Lifters fighting

Do you know any examples of weightlifters (particularly successful oly lifters) who also had some successes in combat sports? I mean, any average lifter that made it to an olympic or even a strong national team should be far stronger (more powerful, explosive) than an average fighter wannabe.

There is of course the issue of strength endurance and overall cardio, but that doesn't seem really troublesome, especially for an experienced athlete.

Then comes the issue of technique and again, nothing mindblowing about it. Oly lifters have great hand-eye coordination and should be able to pick stuff up in "no time". Imagine what Dimas would be like to fight in MMA.

Taking into account that the money pile is bigger for fighters, why aren't (or are they?) MMA gyms full of guys who lifted in their teens and early twenties at a competitive level and the epitome of MMA strength is what you gain working on a farm somewhere?

I did some research on this issue and found a vid of Paul Springer getting mauled by Butterbean in a boxing match, but not much else.

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Ideas?

 

wow, i like the intro music. brings me back to the early 90's

 

Butterbean fucked that guy up. First time I saw him was when he beat the shit out of Johnny Knoxville.

 

"Gentlemen, I've got a lot of beef in this ring..."

 

It's the size of the lifter in the fight, not the size of the fight in the lifter.

 

There was some other powerlifting who tried out MMA. I don't think he did very well. Let's put it this way, massive strength cannot overcome tons of skill when competing at the same weight. A lifter will have an advantage over your average joe who is both untrained and weak. But when you compare a lifter to a pro fighter, then...

Bob Sapp is a pretty good example. He had limited skills but was able to overwhelm some of his opponents with his sheer size and strength. However when he faced a skilled opponent in Noguiera, he was defeated.

 

...so no, obviously. Collectively, we have no ideas.

 

Being large and strong when you have to fix ol bullshit or just rough some cat up. With relatively normal folks, mind you.

Doesn't work that way in the ring.

 

Finnegan and Brad Morris are two names that come to mind...

FYI Kieth Wassung grew up on a farm, so I wouldn't say growing up on a farm and weight training are mutually exclusive.

In a lot of ways growing up on a farm is an advantage. Most homes aren't big enough to hold tractor tires. Most places you live don't have wide open fields stretching all around. For strength training, a farm is probably among the top places you could go to train.

The difficulty with farms is that because they have all that wide open space, they are way out in the middle of nowhere so it's difficult to get to martial arts class, which is where you gain real skill and technique.

 

The real question is, are there any figure skaters that excel in cross country skiing?

 

i remember seeing tommy speer doing some s and p training and olympic lifting in prep for his fight with danzig. not a successful lifter but... you know

 

Yeah but Mac Danzig had about 10 years of experience on him. If you watched the fight it was clear that with a little more experience Danzig would've been raped.

 

Besides Zop ?

 

I take it you didn't see Speer's last fight?

 

Pffft




Size>Skill

 

Combat sports are primarily a skill sport. Lifting weights for sports such as these is considered GPP. One must never overlook at the importance of skill.
Skill, cardio, perserverence being equal: strength will win.

 

Yeah, but theres a reason theres weight classes too. Tank Abbot would destroy a BJ Penn or St. Pierre. As good as Anderson Sliva is, he isn't ever going to hurt Semmy Schilt.

 

The scary thing is that I remember writing that...

 

Eh I think those are stretches. I see GSP and Bj both submitting Tank in the 1st round pretty easily.

 

If a regular average Abercrombie wearing Joe on the street tried to pick a fight with Chuck Vogelpohl he would rip out their heart. Against a trained fighter in a controlled environment with weight classes that mean everyone is roughly your size...well, you could simply ask the converse of that, "Why aren't any top MMA fighters setting weight lifting and power lifting records?" Size and strength are both attributes, but merely a piece of a very large puzzle. Few sports match the complexity of training and diverse physical preparation needs of top level MMA, and the specialization required to achieve high level lifting numbers isn't really a good base compared to someone who spent that time learning wrestling or another combat sport.