Derrick Lewis: mma is easier than boxing

[Bumblebeef]

its a little more complicated of a comparison

mma is alone from the physical standpoint harder. in mma u have smaller gloves u can take ellbows u need to deal with grappling and submission, also with harder strikes from stand up.

mayweathers defense would not work in mma because he uses the big gloves for defense.

i dont think boxing is harder, because boxing is much more limited compared to mma. u cannot make 12 rounds in mma and most mma fighters are done after 30 fights.

 

[ArtOfDrowning]

mma is alone from the physical standpoint harder. in mma u have smaller gloves u can take ellbows u need to deal with grappling and submission, also with harder strikes from stand up.

mayweathers defense would not work in mma because he uses the big gloves for defense.

i dont think boxing is harder, because boxing is much more limited compared to mma. u cannot make 12 rounds in mma and most mma fighters are done after 30 fights.

I would like to see boxer level change and shoot for 5 double leg TDs in a row.

Their skinny legs would be dead after 5 minutes of wrestling. And they still wouldn't get you down.

 

[Xaero]

Boxing is definitely harder.

The HW champion is a part time fire fighter.
Previous HW champs were engineers and pro-wrestlers.

You can't be a Boxing Champ by having a part time job.

 

[Bumblebeef]

I would like to see boxer level change and shoot for 5 double leg TDs in a row.

Their skinny legs would be dead after 5 minutes of wrestling. And they still wouldn't get you down.

think about this.
in mma they have much more different type of contenders and styles they need to face, the spectrum is much much wider. wich makes much harder to get a win streak. u have much more specialist in different type of fighting and they need to learn how they deal with. a boxer doesnt need to deal with leg kicks or takedowns.

u dont have this in boxing. the preperation in high level mma is much harder. it is much more different when someone faces damian maya in one fight, afer that nick diaz. u dont have this difference in type of fighting in boxing.

so mma is much harder than boxing, because boxing is limited and physical pleasant.

 

[BjPenn2017]

Probably depends alot on the fighter too. Some fighters are adept to striking, some to grappling. It's a rare occasion you get someone who is truly elite in both skills, and when you do you get a fighter like Jon Jones or GSP.

 

[Bumblebeef]

when boxing is harder than mma than one arm boxing should be the most difficult sport in the world. lol

 

[JayE]

As in who?

And it really is more difficult to keep a dude down all the time struggling with all his muscles with all your muscles instead of jabbing him. Kicks will tire you more. And a traditional BJJ match is tiring but it isn't wrestling tiring.

Mark Coleman, Mo Lawal, Johny Hendricks (at points in his career, anyway), Kevin Randleman, and Alexis Vila come to mind. All were exceptional amateur wrestlers and had their struggles with cardio in MMA. Romero is probably the best wrestler to ever really take the sport seriously and while people are wrong when they say he has poor cardio, he's a fighter who very much fights in spurts, and he has gassed in the past when he was unable to control the pace (against Kennedy in the 2nd round). Of course, he had enough left to explode once more and stop Kennedy in the 3rd.

Now, a fair amount of wrestlers with strong credentials have very good cardio, but so do tons of fighters who either wrestled at a low level or didn't wrestle competitively, at all.

 

[JayE]

when boxing is harder than mma than one arm boxing should be the most difficult sport in the world. lol

... What?

 

[djason1988]

Eh, I could see both sides of the argument. Boxing relies very heavily on athleticism and reaction time, whereas MMA, with several more elements and thus gameplans available, is more the thinking man's game.

 

[cheesus]

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.

Yeah but it's also much easier to cause upsets, you have to go crushing cans, gatekeepers and regional level journeymen in boxing to even get a shot at a boxing title. In mma, if you go 10 fights or so without losing without really ever beating anybody, you should be able to get a call from the big leagues.

I'd say Lewis is right, especially at HW..if you're a half athletic, co-ordinated and tough durable guy, you can basically be a top 15 - 20 HW.

 

[TheNinja]

HW MMA is WAY easier than HW boxing IMO. And not b/c of the resting. It's b/c of the level of competition. And also b/c of the fact that at HW you can throw wild haymakers and if you connect you're likely to KO the other guy.

We aaw Brett Rogers go from a working in a tireshop to knocking out Arlovski in like 2 years. That aint happening in boxing.

That being said. I'm a fan of MMA but rarely, if ever, watch boxing.

 

[A.S. Deep]

Somewhat relevant questions: what's harder folkstyle/freestyle/Greco-Roman? What's harder powerlifting/bodybuilding/weightlifting? Rock climbing or rope climbing which is more difficult?

I'll be that one guy to answer this seriously lol.

1. Olympic lifting is the hardest because it's a deep Olympic sport where children start in young ages mastering technique. A lot of those guys can also sprint and jump NFL level good because the olympic lifts are power based. These are people who can power clean and put overhead 500 pounds+.

Bodybuilding is second hardest because it's really genetic. If your lats aren't wide or your lower chest is too big for your upper chest then there's not much you can do.

Powerlifting is the easiest since a lot of those guys are people who like lifting and had nowhere else to go. If NFL guys, strongman and Olympic lifters pooled into powerlifting then they'd take over, honestly. Raw powerlifting is even less deep then geared because most of the best end up in geared lifting.

2. I've always heard that Freestyle is harder because a lot of Greco-Roman guys couldn't make it in Freestyle. I believe folkstyle is similar to freestyle and I know it's really only practiced in America. So I guess it's the easiest?

3. Probably rock climbing since a lot of colleges have rock climbing walls and everyone loves mountain climbing while I never hear anything about rope climbing.

 

[Bacco]

MMA is harder as art, as it completely allow/include boxing and add much more

Boxing is harder as competition, as the level and talent pool is much higher

 

[ItsTimeToShrekYouUp]

I'll be that one guy to answer this seriously lol.

1. Olympic lifting is the hardest because it's a deep Olympic sport where children start in young ages mastering technique. A lot of those guys can also sprint and jump NFL level good because the olympic lifts are power based. These are people who can power clean and put overhead 500 pounds+.

Bodybuilding is second hardest because it's really genetic. If your lats aren't wide or your lower chest is too big for your upper chest then there's not much you can do.

Powerlifting is the easiest since a lot of those guys are people who like lifting and had nowhere else to go. If NFL guys, strongman and Olympic lifters pooled into powerlifting then they'd take over, honestly. Raw powerlifting is even less deep then geared because most of the best end up in geared lifting.

2. I've always heard that Freestyle is harder because a lot of Greco-Roman guys couldn't make it in Freestyle. I believe folkstyle is similar to freestyle and I know it's really only practiced in America. So I guess it's the easiest?

3. Probably rock climbing since a lot of colleges have rock climbing walls and everyone loves mountain climbing while I never hear anything about rope climbing.

3rd one was a joke but I would've but I wouldve guessed Olympic lifting and greco Roman

 

[dontlaugh]

The perception would be different according to each athlete. Boxing requires different train of thought and fight dynamics than MMA. Despite MMA having more things to do and focus on, Boxing also requires a hell lot of attention to detail that i can see many MMA fighters not having and just rather go instinctively.

 

[ItsTimeToShrekYouUp]

MMA is harder as art, as it completely allow/include boxing and add much more

Boxing is harder as competition, as the level and talent pool is much higher

I wouldn't call one art harder than the other by openness of rule set. The level of technical mastery need for boxing takes years upon years to master. Same goes for MMA. I wouldn't say a jack of all trades is harder than being a specialist or vice versa.

 

[Mr140]

The sport of boxing overall is more competitive and widely practiced with a much richer history, but I think that's more because of Amateur boxing which has a deeper talent pool and more participants than professional boxing even does. As for professional boxing vs MMA which one is more competitive? I think it's debatable either way. Which is more difficult is relative to the individual and many different circumstances.

If you look at MMA, you find a lot of it's beauty in that people with lesser wrestling backgrounds or no wrestling backgrounds can manhandle and outgrapple Olympic wrestlers and National Champions. People with no striking background can outstrike and knockout Muay Thai, Kickboxing and Boxing champions. People with no black belt level jiu jitsu competition experience can submit elite black belt competitors. MMA is taking pure human combat and showing you what is really possible under the most open rule set, it's truly profound and beautiful at the higher levels.

As for the argument that you can't just "jump into boxing and become a world champion" well, no one ever just "jumped into MMA" and became a champion without at least a few years of training either. There's a fallacy in boxing that it's so elite and technical that you must train from a young child to have a chance at the higher levels. I will name you a large slew of boxers who reached the highest level within 2-5 years of training or crossed over in adulthood from Kickboxing to become world champions and Olympic champions.

Mike Tyson - Started Boxing at 15, by 19 was world champion

Vitali Klitchko - Crossed over from Kickboxing in his 20s

Marco Huck - Longest reigning Cruiserweight champ in boxing History, Crossed over from Kickboxing at 20

Deontay Wilder - Started Boxing at 20-21 years old, in 3 years was an Olympic Medalist

Sergio Martinez - Started Boxing at 22 years old, became all time great Middleweight

Dmitry Bivol - 8 fights into pro career, world champion

Bernard Hopkins - Began Boxing in his mid to late 20s, became an all time great

There's a lot more examples of this too, one reason why boxers don't become Champions after " jumping right into boxing " is because you need a marketable record, so they beat up 20 bums, go 20-0 and then challenge for a belt. It doesn't mean they weren't good enough when they were 7-0 however. That's a difference in Marketing/Culture often times moreso than a skill differential. Anyways it's debatable.

For starters Tyson is a freak when it comes to athletics not to mention he was taken in by Cus one of best trainers in boxing history and lived with him as well he was 20 when won title. Bernard was 18 when he started to train boxing not in his late 20's that huge cap of time to add on to it. There not many examples considering boxing as a sport is over 100 years old as well so few might pop out. Our Heavyweight champ was a fire fighter not even a full time fighter only ran through one best heavyweights ever his 15 fight. Chris 10 fights beats the best 180 ponder of all only had started MMA pretty late in his life as well. Most guys get into MMA pretty late in general none of them are younger kids training for MMA as a whole and that were talent gap starts that and no good am program.

 

[Mr140]

MMA is harder as art, as it completely allow/include boxing and add much more

Boxing is harder as competition, as the level and talent pool is much higher

Just not complete yet that is the reason that boxing is harder to reach the top. There no good am program and mix martial arts is not being taught as whole to younger people.

 

[Buff]

I find MMA to be easier than boxing because I can outbox and sprawl a lot of fighters

In boxing, if I fight someone who has better hands then me. I'm fucked lol

That it...

In mma everyone has a chance, and upsets happen, but in boxing the best boxer always wins pretty much without fail.

 

[Timurd123]

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?

He isnt wrong

Also , for him to get into boxing at his age, he would be 7-18 and make $500 a night, where in MMA he is headlining his second card, being at the very best just average with very little chance of improvement