I'll admit that I'm only a casual fan of MMA and typically only pay attention to the big names that were in Pride and now the UFC. I'm a boxing fan first, but I'm just a fight fan in general. More recently, however, there have been lot more MMA fights accessible on free television - EliteXC, IFL, some UFC, etc. From watching these I'm beginning to see a similar trend: fighters who's style is described as 'freestyle' are for the most part completely inept. Are these 'freestyle' fighters a result of the recent MMA trend? ie "tough guys" with no formal training who wanted to become fighters after watching TUF on Spike TV? I ask because in boxing, even the absolute novices that you can see on Ballroom Boxing and FNF have at least a basic knowledge of boxing - some of these 'freestyle' guys on MMA telecasts look like they have never thrown a punch in their lives.
A lot of the crap in MMA are not fighters. Many of them just found a way to get on tv after a year of basic training. I'd say you're right, freestyle is just some nice word to describe a fool who knows squat. If you wanna get really catchy, use a word like "Exotics". One guy had a style called "Exotics" and he got beaten into a bloody mess. But his intro clip looked dope! :clap: