Progress question

[stevenMMA2025]

I started going to an MMA gym about 2 weeks ago. Starting off I am already very athletic, I have ran marathons and have a very intense weightlifting and cardio routine but I can’t fight at all. Each class at my MMA gym is 1 hour and weekly I am taking 6 Jiu Jitsu classes 3 kickboxing classes and 1 wrestling class. I stay as long as possible after each class to get extra practice in 1 on 1 with coaches and skilled fighters that hang around after. So in total I’m getting about 12 hours of MMA weekly plus the weightlifting and cardio routine. How long will it take for me to be a “skilled” fighter? At what time points should I be seeing certain progress? When will I get to the point I can take almost any untrained person in a fight no matter the size.

 

[Monte Moku]

It's hard to give anyone a clear answer on this -- people progress differently, have different goals, different coaches, different ideas about what skill is/looks like, etc etc. From my anecdotal experience, it took me about four years of consistent training and competing for me to see a video of my padwork and not cringe. I still cringe a little, but overall I feel like I don't look like shit anymore haha. I've trained with some guys who pick up technique super quick and looked really nice on the pads/mitts/bag within two years but still had a difficult time in sparring, and many who had a hard time with technical stuff but still fought creatively and used their tools well. It's not the answer you want, but it really depends on the person.

 

[pugilistico]

When will I get to the point I can take almost any untrained person in a fight no matter the size.

Is this your goal for training?

It all depends on your attributes, talent, style, etc. I felt like it took me a couple years of Judo and BJJ where I found it quite easy to handle complete beginners in grappling even if they're bigger than me.
With boxing it took longer. After maybe 5 years, I was consistently sparring pros and had a few fights, and some point I realized when I was sparring hobbyists or local level amateurs, I had to go easy on them or I would hurt them. There was an older guy (who competed in some local amateur comps) I regularly sparred who was about 50lbs bigger than me and jacked, and in the beginning I always had a tough time sparring him. But at some point, I felt we were pretty evenly matched and it became fun to spar him. Then at another point, it became easy to spar him and I had to pull my punches because I could time him with counters and hurt him. He even complained once that I hit him too hard when I didn't even mean to throw hard. It was crazy how I could measure my improvement that way.

But my progress overall felt really slow. Other pros I sparred with seemed like they improved faster than me. I remember one guy I was evenly matched with at one point got so good that when I sparred him again a couple years later, I felt like I couldn't do shit to him. That was discouraging.

You could say I'm naturally more suited for grappling. I'm not particularly fast and I have short arms, and I always lacked explosive power, but I seem to gain strength relatively easily and my short extremities probably help me in grapping more than in striking.

 

[DoctorTaco]

I started going to an MMA gym about 2 weeks ago. Starting off I am already very athletic, I have ran marathons and have a very intense weightlifting and cardio routine but I can’t fight at all. Each class at my MMA gym is 1 hour and weekly I am taking 6 Jiu Jitsu classes 3 kickboxing classes and 1 wrestling class. I stay as long as possible after each class to get extra practice in 1 on 1 with coaches and skilled fighters that hang around after. So in total I’m getting about 12 hours of MMA weekly plus the weightlifting and cardio routine. How long will it take for me to be a “skilled” fighter? At what time points should I be seeing certain progress? When will I get to the point I can take almost any untrained person in a fight no matter the size.

Most people are good enough after 6 months to whip anyone their own size/physicality. From there it’s all sort of a math equation- the better you are at mma, the bigger the untrained person is you could beat in a fight.

If you train for a year, some dude could give you trouble if he was 30 pounds bigger, let’s say. But If you’ve put in 3 years of hard training, that 30lbs isn’t a big deal.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

Took me a long fucking time

 

[Trabaho]

Lol 2 weeks. Definitely much longer. Try 6 months.

 

[noc]

I started going to an MMA gym about 2 weeks ago. Starting off I am already very athletic, I have ran marathons and have a very intense weightlifting and cardio routine but I can’t fight at all. Each class at my MMA gym is 1 hour and weekly I am taking 6 Jiu Jitsu classes 3 kickboxing classes and 1 wrestling class. I stay as long as possible after each class to get extra practice in 1 on 1 with coaches and skilled fighters that hang around after. So in total I’m getting about 12 hours of MMA weekly plus the weightlifting and cardio routine. How long will it take for me to be a “skilled” fighter? At what time points should I be seeing certain progress? When will I get to the point I can take almost any untrained person in a fight no matter the size.

It depends how hard you train, and how good is the training. If you train for real, with good trainers.. after a year you would be competent, after another two years you would be at that level you want to be

 

[Woldog]

I started going to an MMA gym about 2 weeks ago. Starting off I am already very athletic, I have ran marathons and have a very intense weightlifting and cardio routine but I can’t fight at all. Each class at my MMA gym is 1 hour and weekly I am taking 6 Jiu Jitsu classes 3 kickboxing classes and 1 wrestling class. I stay as long as possible after each class to get extra practice in 1 on 1 with coaches and skilled fighters that hang around after. So in total I’m getting about 12 hours of MMA weekly plus the weightlifting and cardio routine. How long will it take for me to be a “skilled” fighter? At what time points should I be seeing certain progress? When will I get to the point I can take almost any untrained person in a fight no matter the size.

There is no set time or even guess that it'll take to be a skilled fighter. I've sparred guys who had never sparred before and had them say "Wow you're really good at this" and I've just said "Yeah you're going to be better" because you can see talent like that (The guy that springs to mind when I said that is now something like 45 fights and 36 wins into his career in Muay Thai) and I can tell you right now. I had over a decade more training and experience than him and I wouldn't want to fight him now because he would beat the absolute fuck out of me.
It really comes down to your natural ability and I'm not just talking about fighting. Some people are natural fighters, but to become a skilled fighter you need the ability to want to learn and take lessons onboard and I mean genuinely not just saying "yeah I want to be a fighter" but you don't really learn because you have a mindset that you already know what you should be learning (@ironkhan57 springs to mind).
You need the ability to be able to adapt, the ability to stay calm under pressure, the ability to fight your flight or fight instincts and then a whole host of other little things that might seem somewhat inconsequential but in the long term form who you are and how far you can go with fighting or how skilled you can become.
I was a good fighter, not to toot my own horn but I knew how to win and didn't worry about looking good to do it. But I never had the skillset or the mindset to stand out or go anywhere with it. I'd still back myself any day of the week over 99% of people on this forum in a fight and that's because I know I'm more than likely better than them at fighting, I spent 18 years competing as an amateur and as a pro before a hand injury that took years to heal ended that chapter of my life. But I also know that at the end of the day I was never going to be a world champion or any of that shit, the people that make it there have levels of dedication and belief that I never had and honestly probably could never have.

So don't set out with the focus of becoming a skilled fighter. Set out with the focus to truly learn and take on board what you're taught. Even when you think you know better or know it all, you can still learn. My problem was I never wanted to learn, I just wanted to fight. I had coaches that didn't even try to teach me because they knew I wasn't going to listen they just guided me with tips and gave me advice if I asked for it. I had coaches that taught me a great deal because I wanted to learn from them.
Learn and discover what you become.

 

[Cole train]

Depends on your talent generally

Some guys train 6 times a week and dont improve, some 2 and just improve like hell

I wad being beaten by people with 6 months of training and i had 4 years, talented people do stand out

(Guess which i was lmao)

In short wol above is correct

 

[Woldog]

Depends on your talent generally

Some guys train 6 times a week and dont improve, some 2 and just improve like hell

I wad being beaten by people with 6 months of training and i had 4 years, talented people do stand out

(Guess which i was lmao)

In short wol above is correct

Much shorter than what I said.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

There is no set time or even guess that it'll take to be a skilled fighter. I've sparred guys who had never sparred before and had them say "Wow you're really good at this" and I've just said "Yeah you're going to be better" because you can see talent like that (The guy that springs to mind when I said that is now something like 45 fights and 36 wins into his career in Muay Thai) and I can tell you right now. I had over a decade more training and experience than him and I wouldn't want to fight him now because he would beat the absolute fuck out of me.
It really comes down to your natural ability and I'm not just talking about fighting. Some people are natural fighters, but to become a skilled fighter you need the ability to want to learn and take lessons onboard and I mean genuinely not just saying "yeah I want to be a fighter" but you don't really learn because you have a mindset that you already know what you should be learning (@ironkhan57 springs to mind).
You need the ability to be able to adapt, the ability to stay calm under pressure, the ability to fight your flight or fight instincts and then a whole host of other little things that might seem somewhat inconsequential but in the long term form who you are and how far you can go with fighting or how skilled you can become.
I was a good fighter, not to toot my own horn but I knew how to win and didn't worry about looking good to do it. But I never had the skillset or the mindset to stand out or go anywhere with it. I'd still back myself any day of the week over 99% of people on this forum in a fight and that's because I know I'm more than likely better than them at fighting, I spent 18 years competing as an amateur and as a pro before a hand injury that took years to heal ended that chapter of my life. But I also know that at the end of the day I was never going to be a world champion or any of that shit, the people that make it there have levels of dedication and belief that I never had and honestly probably could never have.

So don't set out with the focus of becoming a skilled fighter. Set out with the focus to truly learn and take on board what you're taught. Even when you think you know better or know it all, you can still learn. My problem was I never wanted to learn, I just wanted to fight. I had coaches that didn't even try to teach me because they knew I wasn't going to listen they just guided me with tips and gave me advice if I asked for it. I had coaches that taught me a great deal because I wanted to learn from them.
Learn and discover what you become.

Do you have any videos of your fights or training. I don’t think you’ve really talked about your background except you have a lot of fights and you’ve fought Muay Thai drunk before lol

 

[Koya]

At this cadence of training it won't take you long to get injured. Probably fastest result you'll get. How old are you ?

 

[Koya]

Depends on your talent generally

Some guys train 6 times a week and dont improve, some 2 and just improve like hell

I wad being beaten by people with 6 months of training and i had 4 years, talented people do stand out

(Guess which i was lmao)

In short wol above is correct

Who in the world trains 6 times a week and doesn't improve ?

That's literally my dream. Having the time and money to train that much.

 

[Cole train]

Who in the world trains 6 times a week and doesn't improve ?

That's literally my dream. Having the time and money to train that much.

Quite a few people


Some improve fast as fuck, some basically none at all, most fall in middle

We had a guy who went 0-15 while training 6 times a week and he was constantly being passed by people who started later.

Things never clicked for him simply, he just didnt have "it"

 

[Koya]

Quite a few people


Some improve fast as fuck, some basically none at all, most fall in middle

We had a guy who went 0-15 while training 6 times a week and he was constantly being passed by people who started later.

Things never clicked for him simply, he just didnt have "it"

I didn't know it could be possible. That someone hits a ceiling of course, like everyone else. But that the ceiling would be so low, relatively to the amount of training, I had no clue it was possible.

Or I'd have guessed that such people would have quit a long time ago already.

 

[pugilistico]

Who in the world trains 6 times a week and doesn't improve ?

That's literally my dream. Having the time and money to train that much.

I think it could be easy to hit a plateau and get stuck in a rut, doing the same thing over and over again, just going through the motion. Maybe a good analogy would be in the weight room I see guys who literally do the same work out every session and after years, they're still lifting the same amount of weight. I think it's easy to end up like this in martial arts training, and even more so when you hit a certain level of skill. You get so used to the way you have trained that it'll be difficult to challenge yourself in a way you're not used to.

I experienced this personally where for a very long time I felt like I was just doing the same thing over and over again in the gym. I thought the way to challenge myself was to simply train "harder." Punch faster, punch harder, throw more combos, do more rounds, etc. Not saying there isn't value in this, but one should also challenge himself at a more "fundamental" and cerebral level. Such as playing with different rhythms and timing you're not used to. It's gonna feel uncomfortable rather than physically "hard" but that's where the challenge it. You're not going to improve as fast if you're going to the gym 6 times a week and literally doing the same thing over and over again. Sure you'll get fit, and that's an advantage, but I'm guessing most fighters want more than just one advantage.

There must be a reason why you can get a ton of guys who trained since they're kids, have a lot of experience, but only a few of them rise to the very top. Like Inoue who is fighting other world class fighters, some of them also undefeated, some of them with amateur pedigree, yet Inoue (and guys like Crawford and Usyk) is a league above them. There is talent and genetics at play for sure but I also think training methodology is a factor too.

When I saw training footage of Spence vs Crawford before their fight, I thought Spence's training was quite flawed and it made me think Bud was going to easily beat him. And he did.

 

[pugilistico]

I didn't know it could be possible. That someone hits a ceiling of course, like everyone else. But that the ceiling would be so low, relatively to the amount of training, I had no clue it was possible.

Or I'd have guessed that such people would have quit a long time ago already.

This reminds me of a guy I used to train with who also didn't seem to improve. He was always at the gym and we trained together for years, but every time we sparred, it always felt very easy. Years into sparring him, I really started to think about why this was. He was always in range of my punches. I could easily tag him with jabs and lead hooks. I'd throw out a hook with no setup and still hit him. It wasn't like I had a reach advantage on him either since we were the same size and I have t-rex arms. On the inside it was easy to turn him and make him lose his balance.

Then I studied him spar another guy and saw that he had a bad habit of keeping his weight way too forward, past his lead food. No wonder why he couldn't get leverage on his punches, no wonder he was unbalanced, no wonder he was so slow with his footwork, and why his head always felt like it was in range to be hit. I told him this and nobody had told him this before! Not even our trainer lol. He could've been training for another decade and he would running in the same spot if nobody told him.

I honestly reflect on my trainer and think he wasn't the best. He made me fight way too lead foot heavy, and tried to make me into an aggressive infighter who relied on my athleticism and speed. Athleticism and speed which I didn't have lol. He had too much of a one size fits all approach to training. You're short so you're an infighter, there is one way to throw a hook and one way only. He'd yell at me if I used a different punching technique or tried to box from the outside more. Very little mitt work, no drills, just a lot of hard heavy bag sessions and gym wars. At the time I didn't question it but now that I understand boxing better, I realize how flawed it was. I was in the gym 6 times a week, 8km runs 5 times a week, strength and conditioning 3 times a week, and I didn't get as good as I think I could have. I got really fit and shredded and took a lot of damage haha.

 

[Woldog]

Do you have any videos of your fights or training. I don’t think you’ve really talked about your background except you have a lot of fights and you’ve fought Muay Thai drunk before lol

I fought boxing drunk, never muay thai. I've got a few videos from over the years of fights. But I never took videos of training. I haven't fought since 2018 or trained since 2019.

 

[Trabaho]

I fought boxing drunk, never muay thai. I've got a few videos from over the years of fights. But I never took videos of training. I haven't fought since 2018 or trained since 2019.

Wanna post some vids to entertain us. We're curious.