Evolution of MMA is more hype...

When you look at what the HW division has become over the past decade a case can be made for that without question... and LHW, really. But overall in the lighter, more competitive divisions where skill is much more important than power, it's hard to say that guys like Izzy, Whitaker, Romero, et al aren't orders of magnitude better than Dave Menne and Evan Tanner or that Matt Hughes's reign of terror could be replicated against the top WW's of today. That's not to say that the elites of yesteryear wouldn't be elites today out of hand, but MMA for the most part has evolved in a way that has more skillful fighters operating in a safer environment... whether that's more entertaining for the individual viewer is a personal decision.
 
Some people just dont have an eye for skills & technique. I suggest joining a boxing gym & a bjj school. It'll change the way you see fighting, & you'll actually know what your watching.
 
TheAmericanGazelle said:
I've been involved in MAs since 1998, and a serious fan of MMA specifically since 2003, and I have zero doubt we currently live in the most rich period of martial arts in the history of mankind, taking in everything from youth leagues to the Olympics to MMA.

In almost every sport, claiming the "ancients" were the "real" athletes/warriors/Gods is usually little more than nostalgia bias driven by some sort of emotional need on the part of the fan.

In martial arts, the difference is extremely obvious. It's true the *rate* of increase year-over-year is slowing compared to say 1992-2010, but that's because we started from such a low place before MMA became popular. Like some others have said, pretty much anyone on the UFC roster could go back to UFC 1 and stomp everyone.
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I always thought that today mma pros would beat anyone in the history of mankind. It just seems like common sense right? But what made me change my mind was watching Francis Ngannou fight. The way he just walks through punches getting hit right in the chin like it's nothing and throws wild punches without any technique and still destroys almost everyone proofs that possibly in millions of years we had guys who were even physically stronger, more explosive and more aggressive than him and that would have been enough.
 
GUY said:
I always thought that today mma pros would beat anyone in the history of mankind. It just seems like common sense right? But what made me change my mind was watching Francis Ngannou fight. The way he just walks through punches getting hit right in the chin like it's nothing and throws wild punches without any technique and still destroys almost everyone proofs that possibly in millions of years we had guys who were even physically stronger, more explosive and more aggressive than him and that would have been enough.
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I study historical grappling and combat arts, so I've wondered the same thing a lot. There are histories of absolute terrors for every era and from all over the world, many of which have a good bit of evidence supporting their bad-assery, . . . but how would they fare against a top-10, or even top 50-er today? Would the biggest savages of the past have a chance against a solid black belt? A lot of the best "fighters" in history were warriors who could wrestle. How good was that wrestling? It's hard to believe it could be Olympic calibre, considering the amount of training, nutrition, and science involved. I think Ngannou might be a kind of bad example, though. Stipe's wrestling isn't that great (especially if we're looking at best of all time), and he manhandled Ngannou. The rest of Ngannous albeit brutal KO wins were against strikers or people standing with him, which I've always thought isn't giving us, the fans, a fair angle as to his real skills. I think this is in large part because HW in the UFC, like others have said, is so incredibly weak and un-well-rounded skill-wise compared to almost every other division.
AT any rate, a cool question to ponder.
 
The TS is living in a fantasy world. No matter what happens,the sport evolves this way because its the only way. It couldnt stay on tv the way it was,and the fighting will always evolve because thats what the top fighters would have to do to stay on top.
 
Qays Stetkevich said:
I study historical grappling and combat arts, so I've wondered the same thing a lot. There are histories of absolute terrors for every era and from all over the world, many of which have a good bit of evidence supporting their bad-assery, . . . but how would they fare against a top-10, or even top 50-er today? Would the biggest savages of the past have a chance against a solid black belt? A lot of the best "fighters" in history were warriors who could wrestle. How good was that wrestling? It's hard to believe it could be Olympic calibre, considering the amount of training, nutrition, and science involved. I think Ngannou might be a kind of bad example, though. Stipe's wrestling isn't that great (especially if we're looking at best of all time), and he manhandled Ngannou. The rest of Ngannous albeit brutal KO wins were against strikers or people standing with him, which I've always thought isn't giving us, the fans, a fair angle as to his real skills. I think this is in large part because HW in the UFC, like others have said, is so incredibly weak and un-well-rounded skill-wise compared to almost every other division.
AT any rate, a cool question to ponder.
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It doesn't matter that they are worst athletes compared to other weight divisions. They would still win in a fight. I guess Ngannou just proves how far you can go without any technique and just based on physical abilities.
 
Travis Alexander said:
My GOD! Palhares in UFC1!!!!???!
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MMA would never have been sanctioned as a sport or show if Paul Harris was in UFC1.
Big John was a shitty referee back then, he was just standing and watching fighters getting brutalized while being already unconscious. And if you let Paul Harris do what he wants to do, he would kill somebody.
 
Adesanya with his striking footwork and defensive wrestling nukes everyone from ufc 1. Come on bruh.
 
TRYHARD 2001 said:
When you look at what the HW division has become over the past decade a case can be made for that without question... and LHW, really. But overall in the lighter, more competitive divisions where skill is much more important than power, it's hard to say that guys like Izzy, Whitaker, Romero, et al aren't orders of magnitude better than Dave Menne and Evan Tanner or that Matt Hughes's reign of terror could be replicated against the top WW's of today. That's not to say that the elites of yesteryear wouldn't be elites today out of hand, but MMA for the most part has evolved in a way that has more skillful fighters operating in a safer environment... whether that's more entertaining for the individual viewer is a personal decision.
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Great post. It is true, that MMA, as a sport, has evolved and that has never been more evident than in the lighter divisions but "fighting", as a whole and raw, in my opinion, has not. The cream of the crop remains the big guys who need to just graze the bean and put your lights out. I think to see how far the actual fighters have evolved, you need to hold a few open-weight tournaments.
 
Joseph_McBride said:
Some people just dont have an eye for skills & technique. I suggest joining a boxing gym & a bjj school. It'll change the way you see fighting, & you'll actually know what your watching.
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The skill is obvious but It has been honed for sport and not an actual fight. Take away divisions, weight cuts, rounds and most of the rules and see what is left.
 
HHJ said:
The TS is living in a fantasy world. No matter what happens,the sport evolves this way because its the only way. It couldnt stay on tv the way it was,and the fighting will always evolve because thats what the top fighters would have to do to stay on top.
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The "fantasy" is an open weight tournament. Then we could see how evolved fighting has become. Could a Demetrious Johnson, Usman, Khabib, jon jones or prime Silva win an open weight tournament today or would it be Miocic, Ngannou and Lewis at the top of the heap, skill be damned?
 
Fossor said:
MMA would never have been sanctioned as a sport or show if Paul Harris was in UFC1.
Big John was a shitty referee back then, he was just standing and watching fighters getting brutalized while being already unconscious. And if you let Paul Harris do what he wants to do, he would kill somebody.
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Obviously the fight ends on a tap out but I am making a case for the art of fighting, not the sport.
 
GSP > Usman
Silva > Adesanya
Cain/JDS > Stipe

If anything the fighters at the top level are worse now than 10 years ago.
 
20falarVerdades said:
It literally seems like you can't handle the truth
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jon, I tried to help you with your "tells" a while back but either the crack has eroded your memory or you just don't learn...you LITERALLY use the word "literally" way too much in your interviews, in your tweets amd posts. Now, with two losses in your last 3 fights, and vacating the title to avoid Reyes, you have LITERALLY made yourself irrelevant, so I see why you gotta try to keep the "aura" alive by posting about yourself on Sherdog but I think, besides the fake accounts you hide behind and the few last diehards, everyone on Sherdog has lost faith in you. I haven't though, I think you are arrogant enough to grace Sherdog with fake posts about yourself for a long time to come.
 
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I didnt read OP but ive been saying it for years. MMA doesnt evolve it revolves.
 
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