Let me say this to begin with, this is not necessarily just your fault. It is the fault of many Jeet Kune Do practitioners and the entire country. In Jeet Kune Do, we talk about four ranges of fighting: punches, kicks, traps, and grabs. Technically, the fight is between the catch and the grab and it is both at the same time. That is what we call a subsection of a range. Unfortunately, it is an area that has been overlooked by most Jeet Kune Do practitioners and masters alike.
Jeet Kune Do practitioners cheat a lot, which has caused a dilemma. Without realizing it, we have made a hole in our own style, the game of wrestling. Now, in the street this would not be a problem, because street fighting is a bad idea (for reasons that I will not mention in this article). But nonetheless, the basic user of Jeet Kune Do will be ineffective on the fighting field without the right kind of training.
So what happened to our good friend Philippe Nover? He was not sufficiently trained in the field of wrestling due to the focus on cheating or fighting on the ground. Both sides of this game are solid for Philippe, but he still lacks the fighting game he needs to be competitive in MMA. Although he has tremendous power and a very good dirt game, he still cannot be a champion until he fixes this problem.
Philippe Nover will learn more wrestling and dominate his competition in the future, but at the moment, he is not the Ultimate Fighter (yet). So if you go to a Jeet Kune Do school for mma (again, street self defense is something else entirely), you’ll want to find one that teaches standing, on the ground, and wrestling. That way, you will have the best chance of winning.