Wow honestly you couldnt sound more biased. First of all name 1 MMA champion with 3-4 fights total..... There isnt one, even Brock has 6 fights. And I'm sure that's who you're referring to because he's the only example you can think of.
Brock Lesnar was 3-1 when he won the UFC HW Title
BJ Penn was 3-0 when he got his first title shot.
Daniel Cormier is 4-0 and holds two titles on the regional scene
3-4 is generally an exaggeration... but 8-12 fights? There's a whole bunch of them.
How can you seriously sit there and say someone with a record of 2-1 or 3-1 has the same amount of skill as someone who's 20-1. That's quite a far fetched statement to make and shows your knowledge of MMA right off the bat.
Joe Warren was 0-0 when he beat the 12-3 Chase Beebe
He was 1-0 when he beat the 17-1-1 (and P4P entrant) Kid
2-1 when he beat the 17-3 Eric Marriot
3-1 when he beat the 13-1-1 Georgi Karakhanyan
4-1 when he beat the 14-0 Patricio Freire
Ben Askren was 5-0 when he beat the 21-3 Dan Hornbuckle
King Mo was 0-0 when he beat the 54-11 Travis Wiuff
6-0 when he beat the 28-2-1 Mousasi
Roger Gracie was 0-0 when he beat the 13-5-2 Ron Waterman (who notably had never been submitted in MMA despite facing top ADCC competitor Ricco x 2 and noted grappler V. Overeem)
Soku was 2-1 when he beat the 12-2 Lil Nog
3-1 when he beat the 13-4 Arona.
Antonio Schembri was 2-0 when he beat the 14-5-2 Saku
PDP was 1-0 when he beat the 8-1 Frank Mir
Bowles was 7-0 when he beat the 37-1 Torres
Houston Alexander was 6-1-1 when he beat the 13-2-1 Keith Jardine
Anderson Silva was 4-1 when he beat the 18-0-2 Mach
Oh... and a 0-0 Ray Mercer destroyed Tim Sylvia...
And that's pretty much off the top of my head (just researching the actual figures)... without mentioning Brock. Again 2-1 to 20-1 may be an exaggeration... but with the way wrestlers are entering and dominating MMA it may not be one for long
First off, boxing has been in the mainstream far longer than MMA. Obviously, there are going to be a much wider variety of talents. It is a sport that has evolved and MMA is still in that process.
I'm not quite sure what the connection is here. Yes boxing became mainstream faster than MMA, despite both starting at roughly the same point... and even if you take modern boxing as it was 30 years after it burst onto the scene it's still far bigger than MMA is now 30 years after its first notable fight. Hell, boxing after only a decade was bigger than MMA is now.
But a sport being mainstream doesn't mean fighters with lesser records should do worse... the opposite really. While the talent pool remains small and fewer gifted athletes enter a sport it's a lot easier for people to build inflated records. The point is only exemplified in MMA where the proliferation of top grapplers and wrestlers in recent times have seen them sweep through what was once seen as top competition... take a look at the list above for example.
Boxing being more complex than MMA is just a plain joke dude. How is it easier to master a SINGLE martial art, than it is to master all of the martial arts?!?! That's just an absurd statement, from an obvious boxing junkie. You would never even be able to master MMA in your lifetime, no matter how hard you trained.
MMA has never been about mastering a single discipline, rather the combination of decent to good skills across multiple disciplines. That's not quite right... MMA has and still to this day is dominated by single stylists who can force their game on others. Even today in the age of people training MMA to begin rather than something else Brock Lesnar still wins basically due to wrestling (and his god given attributes). Shane Carwin's standup technique is terrible... but he is still a top fighter. GSP's pure kickboxing is pretty horrific. Anderson Silva's wrestling has big holes etc etc.
Back to the question though: if you took an average "fighter" (so he has the heart, dedication etc) and trained him for 3 years you could make him a competant boxer, wrestler, grappler and muay thai fighter (at the same time). You couldn't make him the best in the world at any of those things.
Really? It proves nothing? Both fighters are past their prime, and are much older, yes. But this is a PURE boxer, against an MMA fighter. All the shit that boxing has talked over the years should come to fruition.
Outside of fighters trying to sell fights (Mayweather), you'll find most of the shit-talk came from the MMA side of things. No-one held up a "Where's Royce?" sign during Mike Tyson's fights... there were "Where's Tyson?" signs at the early UFCs.
lmao So if randy KO's a boxing legend it means nothing? Sounds like your afraid to admit what it REALLY means. Your saying it doesnt matter solely because you know James is the underdog. So in your minds, if he loses, it doesn't mean anything. When in everyone elses minds, it DOES mean something. It means that a pure boxer who has talked a TON of shit can't back up what he says.
If Randy were to KO Toney it probably would mean something... especially if it was standup and pretty much only punches were thrown. Outside of that, no... at least for a Randy win. If one person has been competing under one rule-set for 13 years and another started training for it a few months back it isn't exactly a shock to the world that the guy used to the rules wins. If I took a rugby player and stuck him in the NFL or a cricket player and put him in MLB or a tennis player and made him play badminton no-one would expect him to dominate a legend of that sport... especially if both were past their prime.
The reason people are doubtful is that we've only recently seen two top level boxers go into MMA and their combined record in 6-0. Jeremy Williams worked his way through a motley bunch of also-rans and never weres for EliteXC (although his rogue's gallery does include one damn good wrestler). But Ray Mercer came into the situation Toney is in now... and smashed one of MMA's greatest ever HW's in a way only 1 other fighter ever managed to.
Let us remember, this is a 0-0 fighter stepping into this ruleset. If a prime Hoost had done the same no-one would expect him to win. It's because of Tim Sylvia and Ray Mercer that this fight has any meaning at all. And let us be clear; if Toney wins with just a few months training than MMA looks like a joke. If he wins with ease it's pretty much its death-knell as a truly top level elite sport. It will still be there... and I'll still watch... due to the spectacle, the concept and the enjoyment a fan can get from it. But I... and everyone else... will be watching it the same way we watch a War Gods or Ultimate Challenge show... comparing it to the higher level orgs and pondering how these fighters... enjoyable as they are to watch... would do if and when they step up to the big leagues.
