As many of us would agree, striking/boxing in MMA is pretty embarrassing. As I was watching the Bonnar vs Soz fight and the Leben vs Akiyama fight...I thought to myself, a boxer with adequate takedown defense would destroy these fighters. Don't get me wrong...both fights were exciting and I was cheering on Stephan Bonnar as he was swinging and was yelling when Akiyama and Leben were trading... but their striking leaves much to be desired.
That being said...one fighter last Saturday demonstrated good striking/boxing (by mma standards). Sotiropoulos used very rudimentary boxing skills (jab, straight) to frustrate and hurt Kurt Pelligrino.
It reminded me how Kenny Florian completely embarrassed Gomi by using a simple jab that set the tempo for the entire fight.
I'm just surprised it's taking so long for many MMA fighters to utilize basic boxing fundamentals in their training regimen.
Let me digress a little...
Many believe that good boxing, generating the speed and power, shifting weight, perfecting accuracy and timing, is the most difficult aspect of MMA to perfect.
“The easiest to learn and the most difficult to perfect” is the theme I hear from fighters & trainers involved with MMA.
Frank Shamrock and Erik Paulson are both quoted saying that on YouTube clips as are others.
Add to this the giant “brain drain” created by an annual net income in boxing being still some x4 as high pulling away anyone who can fight a lick with his hands as the chief weapon and there you have it.
Boxing; i.e. the use of punches for fighting in a manner derived from trial & error perfection in actual contests as opposed to those developed through traditional martial arts theoretics, was the last skill compartment to get on board in MMA on a ‘world class” level (still a W.I.P.) because, obviously, the best practitioners of the other associated skill brackets had no better place to showcase their wares for pay or for large audiences.
Naturally, anyone who devotes himself solely to boxing is likely to become adept at it to a greater extent than one who splits his efforts among ranges.
These are the explanations.
Defenders of MMA would like to believe that “MMA boxing is a different thing”, but that is just silly, and speaks to a gap in knowledge of what boxing actually is.
They’ve even invented a term to describe off balance, light hitting, inaccurate, leaving yourself open boxing, called “dirty boxing” as a means of claiming Boxing (seen as a competing sport in this context) has no direct impact on their new, still evolving sport of MMA.
But in fact, Boxing is not a call & response art like traditional MA’s predominantly are. It’s is a narrow skill set applied dynamically and intuitively, and therefore by nature is designed to bend to varying applications, like fighting a 5’9” southpaw hooker in July and a 6’5” right handed speedster in August, who is in effect, practicing a ‘different martial art’ against you than last month’s opponent did.
Adapting to sprawl, leg checks, elbows, backhands, etc. is a very natural thing for an adapt boxer to do.
“Dirty boxing” is not an augmented form of Boxing adapted for a changed environment. Plain old Boxing adapts on it’s own through practice. “Dirty Boxing” is simply boxing being done by someone who’s not coordinated enough to do it very well, and is therefore relegated to a historically and monetarily 2nd tier prizefighting promotion that leans on grappling for half its result.
