Yes, the most crucial difference is that Ngannou has developed a really good takedown defence. Any MMA fighter worth his salt wouldn't stand up a second longer than absolutely necessary against a top HW boxer after watching what an ancient Mercer did to Sylvia. They would just take it to the ground and end it quickly there, like Couture did with Toney. So a boxer has to have a solid takedown defence to start with to have ny sort of chance. But that would go a long way at HW, since those small gloves make punching extremely effective. Ngannou has also developed his kicks, though, and while I've never seen him really hurt someone with them, they give him an extra tactical dimension since opponents can't focus solely on his punching.
Whyte, who has experience with MMA and kick-boxing, would be really interesting to see in UFC. He has heavy enough hands to be absolutely lethal with those small gloves. His boxing, especially his jab, is levels anyone else's in UFC, so if he has an answer for especially the takedowns he'd be very, very dangerous.
Whyte and Jarrell Miller fare a much better chance as of right now against MMA fighters because they know more than just punching, people seem to not realize you can't go in an MMA as a pure boxer as there's much more to worry about.
Does Miller have some MMA experience as well? Did not know that. Yeah, that would of course be of great benefit. His size would probably also benefit him more in grappling than it does in pure boxing. He'd be too big for the UFC, though, since they have a 265 lbs limit for some reason.
I don't know whether he's done MMA but he does have a Kickboxing/Muay Thai background as he mentioned it before in interviews and said he still trains in it, he did compete in K1 and Glory too.
MMA heavyweights are bottom of the barrel level athletes and that's just a fact. It really is very, very poor. Francis Ngannou is a 35 year-old nightclub bouncer who just won the heavyweight tile by beating a near 40 year-old failed baseball player who works a day job as a fireman.
Nganou’s skills are limited in both striking and grappling. His punching power just bails him out. He tried to focus on being patient and technical in the Lewis fight and he performed terribly.
Hell, Ngannou himself could not defend a takedown like that 3 years ago. Stipe basically ragdolled him.
Hes referring to UFC 1 where art Jimmerson was submitted by BJJ Black belt Royce Gracie in the first round This content is protected To answer this point though I just have to say the premise of this post is pretty ignorant you can't learn enough take-down defense to stop a fighter whose been wrestling or doing BJJ since they were kids in a year or 2 it takes many years. Grappling is a very complicated aspect of the game and it takes a lot of time to developed good take-down defense and offense. Even if a boxer is able to stuff the takedowns they will have to deal with leg kicks knees and elbows. Here a few examples of boxers trying out kickboxing. This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected Pretty simply MMA is its own sport and you get good at MMA by being good at being able to mix the martial arts well. It's a lot more complicated than just learning to stuff the takedown and check a leg kick. Plus when they use the four-ounce gloves a lot of the traditional boxing defense goes out the window. For example, Gokhan Saki a very accomplished kickboxer who went over to mma got absolutely destroyed on the feet by Khalil Rountree an MMA fighter with no formal striking background. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtD-uM_juUI I made the transition from Boxing to MMA last year and I still love boxing their just 2 completely different sports pretty much all the MMA fighters if they went over to boxing would get destroyed and all boxers if they go over to MMA would get destroyed it's like comparing basketball to football. Francis Ngannou has been doing MMA for 8 years and is an athletic freak of nature and has been being taught grappling by Kamaru Usman and has a very good team around him he's not a boxer whose been doing this his whole life who just made the transition to MMA.
We just need to accept that these are two different sports. A good boxer will always own an MMA fighter with just boxing rules. The same for a boxer fighting with MMA rules. You cant just square up to defend against a punch in MMA. There are kicks (low and high) and there is the take down. Even in a clinch you have to worry about a judo flip. If it was so easy, belive me there would be tons of boxers going MMA. There are millions to be made if it was easy.
I honestly believe if Fury quit boxing and spent 3 years training MMA solid he'd dominate at 36 years old. Just has to get over the frustrating building phase whilst learning a base so he can deal with takedowns. Just about being motivated to learn the ground game for 2 years solid. Money has to be irrelevant also, doing it for the fun of it.
He could. Their talent pool is rather thin and Fury clearly is exceptional. Ngannou himself has little experience in MMA. He started boxing in his 20s and he started MMA at 26 I think. But it´s not like he spent 6 whole years boxing. He did quite little of it and it shows. And Ngannou ****ing murdered guys. Not that he fought anyone great before he met Stipe for the first time. But even then, despite getting dominated, he gave the champ absolute hell. Fury has his striking down and 3 years is a long time to transition and to gain experience.
Fury can throw from weird angles as well, he doesn't need a typical boxing stance and can loop punches...actually looping punches is one of his best talents. doesn't need a high guard at all ever, even the MMA guys his a high guard. As he mentioned to till, one punch on the earhole trying a takedown and some of them guys will already be done. Elbows as well. should ignore learning leg kicks for balance reasons. Keep it simple.
It´s not so easy to counter a high level take down. They actually set up their takedowns. And the distance is a bit different. Just because someone is good at boxing doesn´t mean that they will be good at MMA. Of course guys like Fury, who are talented, would most likely succeed. MMA has seen plenty of high level Muay Thai guys and wrestlers come up short.
