Would entering an MMA fight with limited striking background be suicide?

[Dayuum]

There's a local MMA event here soon and one of the guys at the gym I work out at has asked me if I wanted to be on the card. I have boxed for 5 years and did some amateur fights and spent the last 3 years doing BJJ although most of it has been Gi-only.

This would be my opponents first MMA fight also, except he has a pretty extended kickboxing background which reaches far beyond my boxing background in terms of fight but he has no grappling experience at all so all I would need to do is take him down.

Now I don't care so much about winning or losing as much as testing myself and see what happens when I can actually use all my strength in a fight and don't have to be purely technical.

The fight is in November and I will take kickboxing classes but what I'm scared of is that he will low kick the shit out of me before I get the chance to take him down and my shins are pretty much unconditioned, heard it takes up to a year to condition them.

Any advice?

 

[rmongler]

Generally speaking, unprecedented low kicks are rather an opportunity to take the other guy down.

Also, saying its your first opportunity to go 'full strength' seems weird, you should be doing that in training too.

 

[HtomSirveaux]

Does 5 years of boxing really count as "limited striking background"?

 

[j123]

There's a local MMA event here soon and one of the guys at the gym I work out at has asked me if I wanted to be on the card. I have boxed for 5 years and did some amateur fights and spent the last 3 years doing BJJ although most of it has been Gi-only.

This would be my opponents first MMA fight also, except he has a pretty extended kickboxing background which reaches far beyond my boxing background in terms of fight but he has no grappling experience at all so all I would need to do is take him down.

Now I don't care so much about winning or losing as much as testing myself and see what happens when I can actually use all my strength in a fight and don't have to be purely technical.

The fight is in November and I will take kickboxing classes but what I'm scared of is that he will low kick the shit out of me before I get the chance to take him down and my shins are pretty much unconditioned, heard it takes up to a year to condition them.

Any advice?

Not really, you should however, have enough exp. in striking to not get shut down against a better striker should you get hit.

Try to work on closing distance, as long as you get into the clinch, you can work from there (over-under, double under, muay thai collars, etc)

Overall I think you'll be okay. You've done 5 years of boxing and had some ammy fights so its not like striking is completely foreign to you.
For conditioning, he's not going to kick you on your shin, its your thighs he's aiming to hit when it comes to leg kicks.

Also keep in mind BJJ in MMA is different from pure BJJ, go for the sub when you have 100% guarantee, otherwise you'd end up being the guy who had mount, went for an armbar, missed, and now have nothing or maybe worse, ending up on the bottom.
Priority is position, strike until the cows come home, sub as an option when its there. If its near the end of the round, sure, by all means go for it, if its early on, strike away. In the UFC (with high level grapplers) submissions have about a 20% success rate. At the end of the round, if you didn't get the sub, but you have been beating you're opponent's face like a meat hammer, it looks good with the judges, and not to mention wearing out your opponent as well. If you didn't do that, and just did mounting, failing sub attempts, scrambling, repeat. Overall he's fine, and it can go either way with the judging for the round.

Same thing on the bottom, 2-to-1 and hanging out on the bottom for an extended period is not a smart idea with strikes being thrown into the mix.

Does 5 years of boxing really count as "limited striking background"?

Somewhat. Kicks and MT clinching thrown in the mix changes the dynamic with distancing, leg kicks, etc.

 

[Zankou]

5 years of boxing is way more than adequate for an amateur match.

Particularly if the fight is in November, which is far enough that you should be able to learn basic kick defense.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

Entering an MMA fight with little mma experience is suicide whether it be ammy or just hard sparring. You can have a strong striking background but no MMA experience, and you be in bad shape. Having both is great.

 

[yetanother]

Don't you have any mma training partners you can spar against and see how you do?

 

[The Colonel]

You have much more striking experience than Royce Gracie did.

 

[Calibur]

Your opponent has NO (edit) grappling? Lol, in most scenarios you'd be just fine as long as you were experienced getting punched at without panicking.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

5 years of boxing is quite alright for striking for your first mma fight.

 

[EndlessCritic]

Shouldn't it be pretty easy to find a training partner who will throw leg kicks from a distance while you try to take them down?

 

[Foppa21]

Ignoring your 5 years of amateur boxing just going by the question per title, no, it would not be suicide to go into a mma fight with a limited striking background. Caveat, you better have another way of winning and be good at getting the fight to that position becuase you don't really have a plan b thereafter.

 

[no fat chicks]

Sounds like for this type of fight your striking is fine, get that wrasslin as good as you can and take it from ther

 

[TehGwarch]

You can condition your legs to take the kicks in about that length of time.

Ask your team mate to give you some kicks after every class. While you're at it, throw in body shots with MMA gloves.

Build up to it slowly until people can wail on you and you are fine. I'd bet on you in that fight.

 

[ens189]

I had never done any striking in my life. I was an ok high school wrestler and I have a good BJJ competition record (purple belt) I did a four month camp focused almost entirely on kickboxing and won with a second round KO. You just gotta throw yourself into it.

 

[McA]

Do you trust what you've been told about the other guy's skill? Did the information come directly from someone who knows and wouldn't lie, or is it second hand from the fight promoter? Promoters lie.