Is Bullshido Becoming What It Claims to Expose?

Bullshido has built a reputation for aggressively critiquing martial arts that fall outside the mainstream. In some cases, that scrutiny is warranted. The combat sports world has no shortage of fake masters, staged demonstrations, and claims that collapse the moment they meet pressure, timing, and resistance. Calling out fraud, unsafe training, and predatory marketing is a public service when it is done carefully, with evidence, and with a clear standard of evaluation.

The problem is that a portion of the criticism often relies on shallow inputs and sweeping conclusions. Watching one or two short clips, especially clips selected for entertainment or outrage, is not a substitute for understanding an art’s training method, ruleset, goals, progression, and context. A demonstration clip rarely shows the full ecology of a system, what drills lead to what skills, how resistance is layered in, or what the intended performance domain actually is. Judging an entire discipline from a tiny, curated window is not rigorous analysis; it is content-driven gatekeeping.

If you want a professional standard, the question is not “Does this look silly on the internet?” The question is “What claim is being made, what evidence supports it, and how would we test it?” Part 2: “Have you actually trained for a second in the art that you are critical of?”

Combat sports have already shown what reliable evaluation looks like. Pressure testing, live resistance, measurable outcomes, and repeatability across practitioners and gyms. The more a critique is anchored to verifiable claims and observable training behaviors, the stronger it becomes. The more it leans on vibes, mockery, and cherry-picked clips, the weaker it gets.

So is Bullshido totally bullshido? In other words, are THEY the most telling example of bullshido? Sometimes. A lot more than their massive ego will ever admit. When it exposes fraud with documentation, it is valuable. When it turns unfamiliarity into certainty, it becomes the thing it claims to oppose, confident judgment without adequate evidence. The truth is simpler and sharper. Any site that critiques fighting must be held to the same standard it demands from martial artists: show the work, test the claims, and prove it under scrutiny.