Which Is A Bigger Weakness: Bad Chin or Bad Cardio?

[M.U.S.C.L.E.]

I swear theres no better feeling in a fight/hard sparring than to feel your opponent fade.

You must be weak as hell. There's no better feeling than murking somebody.

 

[TITS]

he is a decision machine now. Basically play the fight safe and avoid big exchanges and last 15 minutes. He doesn't go in looking for a fight any more because he will lose. THe chin has put a cap on what he can actually do.

He's only been KO'd once in his last 15 fights. I think it's safe to say his chin might be fixed.

 

[blaseblah]

If you are a knockout artist, having a good chin is more preferable. If you are a grinder or point fighter, good cardio is more useful.

 

[Worthmore]

Cardio for sure Conor would be unbeatable if he had endless gas tank

 

[HeDidn'tWantTheFight]

Depends on style. Bad chin would be worse for a striker. Bad cardio would be worse for a grappler.

 

[GolovKing]

I think it depends. If you have a shit ton of power then it's better to be a tank, because you can just run through a lot of people even at the high level, like Romero. Imagine Romero but having good cardio and a weak chin. I think he would have gotten knocked out numerous times in his career. A fighter who doesn't have power but is more a volume type striker needs to have cardio for their game to succeed. They're still gonna struggle against powerful strikers, but they can have success against everyone else

 

[JonJonesNeedle]

It's dependent on who you are fighting.

Bad cardio against a grappler? Good luck
Bad chin against a striker? Good luck

Bad cardio can be somewhat mitigated by pacing yourself. That's something Naganu has been doing.
Bad chin can be somewhat mitigated through good defense.

On a sidenote, good cardio will allow you to recover better from getting cracked, assuming the blow doesn't 100% KO you.

 

[El Fernas]

Rockhold, perceived as having bad chin (more like bad defense), made it to the belt.
Overeem, glass chin, made it to the highest levels everywhere but the UFC, where he did OK just not a champion.

I guess having a bad chin can still get you far as long as you can work well with the rest of what you have, similar to having bad cardio when you shine in other aspects of the game

Conor, no cardio, still won 2 belts.

 

[BEATDOWNS]

Cardio is key! Anyone can get KOed by the right shot.

 

[SokoudjouFanboy]

Depends on the division. As you go up in weight durability becomes more important. You can't have bad cardio at lower weight because you'll fight guys who can go 15/25 hard minutes too frequently.

 

[Gensoking]

Bad cardio easily. Champs with bad cardio (besides at HW and even then Sylvia, Randy, Cain, Stipe, DC all had relatively good cardio) are pretty rare. You can get plenty far with a suspect chin

 

[Emjay]

There's such a thing as bad defense, but there's no such thing as a bad chin

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Bad cardio can be fixed more so a bad chin is worse IMO.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Bad cardio easily. Champs with bad cardio (besides at HW and even then Sylvia, Randy, Cain, Stipe, DC all had relatively good cardio) are pretty rare. You can get plenty far with a suspect chin

I would argue that there have been more UFC champs with below average cardio than below average chins.

 

[DavidThornby]

If you have bad cardio, you will be an easy target and no chin in the world will save you from staying in there. Eventually you will go down.

If you're gassed, you won't take those shots as well or react to roll with the shots. They work hand in hand but cardio is a little more important.

 

[Post 2 Decision]

Bad chin is worse
You're not going to avoid every strike...

But it depends how bad cardio... We talking 1 round and then gassing? Is it balls to the wall 1 round? Medium output for 2 rounds and gas?

 

[MartinBrowntree]

Bad cardio.

At least with a bad chin, you can compensate with good defence and movement to a certain extent (econoreem comes to mind). But if you have bad cardio, there's no saving you there, no matter how strong your chin or fighting skills are.

 

[Gensoking]

I would argue that there have been more UFC champs with below average cardio than below average chins.

I would disagree

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

Depends on what your strengths are. If you're an elite grappler, you will do better with a bad chin than bad cardio. If you're an aggressive quick starter heavy hitter, its the reverse.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

I would disagree

What UFC champion had a below average chin since Arlovski? I can't think of a single one other than Mir and he was an interim champion. Woodley, Lawler and Conor all had below average cardio, that's 4 champions vs 1 and far more recently.