interesting article re: boxing in mma

[lukewall]

Good article. Made sure to watch its P's and Q's and not get carried away with the importance of boxing in MMA, and yet....

I do think it's pretty easy to chop down the striking in MMA as so amateurish, largely neglecting the fact that this is related to the importance of grappling and takedowns in MMA. A cursory look at the minor leagues in MMA will show that good grappling wins the day; so, so that's the hurdle for fighters to overcome in order to make it to the big show.

As the grappling reaches a fairly high level in the big show, THEN the striking becomes a bigger factor. For this reason, MMA striking will always be at a fairly low level. I believe naturally talented guys like Penn or Anderson may pop up and dominate with their striking, but that kind of ability will never become the norm. And while people might example Edgar, I think three things that really helped his success are overlooked, and they didn't come from training but ability, IMO: speed, endurance, and chin. The guy is fast, never tires, and was countered but never phased. This played a big hand in outboxing the Prodigy. Oh, and always threating to slam him to the mat.

Again, a good article...but like most of the "boxing in MMA" rants it does seem to take a simple view of things. MMA has a lot depth, despite the crudeness of some aspects. A guy inclined to enjoy boxing might see Serra/GSP I as an incapable champion succumbing to a nobody because he didn't have good boxing....but the knowledgeable MMA guy knows this was only possible because the champ was overly preoccupied by Serra's grappling and jiu-jitsu, and sure that's all Serra would be looking for. Most boxing people don't understand that grappling is always a massive factor in the fight, even when it's not on display. To echo it one more time: Cain NEVER would have been able to do what he did to Brock if he didn't extensively work his ability to pop up from the bottom, which flustered the champ. So did Cain's striking win him the fight, or his grappling? If you ask me, Brock is just chinny and too bulky to strike, and the outcome would have been the same regardless of the time he put into working his hands. I'm not saying he couldn't have done better--certainly he could, but standing with Cain would always have the same outcome. The fight came down to who won the grappling battle FIRST.

To say striking in mma is amateurish because of the importance of grappling is a cop out. Off balance and wide open strikes can't be excused because of grappling's importance. In fact, because of the takedown fighters need to be more fundamentally sound and balanced when striking not to give up easy takedowns. Boxing/kickboxing is one of those skills where people want to run before they can walk. You see more fighters throwing the wild haymaker as opposed to being able to stay balanced in their stance, work behind a jab, throw sharp straight punches, and utilize good defense.

And I don't know what fight you were watching, but GSP was absolutely not preoccupied with Serra's grappling when he came out throwing power punches trying to knock Serra out early. GSP just got caught in a exchange when he got sloppy. That's the fight game for you.

 

[kinchan]

my boxing coach said mma is ~70% (?) striking, and i think he could be right.

 

[411dd]

Boxers need to stand tall in takedown range to be effective. Eventually people will figure out that boxing, like they do in the ring, is not a great striking art for mma. The takedown changes everything.

Old school bareknuckle boxing is a different story. the gloves and lack of takedowns evolved boxing into something that is not very useable, out of the box, in mma fighting unless you are fighting someone who is also a boxer and is not looking to take you down.

 

[panamaican]

Boxers need to stand tall in takedown range to be effective. Eventually people will figure out that boxing, like they do in the ring, is not a great striking art for mma. The takedown changes everything.

Old school bareknuckle boxing is a different story. the gloves and lack of takedowns evolved boxing into something that is not very useable, out of the box, in mma fighting unless you are fighting someone who is also a boxer and is not looking to take you down.

I was going to post something similar but I'll just expand on it.

If you read a lot of the older boxing books, throws and takedowns were covered as well as methods to avoid them and keep the fight standing. These ideas and strategies form the fundamentals of good boxing even though modern boxers don't have to worry about throws or takedowns anymore.

Anyone who tries to minimize the importance of boxing fundamentals because of the threat of a ground game doesn't realize how much of those fundamentals were developed around avoiding the ground and keeping the fight standing.

Sidenote: I was just reading an old boxing book that was explaining how to defend a knee or uppercut from the single neck tie. The next chapter was on escaping a standing guillotine, and defending a couple of throws and takedowns. Only then came the chapter on slipping. The fundamentals of boxing cover way more possibilities than the current sport focuses on. Of course, I was most interested in understanding why the desired target on your opopnent was always the diapraghm (sp?).