Could the best fighters have been just as dominant if they had just done MMA?

Say Mayweather had trained in MMA instead of just boxing since he was a kid? Would he be just as dominant?

What about people like Tyson, Ali, Foreman, Lewis etc. Correct me if im wrong but it seems like boxers require more talent. I can imagine Lomachenko just dominating in MMA if he had trained in that from a young age. Think about a 20 year old Tyson who had been trained in MMA since he was a kid? Surely he would wipe out the likes of Lesnar and the rest of the MMA heavyweights?

Or have I got this completely wrong?

 

Of course. Top tier boxers are elite athletes, the best of the best. The level of speed, stamina, power, agility, and endurance required is second to none.

If an elite boxer had made the move to MMA while still young, he'd clean up, and fucking destroy all those C level athletes.

 

The MMA guys don't have the same athleticism of boxers if you ask me

 

Ground and pound brooooooo!!!!

 

Very difficult to tell for sure.

I'd say they would be dominant but not unbeaten, as in MMA there are several ways to lose and one error can be costly since there is no 10 count.

That said, UFC has developed so quickly that a guy who hadis trained from the 90s would have out-dated techniques. Only recently have we seen a generation that has been able to train and devote properly since teenage

 

Or, their sport requires different type of athleticism.

It is very hard to compare since almost all sports are so much more about definitive skillset. Track-and-field is one of the few sports where talent almost alone can take you to the top

 

Yeah but a lot of that has to do with training years and years in boxing. If the same guys had to train in wrestling, jujitsu etc. their striking skills wouldn't be at the same level as if they concentrated on the one skill for the same amount of time.

To answer the thread's original question it just depends on the fighter. Many would have done great and a lot of others would get stomped.

 

Agreed. In Track you're not really competing against anybody but yourself. Sure there are psychological advantages one can try to gain but if somebody is faster or jump higher than you and the competition is based solely on that aspect the guy who can do it better is going to win 99 times out of 100. Your opponents can't do anything to stop you.

A drunk street tough has a better chance of beating Anthony Joshua in a fight than Usain Bolt in a race.

 

You can't prove it's not true.

 

Impossible to say. Different skill sets. No way of telling whether or not a boxer would be good at grappling or kicking if they trained at it.

 

Impossible to tell, just as impossible to tell if a top MMAist would do if they started out in boxing.

 

Sure, but you're talking about skill. Of course it takes many many years to develop the skill, ringcraft, defence that elite boxers have. But pure athleticism is easy to gauge and it's pretty fucking clear that no elite MMA fighters have anywhere near the athleticism of elite boxers. They're slow, they gas out, and they don't have the power and explosiveness of elite boxers.

 

Infinitely better chance I would say.

 

It's a question of Aerobic v Anaerobic output as well as 'skill'.

To say that MMA fighters are sub-par and lower-level athletes is simple trolling from Boxing fans and shows up gaps in one's knowledge about combat sports.

One could easily say, 'MMA fighters don't get pulled away from a clinch or given the advantage of a standing-eight-count or they fight 5 mins instead of 3 mins"

I'd you don't 'get' or understand or hate MMA (or any other martial art) then you'll trash it by way of pure ignorance and old-man-rose-tinted-spectacles.



It's an impossible question to answer.

 

Oh yeah, and the OP?
Complete troll.

 

I just done see any MMA fighters with the kind of athletic ability of boxers. It's a visual thing. Stipe miocic is the champ but he looks slow and pretty one dimensional. Look at werdum when he fought miocic, running into a punch. I think many of them really lack the ring IQ. They are almost Amir Khan level in terms of ring intelligence. I mean look at Aldo leaping in from distance with a wide hook against a southpaw. Jumping right into a straight left hand. I mean you dont see that poor IQ at kid boxing amateur shows.

But on the other hand, Joshua looks pretty robotic and unathletic and he's dominating. I was really referring to the top pound for pounders though like the Floyd's

 

Okay you're not a troll.

 

How many years do you think it'd take Lomachenko to get to say, brown-belt in Brasilian Jiu-Jitsu or condition his shins to deliver debilitating low kicks or develop catch-wrestling ground skills?

Or all of these?

 

There's virtually no NON-combat trained man alive who could beat Josuha in a street fight, unless Joshua was severely compromised.

 

Lucky punch is always possible. Always.

 

But it's possible to beat him with a sneaky well placed kick to the groin followed up by elbows and knees or an uppercut to the nose which sends his nose bone into the brain. But it's impossible for a street guy to beat a trained Usain bolt in a race.

 

What if Bolt pulls a hamstring or slips?

 

Yeah...but injury or mishap is the only way he loses. Whereas a trained professional fighter can still lose without injury or mishap because of the nature of street fighting.

 

So if you take 20 year old Tyson and put some guy off the street against him you think he has a chance? Lmao. They have as much chance as beating bolt. What are they going to catch Tyson with an arm punch? They will be having convulsions on the floor before the even realize they were in a fight.

 

Lol, i think most of the guys that think that a regular guy has a chance against a top hw in a street fight never were in one or saw one. Id say about 90% of normal persons couldnt even ko someone with a free shot. You need some pretty intense training to have even the slightest chance to land a one punch ko on a monster like these guys are.

A regular guy being able to luckily throw a punch that Hs enough power to ko a top hw is as likely as a regulat guy being able to luckily throw a 100 mph speed ball

 

Agreed, the difference is monumental.

I mean jesus, look at the recent Floyd vs McGregory fight. McGregory is an elite pro fighter, an elite striker, and even his punches had absolutely nothing on them compared to a pro boxer, Floyd walked through them like nothing. Then just imagine your average goon who can barely throw a punch, against a guy who is used to taking punches from elite heavyweights who punch about 100 times harder, with speed and accuracy.

 

Only if the guy has a knife or gun, or 100 friends.

 

I've probably seen more MMA than anyone on this site apart from Anthony and TFK. I've been a fan of both since I was a kid. MMA is a lot of fun, in some dry spells of boxing, I've even watched more MMA.

But let's be real, the talent level and ring IQ of many elite MMA fighters is laughable compared to elite boxers. Just not on the same level, at all. Pheonix's examples were good, Aldo and Werdum were champions ffs, not novices on local shows, and they're literally running into punches with their chins in the air like scrubby novices. Even any half decent amateur boxer is more composed and clever in the ring.

Their stamina sucks too, most elite boxers can fight 12 hard rounds, you see elite MMA fighters gassing after 10 minutes of not even particularly hard fighting.

As I said, MMA is a lot of fun, and due to the multi discipline nature of it, it's obvious they're not going to be quite as good as boxers are with their hands in any one area. Especially in today's MMA world, you need to be as well rounded as possible. But still, even just pure talent wise it's very clear they're not on the level of elite boxers. If they were, any of the strikers probably would have got into boxing, with the chance of earning 10x more money.

Well actually, the funny thing is, some of the elite strikers in MMA have tried boxing, they quickly found out they weren't good enough.

BoxRec: Conor McGregor

BoxRec: Donald Cerrone (Cowboy didn't get TKO'd by Floyd, he got TKO'd by a guy who was 0-1, )

BoxRec: Anderson Da Silva

 

I like mma. But the fact that a guy like miocic has a claim to being the most dominant hw ever (bar probably fedor), pretty much proves that the talent level is not all that. Guy was a pretty good talent in wrestling and boxing, but far from a top one