Almost impossible to stay undefeated in kickboxing?

[Ballsaque]

So in boxing you obviously see the long long undefeated records, mainly do to the matchmaking and style of building up prospects on a diet of tomato cans and street bums.
In MMA, it's difficult, but you do occasionally see the long undefeated streaks in MMA, but it's often due to just straight physical dominance, or some combination of grappling/wrestling where you can stay relatively safe while getting the W.

Now I'm relatively new to following kickboxing as such, but it seems that it's rare to get those totally unblemished long undefeated streaks. (I could be wrong here, but just generally looking over the greats records, even in their primes there's usually a L or two sprinkled in around the time they where dominant)

How come, you think? A likely scenario is that from what I have scene, kickboxing is much more exchange heavy. Fighters will often just get in there and scrap, throwing everything they have in those short rounds. Much less focus on defense from the matches I have seen, especially as compared to boxing. Bascially the only kickboxer I have seen with this kind of record is Giorgio Petrosyan, who has a great emphasis on defense and jamming the opponents offense up, while getting off his own strikes.

Love both fight styles, but kickboxing is often an all out brawl. Can't understand how it's not more appreciated generally.

 

[AbeRudder]

Tournaments (not as common as they used to be but still), 3 round fights, weird judges decisions, best fighting the best frequently, hectic schedules....are the main factors imo.

 

[Broadcast]

It"s impossible. Not many rounds, many matches...

Good kickboxer means to win 60-70 times and to lose 10-15.

 

[Mafanofe]

almost improssible when you are on the elite level...

on local circuits(like country circuits)it is not that hard,but when these guys step to world level.

Competition was much more bigger in the past,but still almost impossible be undefeated fighting against the elite,especially on LW and HW classes

 

[Hagelslag2]

There are many factors here. Although it has declined a bit in the last years, most kickboxers fight more often than MMAists or boxers. Verhoeven, for example, had 4 fights in 2015, only one in 2014, 5 in 2013 and 6 in 2012. He has defended his Glory belt 4 times in a little over a year. Most UFC fighters fight 2 or 3 times a year and it's common for champs to defend their belt once or twice a year.

Now, in world class tournaments you'll fight 2 or three world class fighters in a row. Injuries, strength of your first (and second) opponent etcetera, make that people will lose no matter how good they are. Imagine a MMA tournament in which #1 ranked Werdum, #3 JDS, #4 Miocic and #8 Hunt fight. This happens all the time in kickboxing and over the span of their careers many kickboxers will compete in several of them.

 

[ChrisH2O]

As most guys previously mentioned, at the elite level its so hard to stay undefeated. There are a lot of factors that can be behind a loss.

- Best fighting the best
- Last minute fights or opponents
- fighting with injuries due to financial stress
- trying out different weight classes
- poor judging (lack of understanding of scoring system)
- off night for the fighter

All of this go to further highlight Giorgio's epic run. I have had 3 amy bouts and already I have 1 loss