Who would you consider an “Elite Striker” in the UFC?

[Starman]

In technical terms Rose is very good. She has great form when she throws the hook and the straight back hand

You can’t actually believe this.

Sherdog is the trash bin of sports fandom. There is literally no stupider collective of fans anywhere else on earth.

 

[skylolow]

The problem is when someone say elite striking the first thing comes to mind is boxing. This is MMA, not boxing. The stances are completely different. The way you engae is completely different. There is no comparison.

Kickboxing is probably the closest to really compare and even that you could make arguments about.

Look at a guy like Aaron Pico's boxing and wrestling credentials. He won the national PAL and golden glove in boxing. Found great success in Pankration which combines boxing/wrestling/sambo more or less. Bigger in Russia/European part of the world. He won the Gold cup in that. Has excellent wrestling creds. Bottom line of all this, he has had plenty of hiccups in MMA and in any one of these art forms he would destroyed his opponent he fought in MMA.

Guess what I'm trying to say is MMA striking is its own thing. The list is long of guys in MMA that have had great success in the striking department in MMA and many you could argue as great or elite.

 

[Tom B]

You can’t actually believe this.

Sherdog is the trash bin of sports fandom. There is literally no stupider collective of fans anywhere else on earth.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

You can’t actually believe this.

Sherdog is the trash bin of sports fandom. There is literally no stupider collective of fans anywhere else on earth.

Just automatically assume that accounts made in this decade are troll accounts and move on, you'll enjoy the forum more.
Rose an elite striker is one I never thought I'd hear

Accolades wise and currently? Izzy, Poatan and wonderboy.

historically: cro cop, semmy scihilt, james toney, gokhan saki, tyrone spong.

straight up mma striking all time: anderson silva

Good list.
Always felt for the guys that stepped into the ring against Semmy, looked like a Double Dragon boss fight.

 

[AmonTobin]

Adesanya, Israel

 

[Maori]

Volk is paddy cake. Elite striker? <Lmaoo>

Noobs.

Yeah bud. Volk is just flat lining fighters with pillow fists.

City Kickboxing is a legit striking gym, people forget it was a KB gym first and foremost before it transitioned into MMA. I think if Volk focused on KB with Baremans help, he could challenge on the KB world circuit.

Champion? Probably not

 

[FIghtxIQ]

The term gets thrown around quite a bit. Which UFC strikers are on par with strikers from all sports?

IMO there aren’t to many in the UFC, Adesanya, Pereira and Volkanovski immediately come to mind. Throw in the woman if you like.

Reason I ask is striking battles in the UFC can get ugly quick, really bad technique when compared to kickboxers and boxers alike.

Love to see where the level of striking is in 50 years

Izzy and Pereira yes, Volk is good but not elite level striking. His overall mma game is what wins him his fights, his striking alone would be exploited by higher level strikers. He beat Max but Max has always had issues vs fighters with footwork and leg kicks. Also fighters that can fire back with boxing counters. So Max will always have a hard time vs someone like Volk. He basically beat Max with just leg kicks in one of their fights and the other was just countering and feinting Max as he tried to close distance. Max never had really great enteries. He would just pressure forward throwing volume, he would just try and out volume and eat shots as he throws his shots depending on his chin to make him pull ahead. He's always had issues with fighters with sharp counters. Same thing happened vs Poirer and Yair.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

You think these guys fair well in striking sports? I watch boxing and kickboxing and a fair few of these guys are a couple pegs below

Yeah many are great at mma striking level but not elite at pure striking level. Whittaker vs Izzy just shows how different the striking skill difference was and Pereira vs Izzy shows the striking skill difference gap as well.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

See McGregor vs Mayweather & quit asking silly questions.

He was just the first to try. He won't be the last and other mma fighters will learn from all the mistakes Conor and other mma fighters made in terms of boxing training and skill sets when trying to compete with high/elite level boxers.

Conor never had a boxing style that would give Mayweather problems. Conor is basically Euro style boxing and that's usually regional level. They don't do well on the global level. All the successful fighters from UK had to start training in USA to find success on the global level once they step up in competition.

 

[snaportap21]

You think these guys fair well in striking sports? I watch boxing and kickboxing and a fair few of these guys are a couple pegs below

Gokan Saki was slept standing in the ufc. I

 

[FIghtxIQ]

Give boxers and kickboxers 5 minute rounds, an octagon and 4oz gloves and we'll see..

Have you seen mma fighters try to fight boxing rounds? They can't hang. Volume/pace/intensity is different. MMA fighters are just used to a slower pace or using grappling to stall moments of the fight to rest. In boxing you can't do that. Just look at all the mma fighters that tried to fight in boxing or the ones that tried sparring elite level boxers. You'll see that boxers have the best cardio/conditioning. Boxing also has the longest actual fight time, it was even more before when they had 15 rounds.

Lets see grapplers conditioning if all they can do is strike, you'll see how different striking and grappling conditioning is. Many fighters that look like they have great conditioning will be completely gassed quickly.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

Gokan Saki was slept standing in the ufc. I

Not all fighters are the same. Just look at Izzy and Pereira for a better example.

 

[andgonsil]

Leon Edwards

 

[FIghtxIQ]

mma striking is completely different than kickboxing and boxing so I hate it when people say it's not high level. It's completely different due to the threat of the takedown.

The point of this thread is which mma fighters can actually compete with the best fighters in striking combat sports. There really isn't many and that's why a lot of fighters don't try to cross over into other combat sports. Most just do BKFC after because they'll most likely fight other mma fighters, you don't see fighters trying to switch to boxing or kickboxing/muay thai and try to sign to the major promotions. Fighters know the difference in skill that's why mma fighters for the most part don't even attempt it.

 

[bongwater]

jones

 

[FIghtxIQ]

Prime TJ was an underrated striker

He does better vs stationary strikers and grappling based fighters. He always struggled vs decent and higher level strikers. Just look at his losses and his sparring sessions when he did spar elite level boxers and kickboxers.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

Remember when MMA fighters did K1? They're much better now than then, so I'd expect plenty to do alright against top kickboxers. Keep 4oz gloves on and they might do even better.

Current fighters I instantly think of as elite within MMA are Yan, prime Garbrandt, prime Cruz, Aldo, Izzy, Weili, Holloway, Poatan, Volk, Whittaker, Fiziev, Riddell. Not saying there aren't others or that others wouldn't do well in kickboxing.
inb4 "Holloway gets punched a fucktonne and had to take down Yair".

A lot of fighters didn't do well and K1 always won in the end minus Overeem. Well even Overeem lost to K1 fighters but he did get to win the Grand Prix.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

When’s the last time you turned on Showtime boxing and seen the #89th ranked middleweight boxer vs the #56 ranked middleweight?

When you mention guys outside the top 100 you're talking about guys that fight at the county fair as a lead into the demolition derby.

In that case, then sure, there’s some UFC strikers that would hold their own.

A lot of the boxers on ShoBox are around that ranking and they have fighters around that ranking as the undercards for many fight cards. For example Hasim Rahman Jr. was ranked around 250 in Heavyweight division around the time he was going to fight Jake Paul and right before he boxed Greg Hardy.

 

[snaportap21]

Not all fighters are the same. Just look at Izzy and Pereira for a better example.

Being an elite striker somewhere else doesn’t automatically make you elite in mma. so elite strikers in mma don’t need to be able to compete well with elite strikers in another sport. Get it?

 

[FIghtxIQ]

wtf are you talking about lmfao yes, they’d make more money in the ufc, and that’s exactly why they’re there. who was denying that? i was simply talking about where they’d fall, as far as skill level. even journeymen like clay collard and ryan ford have made a nice career out of beating up young guys and getting their ass kicked by real talent.

That's the thing if their skill level was higher they would be able to make more in boxing. Kickboxing and muay thai, yes the fight purses are lower than mma unless maybe if you fight for ONE which would have their fight purses closer to mma fight purses. Especially for their fighters that cross over into the other combat sports.