The problem with karate as a whole

Nah, the problem with Karate as a whole is that you have a massive number of instructors that have no idea what they're teaching, or they've learned a tournament style and are trying to teach to hand out hundreds of belts for money. Every so often, you have someone go into those McDojos and they get the impression that those frauds are karate instructors.

When you go into a real dojo, you know it. I've been learning Ryukyu kobujutsu, genuine Samurai jujutsu (for use against armored, armed opponents, when you are not armored,) Kenjutsu (niten ichiryu and iaijutsu) Hakutsuri Kempo and Shobayashi Shorinryu karatejutsu. The karate I learn is for use on the battlefield, and therefore, is a martial art. When you're in a martial art, you know it. When you're working with a ruleset, without any type of weapons, you're in a wrestling or -do style of art, like Karate-do, Ju-do, or Kobu-do. MMA is a very good example of a tournament style martial art, as lethal techniques are banned, headbutts are banned, eye gouges, pressure point techniques, so on so forth.

In a true martial art, I'm going to use the appropriate level of force appropriate for a situation. If someone's going to try to break my arm, I'll try to prevent them from getting a lock on, then use a pressure point technique, get them off me and kick them hard enough in the gut to knock their breath out of them. If someone tries to put me in a chokehold, they escalated the engagement, therefore I will use the appropriate level of force.

Karatejutsu is absolutely effective against MMA. My sensei, a seventh dan in my styles, would absolutely destroy someone from an MMA gym if they attacked him in the street--I might not as I'm not nearly that good, but the thing is, if we fought in MMA rules, we'd get disqualified because we would break bones, disable, use pressure points, chin na, and everything that was appropriate to not lose. We would be disqualified in short order...but if an MMA fighter came to our dojo? I've had experience with the MMA fighters around our area, and they were terrible. Now whether they were just shitty MMA fighters, or had shitty instructors, or were shitty in other aspects, I don't know, but I do know that I was holding back and bent a steel cup that was meant to protect the guy's balls.

If you use a tournament style martial art against MMA, the MMA guy will probably win. If you use a traditional martial art against an MMA fighter, the MMA fighter will die. It is that simple. They aren't meant to do the same thing, one is meant to fight in tournaments, the other is meant to be used in a battlefield to keep yourself alive at all costs and has no rules except for "use the appropriate level of force." That means eye gouges, trachea deviations, ripping the flesh if possible, biting, breaking bones, removing jewels, and so forth if it is necessary.

I'm not sure what the point of these fights are, since all they do is either reinforce the idea that an MMA fighter will win against a tournament style of martial arts, or lose by a massive margin against a true martial art. There's a difference between putting a marine marksman up against a tournament skeet shooter, and an MMA fighter up against a martial artist. One has rules that will disqualify him, and the other has rules against using mustard gas.