Why do HW UFC fighters have so much shorter reach than Boxers?

[blaseblah]

here's what a journeyman kickboxer accomplished in mma with some TDD

A K-1 Grand Prix champion is a journeyman?

 

[Dana_is_your_GOD]

We always talk about "reach advantage". I find it interesting that it appears far less necessary than in Boxing.
HW champion boxers have far more reach than UFC HW champs;
Tyson Fury - 85" --------------------------- Brock Lesnar - 81"
Lennox Lewis - 84" ------------------------ Stipe Miocic - 80"
Deontay Wilder - 83" ---------------------- Tim Sylvia - 80"
Hasim Rachman - 82" -------------------- Junior Dos Santos - 77"
Anthony Joshua - 82" --------------------- Fabricio Werdum - 77"
Wladamir K. - 81" -------------------------- Andrei Arlovski - 77"
Vitali K. - 80' --------------------------------- Cain Velasquez - 77"
Joseph Parker - 76" ----------------------- Randy Couture - 75"
Mike Tyson - 71"----------------------------- Daniel Cormier - 72.5"

Tysons reach shorter than DCs.

Arguement fail

 

[cheesus]

Boxers rely on reach a lot more heavily, it's pretty to win rounds by continually jabbing in mma. Length has it's purpose in mma but it can be a disadvantage on shorter stockier wrestlers.

 

[WinZip]

A K-1 Grand Prix champion is a journeyman?

So are Olympic medalists

This is Sherdog, everyone is a journeyman, especially champions

 

[Tour'soverboyo]

Boxers are A level athletes for the most part

People might think you’re just trying to rustle jimmies here, but you’re right.

The real sports get the prime A level athletes with the natural gifts and talent. MMA gets the bottom of the barrel, which is why their top HW’s are full time firefighters and 40 year old former olympians who are years past their athletic prime yet can still trounce the whole division

 

[Paynebringer]

It's called MUSCLE son guaranteed you don't want some, but you gonna get some keep asking about my Roo Juice...

 

[bad seed]

A K-1 Grand Prix champion is a journeyman?

have you seen the entrants for that Grand Prix? It was the weakest field in K1 history. The most threatening fighter was Badr Hari, and he was pulled because of injuries.

 

[StrikerKing]

Boxing is a highly evolved A/B level sport where the the majority of elites athletes at the top have sport-specific body types - e.g. long limbs.

MMA is a growing C level sport with mostly leftover athletes from other sports, especially at HW. It's not remotely selective enough at the top to funnel sport specific body types through and leave the rest behind.

I agree with this to some extent, but combat sports are entirely different than most that require body specific requirements to be at the top. An elite bench presser, for example, will have an advantage if he has shorter arms,thus less range of motion. But the opposite holds true in deadlifting, where arm length is an advantage.

However with combat sports, be it boxing, wrestling, or MMA, its more about using your stature to your advantage. Mike tyson used his compact frame to generate loads of power and speed in a very quick amount of time to be succesful. He could not have done the same thing if he was a lanky 6'6" boxer. Same with Marciano. Its simple biomechanics. point being, yes some sports require a specific body type, but with MMA and boxing, there is no type, its more important to utilize the physical tools you have effectively.

 

[blaseblah]

have you seen the entrants for that Grand Prix? It was the weakest field in K1 history. The most threatening fighter was Badr Hari, and he was pulled because of injuries.

Londt, Zhuravlev, and Miller are legit. Miller is ranked the 7th best boxer in the world right now. And that was a waaaay past prime Cro Cop who washed out of the UFC. He was one of the best kickboxers in the world in his prime and even today is arguably a better kickboxer than he is an mma fighter.

 

[Taric]

MMA has grappling.

 

[superpunch]

For the same reasaon an MMA fighter cuts 20-30 lbs of water, and a boxer cuts 5-10. Different physical attributes are more important in each sport. In MMA, you'll never see a 210 lb guy dominate the HW division. You see it in boxing all the time.

 

[jk.rock]

have you seen the entrants for that Grand Prix? It was the weakest field in K1 history. The most threatening fighter was Badr Hari, and he was pulled because of injuries.

here's what a journeyman kickboxer accomplished in mma with some TDD

I'm sure Mirko got to a K1 gp quarter final and final in his prime years kickboxing and lost both to prime hoost who is arguably the K1 GOAT so hardly a journey man but one of the best in the world .

 

[WHITE ANDERSON]

I thought I was going back WAYYYY to far with Mike Tyson (Pre UFC.)
Briggs - 80"
Foreman - 78.5"
Ali - 78"
Holyfield - 77.5"
RJJ - 74" (HW?)
Toney - 72" (HW?)

TUF noob detected Toney was a HW champ and choked out King Mo in training
RJJ was a HW champ too, guess u forgot...

 

[cevo]

Boxing is a highly evolved A/B level sport where the the majority of elites athletes at the top have sport-specific body types - e.g. long limbs.

MMA is a growing C level sport with mostly leftover athletes from other sports, especially at HW. It's not remotely selective enough at the top to funnel sport specific body types through and leave the rest behind.

Long limbs is not as important in MMA beacause of grappling -> different type of selection

Also, there's plenty of "A-level" athletes in MMA. DJ/Cejudo that we just saw last week is a perfect example of 2 A-level athletes. It doesn't get more athletic than that, in any sport. The notion that MMA is filled with leftovers that couldn't cut it in the real sports is beyond stupid. But sure, MMA is a young sport so there's still a lot of average athletes in the UFC.

A third point: Reach stats are bullshit for most part. Some of them are extremely exaggerated for promotional purposes.

 

[MCS]

When guys start out the ones with longer arms tend to do better and doing well makes them want to continue. In MMA there are so many styles and backgrounds that you can do well without boxing.

 

[NekMinnit]

Top HW boxers would be terrible, they are far too tall. It is well known that it is easier to takedown tall fighters vs shorter fighters. Also generally speaking, applying the MMaths rule of thumb. A pure kick boxer beats a pure boxer, a pure wrestler beats both and a pure bjj artist trumps all. Hence the reason...

bjj > wrestling > kickboxing > boxing
*But when combined, i believe a wrestler is best*

Also Mark Hunt was a terrible boxer but a good mma fighter and fought for the UFC HW title.

Badr Hari was the greatest kickboxer ever but a terrible mma fighter.

James Toney was a decorated HW boxer but a terrible mma fighter.

 

[100action]

Boxers are A level athletes for the most part

Boxing is a highly evolved A/B level sport where the the majority of elites athletes at the top have sport-specific body types - e.g. long limbs.

MMA is a growing C level sport with mostly leftover athletes from other sports, especially at HW. It's not remotely selective enough at the top to funnel sport specific body types through and leave the rest behind.

Sport specific body types is of vital importance if you want to perform well in a highly competitive sport



MMA hasn't reached this level yet and that's why you'll see all body types.

These arguments are irrelvant.

If reach was the end all and be all, C level athletes in MMA with long reach would replace those the existing C level MMA athletes with short reach.

If there is empirical evidence to suggest fighters of a similar weightclass have shorter reach in MMA compared to Boxing, that would point to the fact it is not as important, not the quality of athletes (i.e. being a C level athlete doesnt preclude you from having long reach).

 

[Mbmmax]

We always talk about "reach advantage". I find it interesting that it appears far less necessary than in Boxing.
HW champion boxers have far more reach than UFC HW champs;
Tyson Fury - 85" --------------------------- Brock Lesnar - 81"
Lennox Lewis - 84" ------------------------ Stipe Miocic - 80"
Deontay Wilder - 83" ---------------------- Tim Sylvia - 80"
Hasim Rachman - 82" -------------------- Junior Dos Santos - 77"
Anthony Joshua - 82" --------------------- Fabricio Werdum - 77"
Wladamir K. - 81" -------------------------- Andrei Arlovski - 77"
Vitali K. - 80' --------------------------------- Cain Velasquez - 77"
Joseph Parker - 76" ----------------------- Randy Couture - 75"
Mike Tyson - 71"----------------------------- Daniel Cormier - 72.5"

Reach is more important in box where it's strictly a standing striking game.

 

[Brock-B-level-Athlete]

I think you'd be surprised.

noob

 

[Hard To Tell]

For the same reasaon an MMA fighter cuts 20-30 lbs of water, and a boxer cuts 5-10. Different physical attributes are more important in each sport. In MMA, you'll never see a 210 lb guy dominate the HW division. You see it in boxing all the time.

That's mainly because there's a lot more skill, refinement and finesse in boxing so it isn't as reliant on using a size advantage and brute force to dry hump your way to victory.