The Athlete You Would Have Most Wanted To See Try MMA

chaos_36 said:
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6'8, 250 pounds, 84.25 inch reach, freak athlete, coordinated as hell, awesome cardio. The Heavyweight division would get owned if Lebron ever committed himself to martial arts.
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I get it, it makes sense as he is an athletically gifted individual.... but have you ever been in the gym with tall lanky guys??? dude... 9 times out of ten they look like flopping fish out of water. Ball sports are so much different than martial arts... I think Lebron could be an awesome Job guy though... have you seen his flops in the NBA? jesus they are cringe worthy.

Guys like Lebron don't have flexibility in their hips based on the skill set they used for basketball their whole lives, height and weight, so you can pretty much guess no bottom game, pretty horrible kicks... Could probably learn a good punching game... really none of the skills in basketball apply when you really think about it... Just because Jon Jones is tall and lanky, and great, doesn't make it a good fighter build... and furthermore... Jon sucks at basketball and is good at MMA... so....
 
I will put a name out since I am blasting the idiocy. Rob Gronkowski. 6'6" 265 pounds athletic strong build. Hard to take down in the NFL, Good hand eye coordination, could probably be a force with 3 years of training as he would be as big as anyone in the division, probably can take a hit(NFL, CTE, you know) and wouldn't have to get in shape, he would need at least a year of striking and wrestling training before any amateur fights... I mean he could beat scrubs before a year, heck 6 months but... if he wanted to become champ... 3 years training then fast track to find out if he can take it.
 
King Koopa said:
UFC heavyweights are lucky Lebron James isn’t interested in becoming a fighter !
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Watching Lebrons reaction every time Draymond Green or anyone else fouls him makes me think otherwise. I have zero faith in Basketball players and Soccer players they don't have the toughness or heart to compete in Combat Sports.



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Latrell Sprewell had some pretty good BJJ. Ask P. J. Carlesimo.



Plus he was 6'5", 195 lbs, probably could've cut to MW.
 
I'll bet Sir Charles Barkley would've been a beast at HW. Although he would have to cut about 20-30 lbs. The guy was 6'4" 290 and one of the best big man athletes of his time.



I was obviously joking about Sprewell in an earlier post, but I think young Charles could've manhandled a lot of HWs. He was a freak athlete with underrated strength and probably power.
 
Mike Aulby or Michael van Gerwen.

Seriously though, it is pretty much impossible to choose somebody who has not competed in some form of combat sports, and even then I would not bet on them having success in MMA. Being an top level athlete in your chosen sport does not translate to MMA success. It does speak to one's drive to succeed and gene pool lottery winner but that's it. It takes a special kind of freak who wants to punch, kick or choke another human being for money and that is a skill/mindset that is hard to gauge. Richard Marcinko? Dave Shultz?
 
jko1355 said:
I get it, it makes sense as he is an athletically gifted individual.... but have you ever been in the gym with tall lanky guys??? dude... 9 times out of ten they look like flopping fish out of water. Ball sports are so much different than martial arts... I think Lebron could be an awesome Job guy though... have you seen his flops in the NBA? jesus they are cringe worthy.

Guys like Lebron don't have flexibility in their hips based on the skill set they used for basketball their whole lives, height and weight, so you can pretty much guess no bottom game, pretty horrible kicks... Could probably learn a good punching game... really none of the skills in basketball apply when you really think about it... Just because Jon Jones is tall and lanky, and great, doesn't make it a good fighter build... and furthermore... Jon sucks at basketball and is good at MMA... so....
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Lebron isn't just some regular lanky guy though. He's coordinated and has those fast twitch fibres which mean he'll generally have a speed advantage over opponents. Flexibility can be learned to a certain degree, sure he won't have BJ Penn type flexibility but he could become flexible enough to perform most if not all kicks needed in MMA. On top of all that he has the resources and financial status to get the very best training in every aspect needed to excel in MMA. The only big question that would really need to be answered is whether or not he could take a shot, all the athletic ability in the world won't amount to shit if he's got a Jonathan Goulet type chin. Sure he flops all over the place in Basketball but that's just him attempting to exploit the rules and game the system.
 
jko1355 said:
I will put a name out since I am blasting the idiocy. Rob Gronkowski. 6'6" 265 pounds athletic strong build. Hard to take down in the NFL, Good hand eye coordination, could probably be a force with 3 years of training as he would be as big as anyone in the division, probably can take a hit(NFL, CTE, you know) and wouldn't have to get in shape, he would need at least a year of striking and wrestling training before any amateur fights... I mean he could beat scrubs before a year, heck 6 months but... if he wanted to become champ... 3 years training then fast track to find out if he can take it.
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Gronkowski redefined TE, but he's way too injury prone. Not even 30 and he's already talking about retiring.
 
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