There is a thread of truth in your assertions...not so much about the UFC, but about knife combat in general. You probably get as much skill as you need in twenty or so hours of training, provided what you are practicing is effective. To a certain extent, knife combat is simply killing your enemy faster than he can kill you. The old rule applies, hand-to-hand combat is about 5% skill and 95% animal ferocity. But I believe there is an element of defense that can increase your chances of survival. You can learn these basic defensive principles fairly quickly, and practicing a couple hours a week will keep them sharp.
There are martial artists who are on a different plane though. I would not want to try to limit what they are capable of to what I am capable of. After all, Royce Gracie beat all those dojo dragons with what? Skill. The skill that was most appropriate to the octagon won. If there were knives in the octogon, all grappling would almost immediately cease, and knife dueling skills would dominate.
All that applies to any knife, or any combat skill, not just to the kerambit. The kerambit is just a knife, and in terms of combat styles, just a fad. Not to say it isn't useful. I am only saying that it isn't anything particulary unique. So if you want to poke fun at the kerambit masters, that's OK with me, but years of practicing effective combat skills cannot be a bad thing, and sparring against resisting opponents can teach you a lot about what is effective without getting killed.
