budgets and time for training officers, and the unfortunate lack of enthusiasm by many officers to train enough to save their own skin in a tight spot.  My experience in training police and military has had a few mentors to which I paid very close attention. Although I have had many advise me, I have focused on learning from three men. Mark Hanssen is the first I will mention, as Mark and I have been steadfast friends for many years. Mark started me in the training world when he would bring me in to help train officers in our home state of Iowa. Mark is also a very accomplished martial artist who was ranked in the top ten heavy weights in the world of ultimate fighting. He would correct me if I mistepped in teaching incorrectly in relation to use of force rules police had to follow.  The next two are Don Roberts and Tony Grano of the Controlled F.O.R.C.E. police training company. I was contacted 3 years ago by Tony Grano who asked if I was interested in training police and military. I informed Tony that I had been doing some training but on a volunteer basis for several years. I was interested in seeing how Tony and Don structured their training as I had seen several systems for police applications that did not seem effective for the most part.
	Pat Miletich (center) with Tony Grano (left center) and Don Roberts (right center) at USMC Martial Arts Center for Excellence in Quantico, VA
I soon found out that the Controlled F.O.R.C.E. system made sense to me because they understood the fact that all techniques will fail at some time or another. The 5 M.A.C.H. holds were designed to teach officers how to move, grab, let go, and grab again which many officers in the middle of an altercation have a problem doing. The M.A.C.H. system is also used as a vehicle for teaching officers how to move correctly.    They explained that they wanted to tap into some of my knowledge in the fighting world to help officers learn how to move correctly when under stress in encounters with street savvy subjects as well as passive resisters.  The following are some of the misconceptions I see taking place in the police and military training world towards mixed martial arts being taught in the police and military world.   They assume the following things when attacking our way of thinking and teaching:  1)     All involved in the ultimate fighting game are teaching police and military to perform double leg takedowns and use submission holds.      ANSWER: This could not be further from the truth. After years of experience I have learned officers must be taught the fundamental basics of movement and control to survive an encounter with a passive resister and beyond. To teach officers double leg takedowns and submission holds does not apply to their line of work and is offending my intelligence to say I would even teach this to officers.   2)     Ultimate fighting techniques are not useful in the police world because of use of force rules now implemented in law enforcement    ANSWER: Quite the opposite is true. The fundamentals of controlling a subject taught in ultimate fighting are without a doubt the best we have available to us in the history of combat at whatever level. The ultimate fight is simply a proving ground for these techniques. By using this arena we quickly find out what works and what does not work. These techniques can be used to gain compliance of a passive resister without injury and can be escalated as needed if the subject escalates in level of force.   3)     The skills needed in a cage fight cannot be used to defend oneself against multiple attackers.    ANSWER:  Wrong!!  The fundamentals of cage fighting can easily be used to survive multiple attackers. Don’t assume that I would take a fight on the street to the ground against even one opponent. And yes, I have been attacked by multiple attackers and things worked out quite nicely.   4)     It would be easy to stick the barrel of my gun down the throat of a skilled fighter if he were to attack you.     ANSWER:  Who are you kidding? You think that people announce when they are going to attack a police officer. When officers are attacked they are always surprised and very seldom ready to react. Don’t mislead officers by saying you would almost always win the fight because you are in possession of a firearm.   Imagine a highly trained fighter attacking you when you’re not ready. He throws you on your head and begins to pound you in the face. You’re saying you would, while being punched in the face, remove your hand from protecting your head, reach down and pull out your gun and shove it down the fighter’s throat. Not likely.   If you had been trained how to first stop the takedown, then defend yourself on the ground and escape back to your feet, you would then be able to pull your weapon and take care of business. I don't know about you but I would rather understand how to survive the fight first and depend on the weapon as a last case scenario.  Officers who are trained in the ultimate fighting techniques are much more confident and less likely to panic under a stressful situation. Using common sense on how to stay relaxed in a verbal confrontation and the skills of controlling subjects used in ultimate fighting helps save lives. This is our main goal right?
	Pat Miltetich is a Controlled F.O.R.C.E. Master Instructor specializing in Advanced Survival Tactics and Military Support and Stability Training. Mr. Miletich as also a former UFC World Champion and has over 10 years experience in training police and military personnel.