I used to think UFC was harder, but I believe boxing is more competitive and more disciplined. You cant just walk in from some random place and be succesful... whereas in UFC you can... and often random people beat proven guys because of some freak occurence in the octagon... lack of dicipline. Whereas boxing is way more technical, polished...disciplined.. you dont win easily or get far easily without putting in some serious work, and having some natural talents to go with it. Plus rarely do fights get won by luck. I watched UFC religiously for 8 years then stopped... got tired of guys doing random **** like a spinning cartwheel.... and then twisting an ankle and getting KTFO... really...? You trained 12 weeks for that? You made me stay up till 4AM to watch you blow it?
Hmmm, good question. MMA fighter have to contend with being punched in the face with gloves with no padding, leg kicks, body kicks and head kicks, and they get very little money to do so. Most boxers don’t make any money either but top guys at least make millions. MMA guys don’t make much money, even the top guys, compared to boxing. In MMA, you are going to get punched, kicked or taken down and abused. There are no dancers who can avoid contact like there are in boxing (guys like BJS, Fury, etc). You rarely see guys finishing fights without any damage like you do in boxing. Boxers have to fight 10 or 12 round fights which is rough, compared to 3-5 round fights but MMA fighting is more taxing so it’s probably a push. Also, MMA fighter can’t cherry pick opponents as easily as boxing. There is much less A side BS in MMA. Especially UFC, they tell you who to fight and if you refuse, you are relegated to the bottom of the stack or booted out. Still, I’d say both are equally hard overall, although MMA is probably harder. Getting paid to fight is a rough business. I prefer boxing by a wide margin and rarely watch MMA these days. One thing about MMA that I appreciate is that it exposed most mainstream martial arts. People used to think karate, Kung fu or other traditional martial arts experts would crush tough street fighters or wrestlers. MMA has shown good wrestlers with a little training can dominate most traditional martial arts experts in a fight. This is not true of some martial arts like jujitsu or Muy Thai (sp?). Those styles are good for fighting although the top MMA fighters these days combine many disciplines.
UFC is more brutal. You risk taking legal knees, elbows, and kicks to the face. The gloves are barely padded. And a guy can legally rip your arm from your socket. That said, boxing is an art form. MMA is for closet dudes.
MMA is a lot more complicated. In boxing you just have to perfect your boxing style. In MMA you need boxing, wresting, kickboxing, jiujitsu etc. There must be no end to the training at the top level.
MMA, even though I like boxing better by a wide margin. Chael Sonnen made a good point about the disparity in cancellations due to injury in MMA compared to boxing, and it's true. UFC fighters are injured WAY more often than boxers. Sure, boxing matches do get cancelled due to injuries now and then, but virtually any fighter who has been in the UFC for any length of time has had to pull out multiple times from injuries. Erik Morales' fragile hands and Fernando Vargas' wracked back are a bedtime story compared to the injury woes of Khabib, Dominick Cruz, Gustuffson, or TJ Grant. I also believe MMA is more challenging because in boxing you see most fighters go off and get fat on vacation for a month or two (sometimes three or four) after a big win. Pretty much any MMA fighter who behaves like that will face a string of losses. It's not to say MMA fighters go from training camp right into another camp. But I've been around a lot of MMA fighters, including several who have made it to UFC/Bellator/PFL. When those guys win a fight on Saturday, by the next Thursday they're back in the gym hitting pads or drilling guard passes. There's so much to learn that these guys never get a vacation. That said, the participation level in boxing globally means there's a much tougher competition to get to the top. Being an Olympic gold medalist or a legit, lineal, undisputed champion in pro boxing is way more prestigious and rarified than winning a UFC belt. It's not even close.
Yes. So many different disciplines to master, so many moves to perfect, so many energy systems to use, so much punishment to take... In Boxing, If you have better hands than your opponent, you pretty much win (most of the time). In MMA it just isn't that easy. Grapplers KO Strikers, Grapplers get submitted by Strikers - it's so unpredictable.
It’s a difficult question. I certainly think MMA is more difficult in terms of staying unbeaten if you go through a murderers row, a lot more so than boxing. I think it’s a lot more difficult to reach the pinnacle of boxing than it is MMA though. Very rarely would you see someone who took up boxing in their 20s without a vast amateur pedigree reach the highest levels. Less so for MMA. Being an all American / college wrestler obviously is a great platform but it’s less of a necessity to have a background from a young age than it is for boxing.
Boxing is a harder sport to have success whereas UFC you can shape a talented athlete into a fairly good MMA fighter. Boxing you have to start from scratch as a kid or teenager Remember the question is harder not what is tougher
Yet it does happen. Sergio Martinez is an HOF/ATG. Hopkins is one of the best to ever do it. Both took up the art in their 20's.
Harder to be great in mma I think so much **** you have to learn why I think there are so few elite mma fighters only good
