What's concidered a good reach in MMA and fighting overall?

spacetime

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I just learned my reach is 192 cm. My height is 186 cm. How well would this serve me in fighting? Average reach is the same as your height. When I googled the top MMA fighters in light heavyweight to heavweight, most of them had better than reach than me.. Only the ones with notoriously poor ones do I beat.....

Jon Jones 215 reach

Anthony Johnson - 198 reach

Cain Velasquez - 196 reach

Junior Dos santos 196 reach

Josh Barnett 198 reach

Alexander Gustafsson 201 cm reach

I don't think this is a coincidence. It's almost all monster reaches.. The exceptions are olympic level competitiors in their respective arts, who would dominate either way (because of their natural born talent.
 
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When I googled the top MMA fighters in light heavyweight to heavweight, most of them had better than reach than me.. Only the ones with notoriously poor ones do I beat.....

Why are you surprised ? Cain is the only one that isn't taller than you.
 
Why are you surprised ? Cain is the only one that isn't taller than you.

Because their reach is much greater relative to their height than mine is. I aways thought that my reach (without knowing the actually figure) was great for my height. Guess not...
 
I seriously can't find a UFC star (with a "good"reach), that is worse than mine.

Even George St pierre - 193 reach! and he is only 178 cms tall...

I am a nobody compared to these guys in that department, or at best "OK".
 
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I would like to know mr Bas Ruttens reach. He is 185 cm tall. Does anybody know?
 
I would like to know mr Bas Ruttens reach. He is 185 cm tall. Does anybody know?

They didn't put reach in the tales of the tape back then, I'm not sure if this stat is available.

I am a nobody compared to these guys in that department, or at best "OK".

I have of course no clue about where you stand from a competitive point of view and if you have a pro record, but you are comparing yourself to the best athletes of the sport, world champs and title challengers who are very physically gifted.
 
They didn't put reach in the tales of the tape back then, I'm not sure if this stat is available.



I have of course no clue about where you stand from a competitive point of view and if you have a pro record, but you are comparing yourself to the best athletes of the sport, world champs and title challengers who are very physically gifted.


I am talking physically now. I always assumed my potential was great to for this sport. My father is a 6th dan Shihan in Shotokan Karate, European Champion in team, etc. I basically fight like a Karateka, whether I like it or not. I think it's in my blood..
 
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The reach stats are probably even more off than the official height stats neither is measured officially and I'm sure many fighters wouldnt even bother to measure it.

And they often boost the heights of many fighters anyway so I assume they do the same with their reach.
 
The reach stats are probably even more off than the official height stats neither is measured officially and I'm sure many fighters wouldnt even bother to measure it.

And they often boost the heights of many fighters anyway so I assume they do the same with their reach.

I wonder if thats the case. Take for instance Machida: That I have a mere 4 cm advantage in reach on him seems unlikely. More like 8 cm.. His arms look very short to me.
 
Reach is one aspect of fighting, its not a certainty you'll dominate because of it.

Are you the same poster that made the thread of transitioning to full contact? At this point you're new, so its best to not overthink it, just find a gym (if you haven't), listen to your coach, train and fight.
 
I wonder if thats the case. Take for instance Machida: That I have a mere 4 cm advantage in reach on him seems unlikely. More like 8 cm.. His arms look very short to me.

Gustaffson's reach was for a long time as long as he is tall because he seemingly never bothered to measure it and just used his height but when he fought Jones they measured him and it turned out he had 81inch reach.

They don't usually measure height or reach sometimes they do for some of the bigger names but that's the UFC or in boxing the tv company but no one from any commision measures reach or height fighters usually submit their height and reach along with their nickname and everything.

Shane carwin was listed at 6'5 at one point and Anderson Silva at 5'11 in his UFC debut. And a lot of fighters are obviously not as tall as they are listed.

That's why rashad Evans who is listed at 5'11 but probably actually is 5'11 looks as tall as his 6' opponents and why 6' Rampage looks only slightl taller than 5'10 Wanderlei and so on.

I've also seen an UFC video where they emasured Anderson Silva's reach and it was really as long as it's listed at 78 or 79 inches or so.

But Anderson is 6'2 give or take and he is really long limbed kinda like Jon Jones and he has only 78 inches reach and then guys like Cain velazquez who are like 6'1 or 6' and have a stocky body type with seemingly average at best arms are listed at having 76 inch reach or something.

Tbf Cain has wide shoulders but still. Mark Hunt has also normally long arms and possibly wider shoulders than Cain and he has "only" 74 inch reach even with his wide shoulders
 
Like others have mentioned, reach isn't as important as you're making it out to be. It's one factor that you can't change, so it's really not worth worrying about. Plenty of fighters have been successful without a long reach. Mike Tyson is one obvious example. In MMA, Johny Hendricks doesn't have very long limbs, Machida is considered one of the best in terms of fighting at a distance and he has average length limbs. Also, many of these fighter's measurements are inaccurate, and I'm sure that includes reach (Dan Henderson was listed at 6'1 at one point, Gustaffsons's reach went up several inches before the Jon Jones fight, etc.). And it's really a wingspan measurement. Arm length would provide a more accurate measurement of reach.
 
In addition to reach being only 1 of about 300 physical factors for MMA, I believe the "tale of the tape" ~0% of the time.

Also, a normal sized dude would fight at lightweight or welterweight in the UFC. You're looking at guys who are bigger than 99.9% of the world's population.
 
Gustaffson's reach was for a long time as long as he is tall because he seemingly never bothered to measure it and just used his height but when he fought Jones they measured him and it turned out he had 81inch reach.

They don't usually measure height or reach sometimes they do for some of the bigger names but that's the UFC or in boxing the tv company but no one from any commision measures reach or height fighters usually submit their height and reach along with their nickname and everything.

Shane carwin was listed at 6'5 at one point and Anderson Silva at 5'11 in his UFC debut. And a lot of fighters are obviously not as tall as they are listed.

That's why rashad Evans who is listed at 5'11 but probably actually is 5'11 looks as tall as his 6' opponents and why 6' Rampage looks only slightl taller than 5'10 Wanderlei and so on.

I've also seen an UFC video where they emasured Anderson Silva's reach and it was really as long as it's listed at 78 or 79 inches or so.

But Anderson is 6'2 give or take and he is really long limbed kinda like Jon Jones and he has only 78 inches reach and then guys like Cain velazquez who are like 6'1 or 6' and have a stocky body type with seemingly average at best arms are listed at having 76 inch reach or something.

Tbf Cain has wide shoulders but still. Mark Hunt has also normally long arms and possibly wider shoulders than Cain and he has "only" 74 inch reach even with his wide shoulders
The spider's reach is is 77.5 not 78 this was shown in The Chris fights. I have a 81 inch reach. Life is good.
 
In addition to reach being only 1 of about 300 physical factors for MMA, I believe the "tale of the tape" ~0% of the time.

Also, a normal sized dude would fight at lightweight or welterweight in the UFC. You're looking at guys who are bigger than 99.9% of the world's population.


Not true. 99% of the top atheletes in MMA have massive reaches, as demonstrated. I was among the best at college in sports, including wrestling, against a wrestler no less! And I am a nobody in this group when it comes to reach. You will only find exceptions. It matters alot. Whatever may be true outside of it, you are at a disadvantage with mediocre reach. The same is true in boxing.
 
Not true. 99% of the top atheletes in MMA have massive reaches, as demonstrated. I was among the best at college in sports, including wrestling, against a wrestler no less! And I am a nobody in this group when it comes to reach. You will only find exceptions. It matters alot. Whatever may be true outside of it, you are at a disadvantage with mediocre reach. The same is true in boxing.

Huh? Of course it matters. I'm saying the guys you listed are absolutely massive, and would expected to have big reaches.

The average guy who is destined to be an MMA superstar isn't going to be the size of Anthony Jonhnson, he's going to be the size of Anthony Pettis.
 
I just learned my reach is 192 cm. My height is 186 cm. How well would this serve me in fighting? Average reach is the same as your height. When I googled the top MMA fighters in light heavyweight to heavweight, most of them had better than reach than me.. Only the ones with notoriously poor ones do I beat.....

Jon Jones 215 reach

Anthony Johnson - 198 reach

Cain Velasquez - 196 reach

Junior Dos santos 196 reach

Josh Barnett 198 reach

Alexander Gustafsson 201 cm reach

I don't think this is a coincidence. It's almost all monster reaches.. The exceptions are olympic level competitiors in their respective arts, who would dominate either way (because of their natural born talent.

I don't know how big your are naturally i.e what weight you'd fight at but you might be comparing yourself to guys who are naturally larger i.e they have bigger frames even if they aren't that much taller they'll be wider and have longer limbs. You might be a 5'11" (180cm) FW like Max Holloway but you'd be unlikely to have a reach as big as DC also 5'11" even though he is known for having a below average reach at LHW at 184cm. Max's reach is 178cm. But then your point has some merit when you consider that Conor has the biggest reach of any top 15 FW at 74" (188cm) but is only 5'9" tall (tall for a FW).
 
You can list any high level UFC fighter at a certain height that has an unusually long reach, and then someone else can list another high level fighter at that exact same height with a smaller reach. It's pointless, everyone is built differently.

Nate Diaz is listed at almost exactly your height and reach if that makes you feel any better.
 
Reach really isn't as huge a deal as people have made it. Most of the talk about reach here started shortly after Jon Jones started bullying everyone in the cage. Before him, there weren't too many guys with outstanding reach at the highest level, and many of the ones with good paper reach truly have much less reach in reality.

On average, for MMA, having a reach that is slightly above your height is generally sufficient. How much extra is needed has changed over the years. In the early days, lots of guys had pretty pedestrian reach numbers on average, but now fighters tend to have much longer arms than their predecessors. It's not nearly as vital in MMA as it is in boxing, however, so an increase in reach per unit of height does not necessarily translate into more success.

Good average-armed fighters: Fedor, Cro Cop, Hendricks, Machida, RDA, Frankie Edgar (his reach is ridiculously inflated), Khabib, Sean Sherk, Michael Chandler, Dominick Cruz, TJ, Demian Maia, Jacare.

Your arms aren't even short for your height, so don't worry.
 
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