How athletic are UFC fighters compared to athletes from other sports?

This has been explained many times:

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The talent pool for most other sports is enormous compared to MMA. As a result, the average athletes that start on an NFL or NBA team are superior, freakish athletes. There's definitely a few of them in MMA, I think GSP, Jacare Souza, Chris Weidman, and Edson Barboza could be proficient in any sport you put them in. For some other UFC fighters, not so much.

Of all the ones you listed, Chris Weidman doesn't really strike me as seriously athletic (although his wrestling background counters this claim). He comes off as really strong, technical and highly skilled, but a lot of people have suggested that his cardio is actually terrible?
 
This must be your first account on Sherdog, TS.
 
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I'd say the best pure athlete we have in the UFC right now, if we go purely by what they are able to do physically, would be John Dodson. just unbelievably fast and agile, all the while having legit KO power in a division that's practially void of it.
 
Everybody has a different definition of what 'athleticism' means.

I would think athleticism would mean innate/genetically predispositioned attributes that help performance in sports, so things like chin, power, cardio, flexibility, coordination etc. should count as athleticism for MMA.

A lot of people only seem to want to count speed, explosiveness, and the ability to shoot a basketball though.
 
Well since the Athleticism Chart has been posted nothing else really need be said
 
How long have you been waiting to use that line?

Anyways back to the topic, I don't think the athleticism gap is as big as people like to make it. And different sports require a different type of athleticism.

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Come to your own conclusions.
 
I would put some athletes like Edson Barboza, Anthony Pettis, or Hector Lombard at or above a lot of guys in other sports.

Barry Sanders lols @ those people you listed.

Deion Sanders lols even harder.
 
Somewhere at the bottom of the tier.
 
havent seen a thread like this in a awhile
 
Can any MMa fighter jump 4 feet in the air and dunk a basketball? 6'4" Jon Jones couldn't.

this looks more like 10 feet to me

Randleman-jumping.gif



as for the rest of your post, select one of your majestic unicorn basketball players and see how they get on with this

randleman-fedor.gif



just because they dont have "drop me on my head" in the olympics doesnt mean its not a legit...aw hell naw whatever
 
'GSP can't throw a football'

Dumbest argument against fighters not being athletes

Tom Brady can't throw punches for 15 minutes

Different sports requires different athletic talents
We grew up in a world where team sports involving balls are our main idea of a sport, so the guidelines to being an athlete playing a sport is mainly running/jumping/throwing or hitting a ball, none of these things are really found in combat sports.
 
this looks more like 10 feet to me

Randleman-jumping.gif



as for the rest of your post, select one of your majestic unicorn basketball players and see how they get on with this

randleman-fedor.gif



just because they dont have "drop me on my head" in the olympics doesnt mean its not a legit...aw hell naw whatever

Any 7 year old in gym class does exactly what Randleman did in that gif on a daily basis.
 
Watt could easily become a UFC champion.
 

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