How is the A-level athlete "myth" debunked? Ngannou earned title shot with 4 years training.

[8100]

We’ve all seen joke posts that say "with 6 months training an A-level athlete would dominate the sport." To a certain extent we know they're being facetious but is what we just saw too far off.


Ngannou, a guy with under 5 years training, who had no previous martial arts experience, and was formerly homeless, goes on a title run at the age of 31!

Imagine some random strong dude making it not only to the MLB, NFL, or the NBA but making it to the pinnacle of the sport. Think of some random big dude who NEVER pitched making it to the MLB at age 31 and striking out the elite hitters.

This goes to show 2 things:

HW is laughably weak

An “A-level athlete” could dominate (or do very well) in certain divisions of the sport (HW, women’s divisions.)

Ngannou was exposed as having bad technique on the ground and standing, no cardio, and horrible fight IQ. Yet, the best UFC HW ALL TIME who was a D1 wrestler and golden gloves boxer still couldn’t knock this dude out. Honestly, I thought Stipe would win but someone would be knocked out.

This would NEVER happen in the MLS let alone pro soccer leagues in Europe. Could you imagine some random guy competing on the level of a Messi with barely a grasp of the fundamentals of the sport?

 

[wrestlefan]

Ok

 

[eiyuu]

Greg Hardy will be UFC champ inside of few more years then right?

http://mmajunkie.com/2017/12/video-nfl-star-greg-hardy-2nd-amateur-mma-win

 

[Robbie Corleone]

Define an “A-level athlete”?

 

[faustian]

Franc is D-level tho

 

[8100]

1. Greg Hardy will be UFC champ inside of few more years then right?
   
   http://mmajunkie.com/2017/12/video-nfl-star-greg-hardy-2nd-amateur-mma-win

   Don’t know. It’s HW so I think he could do ok.
   

   Ok

   Glad you agree.

 

[SportsDoc]

Sherdog is all or nothing.

As soon as Stipe loses his belt, he will be - by far - "weakest HW champ ever".

Right now, Ngannou is "hype train derailed" and "worst HW".

You new here?

 

[8100]

Define an “A-level athlete”?

Someone who is extremely athletic. Cardio (Ngannou doesn’t have it), strength, speed, things of that nature.

 

[tonni]

An “A-level athlete” could dominate (or do very well) in certain divisions of the sport (HW, women’s divisions.)

Yeah, if they can fight and like to get punched in the face.

Someone who is extremely athletic. Cardio (Ngannou doesn’t have it), strength, speed, things of that nature.

That's not a very good definition.

 

[superpunch]

5 years is quite a long time. Purists want to act like you need 5-10-15-20 years in all these major sports. Take a 20 year old Michael Jordan that was in shape from playing another sport, start him in basketball and I guarantee you that he's still a really good player at 25 years old.

It's just confirmation bias.

All the major sports have rigid training systems in place with no real way to start learning and competing after ~ age 14. After age 14, if you can't make the high school team or the college team right away, you don't get any training. After 22, there's no way to train at all.

So of course it seems like 14-22 is too late to start in these other sports -- it is. Not because of age or how hard the sports are but because there's no way to start training and competing.

In MMA, you can be 23 with no ability to make the team and just pay to train. And people do it, and they succeed.

If you could just pay $200 a month to train with the Broncos, I guarantee that you'd get some guys starting at 25 and making the team at 30.

 

[8100]

Franc is D-level tho

What does that say about the HW division?

 

[grimballer]

Franc is D-level tho

But he’s fighting vs f level

 

[Bamboozled]

Olympic Wrestlers are A level athletes, same with Judoka.

The thing is MMA requires a varied skill set and it's extremely difficult to find someone good at everything.

 

[PaleMoonlight]

Define an “A-level athlete”?

 

[Topguntrophey]

Even Battlecat is laughing.

 

[Chivas GDL]

Shogun was wrecking the shit out of Rampage, Arona, and Overeem after 4 years of training. A level athlete

 

[superpunch]

Think of some random big dude who NEVER pitched making it to the MLB at age 31 and striking out the elite hitters.
...
This would NEVER happen in the MLS let alone pro soccer leagues in Europe. Could you imagine some random guy competing on the level of a Messi with barely a grasp of the fundamentals of the sport?

If you could pay $200 a month and be trained by and train with a pro NFL team or a pro soccer team, then yes you'd see guys starting at 20-25 and being pro by 25-30.

Guys start at 10-15 and are pro level by 18-20 all the time in other sports. You're not physically past it at 20-25 and you can get to pro level by 25-30. That's why we see it happen in MMA.

It's just the training structures for that don't exist in other sports.

 

[BoweryB'hoy]

At some point it should be factored that fighting and sports are different things. Fighting requires a set of self preservation skills and aggression not commonly found in activities that primarily focus on getting a ball from point A to point B. Ngannou may not ever be good enough to play midfield on Liverpool, but then again, LeBron may never be able to fight off a RNC in his life.

 

[Bartinho]

12 yrs old level analysis is SOP here at Sherdog, A level athletes are actually mythological creatures, found only on Magic Cards and D&D adventures.

 

[ussf18e]

Aaron Pico is an A level athlete. Best combined wrestling + boxing pedigree in the history of MMA.