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

Not everyone who trains from a young age wants to stick with it. Injuries/Burn out happen a lot. Not to mention, there's a lot of things in MMA parents aren't going to let their kids start training super early. Kids arent gonna be sparring at 7. There are tons of guys in MMA now that have been doing BJJ/Wrestling or grappling in general since they were little kids, whereas 10 years ago most guys were lucky to have 5 years experience as a pro and like 10 total training years lmao.
 
The idea that cross-overs wouldn't be able to find success or there would be a bunch of guys who started in MMA gyms when they were 5 years old was a myth, as many have said.

However, there have been a lot more than just Rory. Rory is probably the purest example of that idea, but if you don't count people who did a martial art for a couple years as a kid as people who transitioned into MMA the list gets much longer. Someone who did something in middle school before starting cross training as a teenager isn't even remotely close to the same thing as a true specialist like Maia, Adesanya, CroCop, Coleman, Askren, etc.

Fighters who did a martial art for a little while and started cross training early on (AKA not a specialist transitioning over)
-Fedor (the most controversial one I'm including, because you could claim that he was training for sambo not MMA, but Fedor has been cross-training in grappling and boxing since he was a young teen and a huge majority of his sambo accomplishments came AFTER he was already fighting professionally. His training for the two was essentially the same. )
-GSP
-Anderson Silva
-Conor McGregor
-Paulo Costa
-Carlos Condit
-Nick Diaz
-Nate Diaz
-Darren Till (pro MT, but switched to MMA at 17 years old)

There are many, many more. These are just the ones I thought of quickly.

These guys are way more similar to the idea of training MMA all along than to the idea of being highly specialized and switching over
 
? All the current champs are well-rounded, save for maybe Usman
 
In theory that would lead to generic fighters. I think they have to be good at everything but great at their one thing. It's almost impossible to be outstanding in every area. It's just that we won't have AS many fighters who are glaringly bad in any area. At least at the highest levels.
 
OriginMMA said:
They are approaching it the wrong way. They are pretty much a jack of all trades master of none type of fighter. You need to train all arts but what you mostly have to master is how to transition them into your mma game and throughout the fight. These “mma” trainee guys still can’t transition striking to grappling very well. Someone like Edmen was pretty much a striker who learned mma as a kid but still didn’t grapple much. He might as well just mastered boxing or kickboxing with that approach. He was a good striker but not a great one.
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Thank you. I've been saying this.
Stipe is the HW champ of the world. He has great boxing and great wrestling but do you know what he lacks? He does transition and connect both well. He's either boxing or wrestling.

Compare that to say a GSP who probably has the best transitions between striking and wrestling ever.
 
Kids can't watch MMA when they're young. It's a PPV sport where the main event finishes at like midnight. Why would kids get excited to become something they can't even watch?
 
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Based on all the Khabib Sambo footage from before his MMA career, it looks like his "Sambo" was basically just MMA so he kind of counts for that.
 
The amateur mma scene is still a joke, that's why you dont see many guys doing mma from the start as children, it also costs a lot of money, so the kind of people who enroll their kids into mma classes are gonna be middle class people who just dont want their kids to be bullied, but these types arent likely to become elite fighters either way. If you are some poor or working class kid who is tough and has talent you are still going to be better off going to wrestling where you can get a scholarship or at least another sport that won't cost you so much train
 
P4PSHERGOAT said:
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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No, I do mean 6+ years. It's not uncommon even before mma for a kid to start wrestling or bjj at 5 or 6 years old, go to any naga and youll see. my gym has a packed kids class of that age. Once the kid is 12-13 boxing or some other form of striking begins though theyve likely already started with the fundamentals, with those two bases youre already going to be much better than most,the rest is accessory at that point. Parents in the know put their kid in some form of dance during that time period as well.
 
Huligani said:
Based on all the Khabib Sambo footage from before his MMA career, it looks like his "Sambo" was basically just MMA so he kind of counts for that.
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well sambo is basically mma with gi tops
 
The reality is mma is still an expensive sport to train in n money isn’t good nuff to attract top talent.

so you will still end up with bjj/wrestlers transitioning into mma or some football/basketball player who couldn’t make it to nfl/nba.

If mma was an Olympic sports n there was hs and ncaa mma programs you would see many talented fighters with their base being mma.

if that happen then you would no longer see guys like ngannou picking up the sport in his mud 20s and becoming top fighter
 
Despite all the talk about the new breed & fighters being so much more well rounded, there are still plenty of top 10 ranked guys who are primarily grapplers. I would say overall, there are more well rounded guys now, but there still plenty of guys who do not have good striking yet are at the top of the heap (eg very highly ranked)
 
Local Plata said:
Not everyone who trains from a young age wants to stick with it. Injuries/Burn out happen a lot. Not to mention, there's a lot of things in MMA parents aren't going to let their kids start training super early. Kids arent gonna be sparring at 7. There are tons of guys in MMA now that have been doing BJJ/Wrestling or grappling in general since they were little kids, whereas 10 years ago most guys were lucky to have 5 years experience as a pro and like 10 total training years lmao.
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To add to this:

There aren't really many "MMA Gyms" that have high level MMA wrestling and striking and BJJ + other shit.

Most MMA gyms are just BJJ gyms dabbling in MMA. Which is fine, but there isn't going to be some stud wrestling room adapted to MMA rules or some stud muay thai / boxing / kick boxing instructor + good BJJ no-gi let alone adapting either of those specifically to MMA.

How many of those gyms exist? Basically they are the top pro gyms like City-Kickboxing, AKA, ATT, Tristar, and even then I don't think each place necessarily gives you that base.

Simply put it's way better to compete against the top tier guys in a specific art like wrestling, or boxing or no-gi BJJ to become very good at it than it would be in some general MMA setting. Obviously.

There's never going to be a D1 college level wrestling room let alone a D2 or JUCO room when you walk into an MMA gym.
 
OriginMMA said:
They are approaching it the wrong way. They are pretty much a jack of all trades master of none type of fighter. You need to train all arts but what you mostly have to master is how to transition them into your mma game and throughout the fight. These “mma” trainee guys still can’t transition striking to grappling very well. Someone like Edmen was pretty much a striker who learned mma as a kid but still didn’t grapple much. He might as well just mastered boxing or kickboxing with that approach. He was a good striker but not a great one.
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Yeah bro I think you’re right, the transition period between striking and grappling is where guys can really become great look at Demetrius Johnson, GSP, and none other than khabib. And there’s even transitions between different striking arts like boxing and Muay Thai and tae Kwon do. The transition phase is pretty much the peak of martial arts and its own thing, that’s what MMA really is and 99% of fighters don’t train that way. Making all martial arts become seamless
 
HP_Nut said:
Despite all the talk about the new breed & fighters being so much more well rounded, there are still plenty of top 10 ranked guys who are primarily grapplers. I would say overall, there are more well rounded guys now, but there still plenty of guys who do not have good striking yet are at the top of the heap (eg very highly ranked)
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Totally agree. It's just that "not good striking" now a days is probably significantly better than the equivalent 10 years ago and obviously further back.

Khabib, Usman, Colby - come to mind. If they were transplanted back to 2005-2009 they might just fall in love with their hands from knocking people out honestly. They would probably be much more effective strikers then, but today they all generally "suck" compared to their peers.
 
Kb7 said:
Pico is a specialist, he’s a wrestler. Edmen could be, but his gym lacks overall knowledge in all the aspects of MMA.
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Pico was also a national champion golden gloves boxer. He has trained at multiple aspects of mma since he was very young.
 
Just like the, “new breed of HW,” they’re all lurking in shadows planning the eventual takeover of the sport
 
P4PSHERGOAT said:
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.
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Untill mma is in the Olympics/NCAA/has world championships at ages from say 13 on, it will not be able to attract top level athletes. There are 13 yo boxers who are better at boxing then most mma fighters. The accolades and results that are possible down the line draw them to boxing/wrestling at an earlier age. If there were mma competitions at those ages on the same level there are boxing and wrestling, you might see some high level guys go that path. Do I think 10-12 year olds should be fighting in mma? Probably not. Yet we see it in wrestling/boxing/muay thai from 6 year olds sometimes even earlier and its socially acceptable, once mma is on their level socially and world wide completions are in place. The overall level of the sport will go up.
 
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