MMA has more possible skills to learn and develop than any other sport, by far.

[wildchild88]

Despite it's barbaric reputation..

In many ways it makes it the most sophisticated sport, in terms of the individual athlete, and what they must develop themselves into to be successful.

The sport is still raw, but..

If MMA is legal in 20 years, it's going to be amazing what fighters are going to be able to do in the cage.. Mighty Mouse's level of skill with probably be the baseline for most divisions, while the elite fighters are going to be freakishly good.

 

[TCanaveira]

Yep. MMA is filled with incredible athletes and it's truly unfortunate that some people don't see that.

 

[Bogeyman]

You've clearly never played ice rollerbadmington.

 

[WallyBear]

Modern pentathlon, bruh.

Fencing, swimming, show jumping, shooting and running.

 

[AndyMaBobs]

Yes and no.

MMA on the surface seems like its the most technical sport, but it runs on the assumption that because they do boxing, wrestling and grappling, that they can do everything a boxer or grappler can do in their skill set.

MMA fighters are often great in one area, but only passable in others, this extends to a fighter like Mighty Mouse. His strength is really his grappling, be it in the stand up clinch or on the ground. His striking itself is pretty rudimentary, he's in and he's out striking - but he doesn't have the same level of skill striking as say Kyoji Horiguchi. That's not to say that he's a bad striker but there's this idea that say, a boxer would have 'less skill points' so to speak than an MMA fighter because they can't grapple, but the level of skill they have in their own sport, probably rivals a lot of the technique that MMA fighters have across the whole board.

 

[accolyte1022]

You've clearly never played ice rollerbadmington.

Damn.

That sounds complicated.

 

[bigeastgi43]

Nah, just more fighters are going to take it more seriously.

 

[loisestrad]

You've clearly never played ice rollerbadmington.

It's "badminton".

Jeeeez.

 

[Ilovepizza]

in 10 years many things will change and and Im sure you are (most combat fans) not gonna like this.

bad era for combat fans



ps: life is not a constant

 

[Rdude92]

Yes and no.

MMA on the surface seems like its the most technical sport, but it runs on the assumption that because they do boxing, wrestling and grappling, that they can do everything a boxer or grappler can do in their skill set.

MMA fighters are often great in one area, but only passable in others, this extends to a fighter like Mighty Mouse. His strength is really his grappling, be it in the stand up clinch or on the ground. His striking itself is pretty rudimentary, he's in and he's out striking - but he doesn't have the same level of skill striking as say Kyoji Horiguchi. That's not to say that he's a bad striker but there's this idea that say, a boxer would have 'less skill points' so to speak than an MMA fighter because they can't grapple, but the level of skill they have in their own sport, probably rivals a lot of the technique that MMA fighters have across the whole board.

Agreed. They should make an Olympic Sport for mma, so all countries can send their best mma star in all the divisions to battle out which nationality have the best fighter every 4 years. Would be nice to see a 2 time Olympic mma champion making his way in the UFC , or an undefeated UFC champion trying their hand in the mma Olympics.

 

[RyuHayabusa]

I dont see whats so sophiscated about punching someone around the head its a simple sport

 

[Ilovepizza]

dana white?

buuuuuuuusted

"Mighty Mouse's level of skill with probably be the baseline for most divisions"
you only see people like that every "couple" of years.

keep it simple:

no muuuney = not good.

 

[Bubblun]

That's why training martial arts is addicting, you can always learn new things trying to chase perfection.

 

[fedoriswar37]

Nope. I dont see anyway the pay will ever reach the level of traditional sports so mma will always get the B level athletes. On top of that, there is not enough time to specialize in these skills. Boxers for example start at such a young age. They literally have thousands and thousands of hours to master 1 skill, and that still at times isnt enough.

 

[Philtard]

Lol. Yea, that's not totally dependant on having an incredibly deep talent pool.

That the ufc doesn't have. There are intricate dynamics that could be argued for every sport. Especially sports with significantly deeper talent pools.

Mma is a c tier sport.

 

[Nightwish]

You clearly dont know what you are talking about son.

 

[SHAZAM]

MMA fighters are the best fighters in the world. Don't see how dipshits still bring up NFL, marathon runners etc. to put down MMA fighters .

 

[Oblivian]

Mastering golf is much harder.

 

[Newave]

I don’t think so because you can get to a very high level if you are genetically gifted without being extremely technical. It has to do with the nature of fighting, which relies more on strength, fast twitch muscle fibers, and toughness/aggression than we mma fans would sometimes like to admit. Case-in-point, many fighters such as Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar never attained a high belt in BJJ. Other fighters such as Khabib and Maia and Rousey have never obtained high level striking skills. I’ve even listened to interviews with great strikers such as Anthony Johnson, and when he starts getting asked very technical questions about his striking, he doesn’t even know the answer, because even though he’s one of the best strikers in the sport, he doesn’t fight as technical as someone like Dominic Cruz or TJ Dillashaw, he used a lot of his natural gifts to get to the top.

 

[wildchild88]

Yes and no.

MMA on the surface seems like its the most technical sport, but it runs on the assumption that because they do boxing, wrestling and grappling, that they can do everything a boxer or grappler can do in their skill set.

MMA fighters are often great in one area, but only passable in others, this extends to a fighter like Mighty Mouse. His strength is really his grappling, be it in the stand up clinch or on the ground. His striking itself is pretty rudimentary, he's in and he's out striking - but he doesn't have the same level of skill striking as say Kyoji Horiguchi. That's not to say that he's a bad striker but there's this idea that say, a boxer would have 'less skill points' so to speak than an MMA fighter because they can't grapple, but the level of skill they have in their own sport, probably rivals a lot of the technique that MMA fighters have across the whole board.

Quite insightful.

But I would contend that while certain elements of boxing are removed in mma, parts need to be added to take their place.

For example, when a fighter is being clinched, they need to take a much more versatile approach. A boxer is punching in the clinch, now they have to worry about being kneed, elbowed, choked and taken down from that position.

This approach or 'problem' is new and unique to mma, and extroadinarily complex.

Yes boxers may actually be more technical at the moment, but mma is raw, and the 'technical ceiling' so to speak, is a lot higher.. there are a lot more things you can learn and combine. The super athletes of the future will do this, making boxing look basic.