Derrick Lewis: mma is easier than boxing

Currently hes right. In the future that wont be the case.

mma is a baby sport compared to boxing, In terms of how long It's been around.

MMA is still pretty rough around the edges when It comes to the level of talent and athleticism relative to other long established sports.
 
His reasoning is flawed. Grappling involved combat is more fatiguing than purely boxing. Those rests, if taken, are because they are more needed. I guarantee he could straight box more rounds than periods he could straight wrestle before gassing.
 
Maybe for MMA heavyweights who are always 2 wins away from a title fight.
 
Bumblebeef said:
i dont think boxing is harder. its much harder to stay in mma undefeaded and make 50 fights than in boxing. in boxing u can make much much more fights not in mma. and u say boxing is harder ? come on.
and the transition from stand up to ground is much harder in fighting than the single dimension of boxing with the big gloves.
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its a little more complicated of a comparison
 
BearGrounds said:
His reasoning is flawed. Grappling involved combat is more fatiguing than purely boxing. Those rests, if taken, are because they are more needed. I guarantee he could straight box more rounds than periods he could straight wrestle before gassing.
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you're both right
 
I don't see how anyone can even consider arguing against this. I love MMA as much as the next guy here, but let's be real, a bunch of roided up berserkers have done very well in MMA in the past with very little technique, by just brawling like it's a street fight. Many of these 'I block punches with my face and then hit you back' guys are MMA legends.

In boxing a brawler, no matter how athletic, will have very little success. It's a much, much harder sport to succeed at the highest level in. Both because the technical and athletic requirements are higher, but because there is more competition. Some weight classes in MMA are laughably shallow. Even now we have a number of very highly ranked MMA fighters, even champs, who failed miserably in boxing. Not to mention the sad fact that a part time fighter is the heavy weight champ currently, and some barista fought *Daniel Cormier not so long ago.
 
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It solely depends on the sport, boxing is pretty unnatural, you have to comfortable with being hit all the time, to stay in the pocket and trade and slip punches, that takes a very special type of skill to be able to do that.

The same thing with Greco Roman Wrestling, people who never defended a gut wrench from a high level wrestler don't know how painful it is, how much you have to resist while at the same time keep your hips in the perfect position.
 
I think its harder to be elite when you have such limited options. Wheen everyone is doing the same thing you have to have something that gives you an edge, speed, reach, ko power, reflexes, whatever. Where in MMA you have a lot more options so even if you are bad in one area, you can be slightly better in another. It's impossible for everyone to be great in every area of mma so there's always a weakness you could potentially exploit. Where in boxing people are going to be good everywhere so you have to what they're doing better.

They're both difficult in different ways but I'd say to truly excel at boxing is rarer.
 
Most somewhat sucessful boxers have been training since they were children (there are very rare exceptions of course), while plenty of top MMA fighters have started training only in their adulthood. The reason for that is probably diminishing returns-It takes a lot more time to develop top notch boxing vs becoming a jack of all trades.
 
WildWestWhoopAss said:
Derrick Lewis on UFC Unfiltered podcast says he chose mma over boxing because mma is easier.

He believes the grappling aspect gives "resting" phases not allowed in boxing. So one does not need to train as hard as boxers do.

Do you believe he is on to something?
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There's an interview with CroCop on YouTube in which he almost exactly the same: he says that his MMA fights were much easier that his kickboxing fights for the same reason that BlackBeastInHeHo says.
And yes, wrestling is tiring as shit but not as bad as being punched in the face all the time.
 
He is a HW.... Talent pool for MMA is not that deep, specially at the heavy end so it makes a lot of sense, now that wrestling gives resting? I could see that, but would not be that sure, i have seen Bobby Lashley gassed as fuck lay on top of a smaller guy to catch a break, but that doesnt always apply.
 
You have to fight your way through a much bigger talent pool than anything MMA has to offer just to win honors as a junior in amateur boxing. Then after that you move onto the seniors where you've got novice, intermediate and open/elite class. And these are some deep, deep shark infested waters which all come before you even get to the pro ranks.

If you think the level of competition and talent on display in MMA is any way comparable to boxing (or soccer, football, basketball, tennis, athletics for that matter) then you are simply wrong. Other sports, with boxing being one of them, still have much better athletes, far more of them which makes it much harder to get to the top than than it is in MMA. Which is what I imagine Derrik Lewis means when he says MMA is easier.

I know a lot of you guys don't like to admit this, but it's just the truth.
 
If you are a big old heavyweight

Then yeah
 
FlyThaiMMA said:
Set up Jose Aldo vs Floyd Mayweather for MMA and lets see the A class athlete in Floyd outclass the D level athlete in Jose Aldo lol
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Floyd would be FW champ in mma within 6 months of training take down defense. Jose also wouldn't sniff boxing gold if he went back in time 5 years and trained it everyday for 10
 
Yea
WildWestWhoopAss said:
Derrick Lewis on UFC Unfiltered podcast says he chose mma over boxing because mma is easier.

He believes the grappling aspect gives "resting" phases not allowed in boxing. So one does not need to train as hard as boxers do.

Do you believe he is on to something?
Click to expand...
Only in the HW division. In theory it is the exact opposite, grappling is more constant and tiring while striking (boxing) affords moments of rest especially clinching. but BB obviously has the grappling chops to make a call like this.....
 
Jkaylor said:
Floyd would be FW champ in mma within 6 months of training take down defense. Jose also wouldn't sniff boxing gold if he went back in time 5 years and trained it everyday for 10
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A high level grappler can convert to a striker that quick but it's not going to happen vice versa sorry
 
Jkaylor said:
Floyd would be FW champ in mma within 6 months of training take down defense. Jose also wouldn't sniff boxing gold if he went back in time 5 years and trained it everyday for 10
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Jose Aldo would kick Floyd once in the leg and he would be done lol
 
Daishi said:
I don't see how anyone can even consider arguing against this. I love MMA as much as the next guy here, but let's be real, a bunch of roided up berserkers have done very well in MMA in the past with very little technique, by just brawling like it's a street fight. Many of these 'I block punches with my face and then hit you back' guys are MMA legends.

In boxing a brawler, no matter how athletic, will have very little success. It's a much, much harder sport to succeed at the highest level in. Both because the technical and athletic requirements are higher, but because there is more competition. Some weight classes in MMA are laughably shallow. Even now we have a number of very highly ranked MMA fighters, even champs, who failed miserably in boxing. Not to mention the sad fact that a part time fighter is the heavy weight champ currently, and some barista fought *Daniel Cormier not so long ago.
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The wrestling credentials of both the part time fighter or the barista far overshadow the credentials of any boxer in the UFC and their wrestling credentials have taken them farther than good boxing ever would.
 
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