Do UfC fighters drill pure boxing (not just the punches) or is the stance and rule differences in Boxing too big a change for it to be utilized in the cage? Can any of it be put to use?
A lot of shit has been thrown at MMA guys shitty hands, so lets clear the record.
This question can get different answers depending on the fighters we're going to use as an example. Some fighters have been able to implement their boxing in MMA, and some haven't.
You can't really give MMA fighters shit for their lack of boxing technique, they're not boxers... they have to train in submission offense/defense, wrestling, clinching, kickboxing, etc, they don't dedicate their whole day in the gym to using their hands, they have to balance everything out, so you'll never once meet an MMA fighter with boxing level striking, unless they were boxers before hand, and that was, and is, their specialty. And even then, we've seen what happens to kickboxers and boxers who fight in MMA, they can still get knocked out by less than stellar strikers, the whole dynamic of grappling changes the stances, the glove size changes things as well, and the stances go out the window.
In my opinion, boxing only translates well to MMA if you're a slugger/swarmer type of boxer (there are a decent amount of notable exceptions), but if you're going to stay on the outside, and use a lot of bobbing and weaving, even a crappy grappler "turned muay thai fighter" is going to have a lot of success landing leg kicks and knees, and even putting you in a clinch. The thing is, when a fighter goes to a gym, he's not learning "Boxing for MMA" (or Judo for mma as an example) he's just learning pure boxing, the way the trainers know how to teach it. How the fighter or the MMA coach helps implement it to MMA, is completely up to them, and as we can see, some camps do a better job than others at implementing arts into MMA competitions.
The Diaz Brothers are primarily boxers when it comes to their striking art, and they've beat many kickboxers easily, and at the same time, many people who aren't even high level kickboxers have been able to use leg kicks very well against them quite ironically.
On the other hand, we have guys like McGregor who have a boxing background since their youth, but who have been able to translate it to MMA very well, using superior timing, counters, hand speed, etc
I'm not a UFC fighter, but I am an MMA fighter, and I alternate between a boxing gym and a muay thai gym every couple of months to keep my hands sharp for what it's worth, but I don't train boxing for MMA, I just work on my hands, and I translate it my way, to MMA, if it makes sense.
