What happened to the fabled “train MMA since the beginning” new generation?

P4PSHERGOAT

P4PSHERGOAT

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I feel like that is a pipe dream and won’t ever happen in any large numbers. Fighting is too wide of a field, unless you are training since practically birth in MMA you will just be mediocre at everything. You need to specialize and become a master at a certain aspect of fighting and use that like a backbone to branch out.

To my knowledge besides Rory Mac no fighter has taken this approach and reached the top of the sport and even he never became champ. MMA will always be filled with experts from other fields transitioning to the sport.
 
It was always a myth. Joe Rogan pushed that narrative as much as he could, but he backtracked on it lately.

Like you mentioned, specialist who branch out and learn different aspects seem to reach higher and farther in MMA. People were believing PVZ and Sage were the new breed of young fighters. Specialist will always have that one aspect they are good at that their opponents can’t match.

Look at all the champions for proof.
 
It's a dumb concept because, like you said, they'd be inferior in skill to someone who trained only one thing for a while in said skill

Wrestling is basically the best base, period. It's been the main differencemaker at high levels for over a decade
 
Frank Edgar said:
It's a dumb concept because, like you said, they'd be inferior in skill to someone who trained only one thing for a while in said skill

Wrestling is basically the best base, period. It's been the main differencemaker at high levels for over a decade
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I think Judo is. you've gotten a variety of throws and takedowns like wrestling with stronger ground work.
 
tasticles said:
I think Judo is. you've gotten a variety of throws and takedowns like wrestling with stronger ground work.
Click to expand...

I'm just basing it on raw data, not personal preference. Judo does have a combination of throws and submissions, but judokas haven't had anywhere near the level of impact on the sport as wrestlers
 
To be fair, I don't think we've seen much of that generation yet. It's gonna take time- MMA really didn't start to become popular in the mainstream until TUF 1 in 2005, and it's reasonable to think that only after that point is when there was a wave of people training cross-discipline MMA as kids. Guys like Edmen Shabazyan and Aaron Pico are the first of that wave of fighters IMO, and the jury is still out on them. I think we need another decade of time to pass before we can really start assessing whether or not these types of fighters who are training multiple disciplines from a young age will have success in the sport.
 
It’s a fabled path.
The extended strain and damage that you put your body through at a young age is actually very detrimental to your growth in combat sports long term.
Many people who train from childhood end up suffering injuries early or put their body through the ringer before they reach their competitive potential. It happens with other competitive sports all the time in highschool and college, even moreso when you have high contact sports like football or wrestling.

It’s easy for a young person to become disillusioned with competitive fighting or find other lucrative avenues that don’t require getting injured daily.

And then you get guys like Khabib and Wonderboy who prove that that type of life can lead to accomplishment.
 
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Frank Edgar said:
It's a dumb concept because, like you said, they'd be inferior in skill to someone who trained only one thing for a while in said skill

Wrestling is basically the best base, period. It's been the main differencemaker at high levels for over a decade
Click to expand...
I rather put my son in wrestling from the beginning than just train MMA as his main thing.
 
So long as the starting pay is 12k to get your head punched in at the absolute highest level of the sport, good luck getting suitably young talented athletes to enter MMA.

People with options don't choose MMA. The risk -vs- reward is totally out of wack. When people defend the UFC for paying a paltry 18% of revenue to fighters, they gloss over the fact that it keeps the overall quality of the sport down. This is the reason we are shuffling around geriatric old farts at heavyweight.
 
DS66 said:
To be fair, I don't think we've seen much of that generation yet. It's gonna take time- MMA really didn't start to become popular in the mainstream until TUF 1 in 2005, and it's reasonable to think that only after that point is when there was a wave of people training cross-discipline MMA as kids. Guys like Edmen Shabazyan and Aaron Pico are the first of that wave of fighters IMO, and the jury is still out on them. I think we need another decade of time to pass before we can really start assessing whether or not these types of fighters who are training multiple disciplines from a young age will have success in the sport.
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Pico is a specialist, he’s a wrestler. Edmen could be, but his gym lacks overall knowledge in all the aspects of MMA.
 
P4PSHERGOAT said:
I feel like that is a pipe dream and won’t ever happen in any large numbers. Fighting is too wide of a field, unless you are training since practically birth in MMA you will just be mediocre at everything. You need to specialize and become a master at a certain aspect of fighting and use that like a backbone to branch out.

To my knowledge besides Rory Mac no fighter has taken this approach and reached the top of the sport and even he never became champ. MMA will always be filled with experts from other fields transitioning to the sport.
Click to expand...
there have been plenty but theyre not training in "mma" as was talked about its going from one discipline to the next after getting a high proficiency in it. mma is afterall just the mix of those things and if youre going to a strictly "mma" gym ur not gonna get specialized training in anything
 
DS66 said:
To be fair, I don't think we've seen much of that generation yet. It's gonna take time- MMA really didn't start to become popular in the mainstream until TUF 1 in 2005, and it's reasonable to think that only after that point is when there was a wave of people training cross-discipline MMA as kids. Guys like Edmen Shabazyan and Aaron Pico are the first of that wave of fighters IMO, and the jury is still out on them. I think we need another decade of time to pass before we can really start assessing whether or not these types of fighters who are training multiple disciplines from a young age will have success in the sport.
Click to expand...
Training multiple disciplines is different that training just MMA though, Aaron pico trained in wrestling and boxing two separate arts not just MMA like was said would happen. And what will happen to all the elite BJJ players or collegiate/Olympic level wrestlers and the few and far between elite strikers then? They are not going anywhere and they will still dominate.
 
Sure Dawg said:
there have been plenty but theyre not training in "mma" as was talked about its going from one discipline to the next after getting a high proficiency in it. mma is afterall just the mix of those things and if youre going to a strictly "mma" gym ur not gonna get specialized training in anything
Click to expand...
What do you mean high proficiency? 2-3 years in each art? Because to gain any real proficiency you probably need at least 6 years of very focused training in that art and by that point your a specialist.
 
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