Best base for MMA imo(boxing)

[uppercuts21]

IMO wrestling is the best base. It seems to me that wrestling is the hardest skill to pick up and excel at it (with the exception of GSP, but he's phenomenal). All these wrestlers are going into mma and are learning striking and subs at a very fast rate(Diego, Kos, Brock, Tito, Hughes, Couture, etc...). The same can't really be said to the same degree about bjj guys and strikers learning wrestling at the same rate.
Plus a wrestler can dictate whether the fight stays standing or hits the ground (which is extremely important in a fight, considering the opponents skills).

None of those guys are good strikers though.

I do however agree that wrestling is the best base for MMA. Alot of people say BJJ but in my opinion it doesnt compare to wrestling. I'd rather teach a wrestler BJJ than teach a BJJ guy wrestling. Some of the best BJJ practitioners in MMA cant even take the fight to the ground because they lack takedowns. Guys like Crane, Palhares (fought Henderson I know) who couldnt get their man down and ended up being forced into a standup battle despite having no striking ability. I dont think there is anything more frustrating than being a ground fighter and not being able to take your man down. Because you're pretty much forced to take a beating. lol.

If anybody doubts the importance of wrestling they must not have been paying attention to MMA the past few years. Kos, Lesnar, GSP, Fitch, Sherk, Guida, Edgar are all guys who rely heavily on their wrestling to win fights. And with the exception of a couple of these fighters all of them have been able to progress through the ranks despite being one-dimensional.

 

[symphonyx547**]

None of those guys are good strikers though.

I do however agree that wrestling is the best base for MMA. Alot of people say BJJ but in my opinion it doesnt compare to wrestling. I'd rather teach a wrestler BJJ than teach a BJJ guy wrestling. Some of the best BJJ practitioners in MMA cant even take the fight to the ground because they lack takedowns. Guys like Crane, Palhares (fought Henderson I know) who couldnt get their man down and ended up being forced into a standup battle despite having no striking ability. I dont think there is anything more frustrating than being a ground fighter and not being able to take your man down. Because you're pretty much forced to take a beating. lol.

If anybody doubts the importance of wrestling they must not have been paying attention to MMA the past few years. Kos, Lesnar, GSP, Fitch, Sherk, Guida, Edgar are all guys who rely heavily on their wrestling to win fights. And with the exception of a couple of these fighters all of them have been able to progress through the ranks despite being one-dimensional.

Yeah lol those guys i agree are not good strikers. IF any some of those guys are examples how hard it is to develop stirking. Hughes, couture have been training stand up and hughes stand up is garbage and Couture is decent

 

[symphonyx547**]

No you can't and to think you can is just plain foolish.

It's been done before and can be done even better with top level boxers that competely deadicate themself to grappling instead of some guys that are half assing it like Hunt. You can't teach athletism, sure you can work on it a bit. IF your a great athlete you can learn grappling with the right amount of time put in. There's alot too grappling, but it's far from rocket science. Natural athletism+ Time+fast learner= someone that will become a great grappler

 

[symphonyx547**]

Let's put it this way...what if the guy who started his base with boxing fights a guy with a good chin, and can't finish him? In BJJ you don't need to worry about that, because you just try to submit him. There's no "natural" defense to the proven methods of jiu-jitsu. Plain and simple. Any random schmoe can have a good chin, and land a good enough shot to KO you; however, there's no luck in getting a submission, and no "natural" advantage you can have that stops you from the blood getting cut off to your brain when caught in a submission like a triangle choke.

Also, grappling is much harder to get good at than boxing. Yes this is a matter of opinion, but I'll take the expert opinions of the many great strikers I have met in my time that ALL wish they would have started doing BJJ earlier.

I've done years of Wrestling, BJJ, Boxing, muay thai and i can say that developing boxing/ stand up is much harder the developing BJJ. The thing about boxing is it's very simple in terms of techniques, but you can never truely master even those techniques. BJJ on the the other hand has alot more techniques but much easier to become good at a given technique. I think it's becasue humans are naturally more grapplers then stikers. Listen to Mir talk about it, ge describes it very well

Another thing i'd like to add is that anyone can learn fighting techniques(of course at different speeds) but how many girls out there are true warriors. That something that is rare and something you have to be at the upperlevels of striking

 

[FyouKantCme]

i started off boxing and i can say it was difficult at first. then i added thai and thought it was some what more difficult but not hard. bjj i found to be extremely difficult. there's just nothing like it. wrestling is the most physically challenging out of all of them, though it is pretty close with boxing.

 

[livingdeadmoose]

I think without a doubt it would be Boxing or other striking arts if i were to pick any single style to start with. The reason why i pick that isn't becasue a boxer by itself would beat a wrestler or BJJer becasue they wouldn't. It's the fact that they have something that you can't teach most people and that's being a fighter and having a fighters heart. This is something i see lacking with so many top grapplers i see coming into MMA and other grapplers in mma. Is this to say that all grapplers don't have heart of course not, but it's impossible to make it to the elite level in boxing without at least a very soild heart. Another thing that gets weeded out in boxing is weak chins. you can make it all the way to the upper levels in the UFC before you truely get your chin tested if your a soild fighter. I think think of many top level fighters in MMA that are either scared to get hit or have weak chins.


The thing is No top boxer would ever want to come to MMA becasue they get paid 10-100 times more to box. Of course as mma grows and boxing dies off we'll see more true fighters in mma

You obviously havn't seen the old UFCs. Do yourself a favor. Go rent the first four UFCs and tell me how many boxers won and how many grapplers won.

 

[symphonyx547**]

You obviously havn't seen the old UFCs. Do yourself a favor. Go rent the first four UFCs and tell me how many boxers won and how many grapplers won.

If you read my post you'd see that i said of course a pure grappler would beat a pure striker. You have to develop a somewhat well rouned game to be good in MMA no matter if your base is striking or grappling. A world class striker on average has more eliments of what makes up a great fighter then a grappler. A stiker doesn't have to turn into a world class wrestler or world class BJJ to be effective, they jjust have lean take down defense, sub defense and getting up off the ground. Look how quickCro Cop got to the top of MMA with no grappling background

 

[symphonyx547**]

i started off boxing and i can say it was difficult at first. then i added thai and thought it was some what more difficult but not hard. bjj i found to be extremely difficult. there's just nothing like it. wrestling is the most physically challenging out of all of them, though it is pretty close with boxing.

It's easy to learn the basics of boxing, it takes forever to develop them.

 

[symphonyx547**]

The bottom line is most people can't handle getting hit in the face. Every top boxer is used to this. You can be the greatest grappler on the planet, but if you can't either take a punch or fall apart when getting hit you'll never become a top fighter. For every top grappler like Nog who has the heart of a lion and soild chin i can name other great grapplers that fall apart when getting hit(Vinnie, lutter, Hughes)

So i don't really care which skills are harder to learn striking or grappling i know to be a great fighter in MMA or Boxing/ Kickboxing you must have a good chin and heart. Vinnie for example has top notch grappling, decent stand up, good athletism, but he'll never be a champ becaseu he doesn't have the heart of a champion

 

[Machete Juarez]

come on. the styles again?

 

[Corey Roberts]

come on. the styles again?

Yeah i know, fuck arguing about bases. The main ATRIBUTE to a succesful MMA fighter is adaptability. The adaptability to learn all styles to become succesful.

 

[Machete Juarez]

Yeah i know, fuck arguing about bases. The main ATRIBUTE to a succesful MMA fighter is adaptability. The adaptability to learn all styles to become succesful.

it's a real shame that bruce lee, the inspiration of mixed martial arts, died believing in "no style as style," while posters in sherdog argue which "style" is better.

 

[FyouKantCme]

it's a real shame that bruce lee, the inspiration of mixed martial arts, died believing in "no style as style," while posters in sherdog argue which "style" is better.

that is ironic seeing that there wouldn't be any ufc or mma if it wasn't for the long going debate about which style is the best.

 

[CarlosMaeda]

I think its Muay Thai, thats what I started in and I adapted really well into grappling arts (I went to Severn's for 3 years) On the other hand all the pure wrestlers that I try to teach striking too, really have a problem learning it.(Footwork and hand positioning seem to be the biggest problems) Dont get me wrong they overcome but it seems to take longer than strikers adapting to grappling

Yo, if you went to Severn's, dog, you wouldn't be havin to tell everyone about it. Get back to video games.

 

[churro]

Floyd Fights at 147 and fought below that most of his career, so there's no one in the UFC that is that light. I'd say that within a year of training he'd have a better chance of beating Urijah MMA then vice versa

Beat Urijah after a year? You must have gotten a lump of crack rock in your stocking this year. Urijah's wrestling is barely handled by guys who have been on the mat for their entire lives.

 

[stu3ufc**]

The main Issue i have is all the threads talking about Wrestling being the best base and i think that's crazy. In MMA you have to be good on the ground and on the feet neither of which wrestling is good at without other styles added in. Can you imagine a top notch stirker with top notch subs? you would never need wrestling. Similar to Miguel Tores

i agree!! matt hughes is stupid....... i think either 3 would be good to start of with alone for like 3 years or something--but after that you need to cross train