Over the years, I've played fighting games, such as Street Fighter, Tekken, and Dead or Alive, and enjoyed them, but with the recent rise in popularity of the sport of mixed martial arts and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, I realized that all of these fighting games are basically fictional fantasy versions of the UFC. I think the violence in the UFC is extremely ugly, nasty, disgusting, and uncivilized, but at the same time, I like the fantasy action of the fighting games because it's not real. Magical projectiles, juggle combos, and air combos don't exist in real life, and fights take place in outdoor environments, which sometimes span multiple tiers and areas. In my opinion, Street Fighter shouldn't be called Street Fighter because it looks absolutely nothing like an actual street fight. The tournament within the Street Fighter universe is named the World Warrior tournament, because it invites fighters from around the world to fight, so I think that should have been the title of the series. Tekken means "iron fist" in Japanese, and the tournament in the Tekken universe is called the King of Iron Fist tournament. The tournament in the Dead or Alive universe is called the Dead or Alive tournament, although no one actually dies in the tournament itself. Also, the characters don't look anything like real life UFC fighters, who just wear shorts and a pair of fingerless gloves, and in the case of females, a bra, or an occasional shirt. In the Dead or Alive series, the female characters also tend to have oversized breasts, which is impossible in real life without implants. And in all three game franchises, there are no submissions like there are in the UFC; every fight ends with a knockout.
As much as I hate the UFC, I can't help but wonder how those fighters would fare against fictional fantasy fighting game characters. For instance, in the Street Fighter universe, Chun-Li is said to be "the strongest woman in the world," but how would she fare against the UFC's Ronda Rousey? Now, in another topic, I may have said that she was creepy and scary, but at the same time, I would like to see a fictional clone of her in a fictional fantasy fighting game. How would her fighting style translate into the Street Fighter, Tekken, or Dead or Alive universes? Tecmo and Team Ninja, the companies behind Dead or Alive, created Mila in Dead or Alive 5, who was clearly influenced by MMA, but I would like them to take it a step further and have them create a fictional Ronda Rousey clone in Dead or Alive 6, and perhaps Namco and Capcom can also create fictional Ronda Rousey clones in Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V, respectively, as well.