So there are only 5 good Heavy Weights in the world?

[Furious77]

I don't quite buy the whole a level sports stealing the best athletes thing. There are tons of big fast powerful guys warming the bench making pretty unimpressive salaries, or even worse in some place like the cfl and requiring a part time job. These are guys who are only slightly too slow or slightly too small to make the big bucks but are still light years ahead of mma heavies in terms of traditional athleticism. If it was so easy these guys would come make much better money and get much more spotlight being top 5 hw, big fishin it in a small pond.

Nobody said it was easy but if you plan on being a professional athlete in North America it's a commitment that most make very young. The athletic freaks of nature you see running around the field or court aren't even thinking about MMA as a career, unless theyre positive they can't make it in the big leagues. For the most part, you just can't decide when your 18 that you want to be a starter in the NFL or NBA.

 

[Robbie Corleone]

Blaydes has p4p one of the best hairlines in the game.

 

[Rudeboyben84]

There aren’t only 3 in boxing

1. Joshua
2. Fury
3. Wilder

It’s a shallow division. Always has been. The only time in any combat sport it was saturated was the golden age of K1. Is normal.

 

[TUFNewb]

Nobody said it was easy but if you plan on being a professional athlete in North America it's a commitment that most make very young. The athletic freaks of nature you see running around the field or court aren't even thinking about MMA as a career, unless theyre positive they can't make it in the big leagues. For the most part, you just can't decide when your 18 that you want to be a starter in the NFL or NBA.

For the most part yeah, but the 18 year old top talent know pretty well they will be starting or go high in draft or whatever, they likely even know before age 18. Those guys will of course never even entertain the thought of MMA, they've been groomed for superstardom from an early age and they know it...

But for every guy like that there are countless who will be super duper lucky to make it and they know it. Those guys are still athletic beasts, sometimes just as "athletic" as the prodigy who will be making millions. Maybe it is injuries that keeps them from making it, maybe it is a mental/behavioural, or maybe it is just some intangible they could never grasp.

My point is there are so many that don't make it, or know their chances of making it are slim to none, you'd think more of them would give mma a shot given the pool of HW athletes is so pathetic. According to sherdogger's, a commitment from a young age is NOT required for MMA. I argue it is not all money. These guys have grown up playing their sport and they love it. It is ingrained in them and that is what they want to do with their life.

 

[Outlaw8888]

How many good HW boxers are out there?

@NoDak

Maybe 3 but they get paid a lot more

 

[Outlaw8888]

No Overeem??
TS, what's wrong with you?

Overeem is 140 years old in terms of his career age ... he was good but tainted by huge PED abuse

 

[djacobox372]

There aren’t only 3 in boxing

1. Joshua
2. Fury
3. Wilder

It’s a shallow division. Always has been. The only time in any combat sport it was saturated was the golden age of K1. Is normal.

Yep, and of those three only Joshua is respectable. Fury is today's version of Ruiz, and Wilder can't box only slug.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Huh, that percentage would be close to the same for every athlete in all of the major sports. Im saying from the the current talent pool, they choose other sports. The MLB, NFL and NBA are filled with lifelong Athlete's who never even considered taking martial arts for hobby or even a future career.

If your a 14 year old that's bigger, faster, stronger, and just overall more athletic than your peers, most parents in North America aren't sending they're kids to an MMA class.

Wrestling is considered by many to be the best martial art base for MMA. Even lifelong HW wrestlers that have been doing it since they were in grade school, and are in a sport that pays virtually nothing in the vast majority of cases, don't choose to go to MMA. And there are HW wrestlers all over the world, it's an international sport unlike American football.

There is more to it than just the most athletic American kids choosing mainstream sports at a young age, although for sure if somehow it became culturally celebrated to go into MMA more than any other sport, it would make a huge impact, even if the pay didn't go up.