Anyone else think MMA fighters in general train way harder than boxers?

I wouldn't necessarily say that. It depends on the individual fighters in each sport. MMA has had numerous fighters who are notorious lazy and undisciplined in their training. Even Jon Jones, who some regard as the greatest MMA fighter ever, has a bit of a reputation for that. And there are many boxers who were known for being extremely disciplined year round. Guys like Andre Ward, Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather, etc. There's always some fighters who are who work their asses off and other fighters who do the bare minimum to stay at a world class level. What you're referencing might be more of a generational issue than a sport specific issue.

I will say that wrestling and jiu-jitsu are much more energy exhausting sports in comparison with striking sports. An hour of full intensity jiu-jitsu sparring is going to burn much more calories than an hour of boxing sparring just because of the nature of the sports. Boxing largely utilizes just a single energy system. While wrestling and mixed-martial-arts utilize all three continously. These include the phosphagen pathway (for 10 to 20 second bursts like takedown attempts) the glycolytic pathway (for 15 seconds to three minutes stretches for scrambling exchanges) and the oxidative pathway (for longer duration activities like striking over extended periods, sticking and moving, etc).

I firmly believe that wrestling, on a second per second basis, is the most exhausting sport in existence. MMA might be a close second but nothing compares to wrestling. But in striking sports where you take physical damage, you experience fatigue in a way that you very rarely get from grappling sports. So that is a unique factor.

Even kickboxing and muay thai are more energy exhausting sports than boxing just in the sense that kicking requires more energy than punching. That being said, boxing is fought at a much closer distance than mma, kickboxing or muay thai is. You can't keep someone at bay with a teep front kick in boxing. And because of this closer distance, it's fought at a faster pace. Plus, championship boxing fights have a longer duration (25 minutes for mma, 36 for boxing) which assuredly evens out the level of exhaustion a fighter experiences.

 

The average MMA fighter is better at striking than the average boxer but elite boxers are far more skilled with their hands, Usyk trains harder than any combat sportsman in the world.

 

I agree with everything you've written except your teep front kick theory. Teep front or snap kicks carry as much power as a straight right hand to the body but with the added benefit of distance management. So holding off a boxer with this strategy could be highly possible in my opinion.

 

Sorry, I should have been more clear. When I said you can't use front kicks in boxing, I just meant you're obviously not allowed to use it an actual boxing match because of the rules. You would obviously be disqualified.

If you were fighting a seasoned boxer in an mma or kickboxing fight, or a street fight, then you would definitely want to use teeps and front kicks to maintain the distance. I just meant that kickboxing or muay thai fights are generally fought at a slower pace than boxing matches because of the distance that you can maintain with front kicks. The pace can obviously still be extremely high, though.

 

A fighters are good strikers but wouldn`t stand a chance in a boxing ring v elite fighters like Bud Crawford, Fury is a fat clown.

 

No theyre not.

How many real fights posted on Youtube of MMA fighters losing to average joes would you like?
Maiquel Falcao, Kaue Mena, Dillon Danis, Don Frye, Cody Gibson, Jason Knight, BJay Penn.

You can look them all up. Don Frye actually got beaten up by a former Amateur boxer who was 10 years older than him.

So they only actual verifiable encounter of a street altercation between a boxer and a mma fighter, the boxer won.

 

You made a compelling argument that MMA fighters generally undergo more intense training than boxers.

 

I don't think you can say that. It really depends on the individual. The MMA guys I suppose work on more skills on average more often but we also know several top contenders and champions in MMA who essentially have no boxing ability whatsoever. Ronda Rousey was a dominant champion and probably one of the most popular champions of the last 20 years and couldn't box her way out of a paper bag. And for all the talk that the wrestling and grappling aspect makes them so well conditioned, it didn't seem to help Connor MacGregor in his fight with Floyd-Connor was gassed.
Even Francis Nganou slowed down in his fight with Fury.

 

People have to realize that no matter what art you are trained in, there are no rules in a street fight and there is no guarantee that the particular fighter will stick to his art. If I'm a judo black belt and I get in a street fight, what stops me from cracking somebody with a chair? Does that mean Judo is better because i win with a weapon? No not necessarily.

When David Haye had the fight with Don Charles and Chisora he dropped an elbow on Chisora (after the 2 inside hooks) and used a tri-pod as an attempted weapon. Will add, he also effortlessly broke Don Charles jaw. His time as a professional fighter certainly informed his sense of self-defense but he didn't stick to boxing rules.

 

Rousey benefitted from a weak woman`s division at the birth of the female UFC belts, she was exposeed by superior fighters like Holm who was a former boxer and Nunes who`s boxing ability was superb, however female MMA in general is pretty slow.

 

She also was unfortunate to be training with a complete fraud who made her believe that she was some super skilled striker.
Under a good coach and with a good team, Ronda would have performed way better than she did in he last 2 fights. She still had a few good years in her in age terms.

Such a shame. But what a run it was and a lot of ladies should be grateful for her.

 

Explain.