Just to put their boxing skills in perspective if the top ufc fighters started professional boxing careers tomorrow. Not talking about fighting nothing but bums ala butterbean or that danish fellow. I'm talking a legit career where bums are okay at first but then they step up and all that.. So if they did that what would you say their professional records look like? Guys like Lesnar,Carwin,Mir, Gsp. Fedor and so on..w.e you pick the fighters
I think there are MMA fighters that could have been decent boxers if that's were they dedicated themselves early on. Guys like BJ Penn obviously have some natural ability when it comes to boxing and who knows how good he could have been if that's what he concentrated his efforts instead of BJJ early on. I've always wondered that about Rampage Jackson. He has some of the most natural punches in MMA. Who know how good he might have been if he'd have taken up boxing when he started wrestling in high school. The question is obviously as loaded as me going to the general forum and asking how good boxers like Floyd and Manny would be in BJJ or Greco-Roman wrestling. Nevertheless, they are great athletes in the MMA world and certainly a few could have been successful boxers.
agreed, that's why i posted it in the taaa section, not in the mma forum, where it would be about as relevant as this thread.
My bad. Regardless, he is a better fighter now so I assume the same for boxing. He hadn't even started MMA when he fought first.
Better question is what did he do after his first two fights? One of them quit, the other went on to have a record number of title defenses.
Silva didn't quit. :: He boxed probably just for something to do....MANY MMA fighters have boxed on occassion, Even the grapplers.
I think Trplsec got what BOSS was trying to get out of this thread. I have thought about Rampage similarly. He has a very natural punching style. It is kind of one of those "could've, would've" questions. Like Trplsec said, Penn is so naturally gifted who knows how good he could have been if he put all his time and energy into boxing like he did with BJJ/MMA at an early age. Anderson Silva is a excellent counter puncher. But realistically, his balance is way off for boxing. And for the record, Ruiz would've given Randy problems in the Greco Roman Clinch:hammert:
I wouldn't want to see Silva box anyway. Why would I want to see an elite 8 point fighter limited to boxing?