Yeah, I agree that most League players are much suited to MMA than Boxing. They already have that framework of tackling and grounding people. The bloody entire Melbourne Storm already have a huge headstart on that!
League players can tackle and ground opponents but in MMA their opponents will have a ground fighting game and tie them in knots. Hoppa is lucky he's only fighting a former boxer in his fist MMA fight. Otherwise he'd be submitted on the ground in no time.
nobody said he was gunna turn up and flog brock lesnar ffs. but its obvious that a league player could adapt more so to mma than boxing.
We've seen a few NRL players win national boxing titles, including Hoppa. But I can't think of one who's suceeded at MMA yet. We'll soon see if there's any advantage in tackling someone to the ground when you have a limited or completely nonexistent ground game.
I'm looking past his first fight. The point I'm making is it'll take him a minimum of a year of serious training to develop anything of a ground game and in the mean time tackling opponents to the ground will likely see Hoppa tapping out.
If I've missed the point here perhaps you can explain what it is? The point I'm making is that although League guys are good at tackling to the ground if you don't have a ground game it's not that useful.
lol i agree mate, look at what Smith did to Coleman for an example, against a knowledgable opponent Hoppa gets raped (ironically)
Smith v Coleman was one of the early epic UFC bouts. Coleman had his chances early but gassed badly in extra time. It was a Spider Silva like performance by Smith in avoiding a loss on the ground.