I'm posting this because idiots here claiming that bums like NBA and NFL players are somehow superior athletes to MMA fighters are extremely disrespectful and their false views need to be exposed once and for all.
People who blabber about the supposed "A-level" athletes focus too much on the supposed superior genetic predispositions of those athletes or stress the fact that their sport has a bigger "talent pool". Even if true this is absolutely meaningless because more than anything an athlete is shaped by the sport he participates in and not the other way around.
Fighters who have the will power, talent and courage to do what it takes to come to the top have through years of training and fighting developed into modern day warriors because of the nature of the sport.
Meanwhile those "A-level" athletes are playing with ball like children or they run or jump around a bit. I simply view combat sports with striking involved (ie. MMA and boxing) as the superior sports to whatever they're doing and by virtue of being involved in that superior sport fighters are superior athletes. Fighting is a timeless most primal sport in the history of humanity.
Also, it's absolutely ridiculous to claim that "A-level" athletes don't go into combat sports because the pay is low when the highest paid athlete of all times is a fighter. Floyd Mayweather proved that boxing pays more than any other sport. Far more. Obviously you have to reach the top level but if those athletes don't believe they can reach the top then they aren't much of competitors anyway.
Most of those ball sport "A-level" athletes wouldn't even have the courage to even train boxing at an elite level (which involves hard sparring) for 6 months, yet alone enter the MMA and dominate. They would quit after they would get busted up in sparring routinely. Most people in the world do not have the balls to brawl with elite trained fighters. It's insulting how people here take the courage of MMA fighters for granted. Even your roided hero Brock reacted like a complete pussy when being hit, it was an embarrassment.
Combat sports have attracted some of the finest, most charismatic and most inspiring human beings. It's no coincidence that the most popular athlete in history Muhammad Ali is a fighter. That's because combat gets the best and the most heroic out of people. You can be cynical all you want about that but you know it's true.