Any MMA fighter you think have enough boxing skills to make top 20 pro boxing ranks?

It's a dumb question.

Someone asked Freddie Roach once if Anderson Silva could hang in a boxing match with RJJ. He said it would take at least 5 years of boxign training for him to be good enough, and in the UFC Silva is a good striker and phenomenal athlete.

It's just a different skillset.

 

care to name these world class 'meatheads', or are you just generalising? OK MMA isnt for you, fair enough. But it's an easy game to play this game.
''All boxers are no punching pussies like Audley Harrison and Zab Judah content to con the public who bought the PPV expecting to see a fight, not a peek-a-boo contest''
See it's easily done, but at the end of the day it doesnt do either sport any favours.

 

yes. these guys are athletes and physical athletes in combat. with the right training, they could both make the transition.

 

The thing is, that wasn't the question.

The question was:

As far as I'm aware, there are none that could make an instant transition, except for James Toney, and anyone else who wants to pull a dumbass stunt.

When, as outlined in my previous post, Roach commented on Silva fighting RJJ, he said it would take years to make him a boxer, not that he couldn't do it.

 

Look at all of the guys that were top pro kickboxers (Dorsey, Tex Cobb etc) who trained for years and still couldn't make it near the top. Think about how comparatively small the shift in techniques are going from kickboxing to boxing vs mma to boxing. That should answer it for you.

If you're asking the "what if they trained boxing from birth" thing, then it's not as clearly stupid a question as the one you asked but the answer to that is "who the hell knows/cares", so that should end the thread.

And yeah, just because Evans looks like he's a good boxer in and mma fight means NOTHING about him compared to a boxer in a boxing match.

 

As I said you need to view MMA as a transitional sport NOT as a style in itself.

When a MMA fighter has crossed over into another sport sucessful the vast majority of the time its been due to them having a previous background in that sport. Overeem and Mousasi were kickboxers before they were MMA fighters, Werdum was a BJJ champion before switching to MMA etc.

Boxing being a richer sport means you havent had the same level of crossover into MMA and hence theres nobody to cross back. Its pretty much "show me a good boxer who switched to MMA and I'll show you a MMA fighter who could be sucessful in boxing".

 

Why is MMA not a style in itself?

There are aspects of MMA that only exist in MMA, and not in the styles it is constituted of.

Examples include:

• Ground and pound
• The wider, Lower 'MMA stance'
• Using strikes to set up takedowns/ground transitions
• modified striking/grappling technique to take account of the vulnerabilities to takedowns and submissions.

What would you say is necessary beyond this for something to be classed a style in itself?

Would you class BJJ as a style?

 

Certain elements of MMA are unique to it but fighters still train individual arts and most importantly the majority of fighters with high level skills in one area depend on previous expereince in that art pre MMA.

As far as this conversation goes thats important because it explains why no MMA fighters have sucessfully moved into high level boxing. Guys like Overeem and Mousasi had previous high level kickboxing expereince to draw on for K1, Werdum had previous BJJ expereince for ADCC, nobody has high level boxing expereince to draw on.

Basically the level of boxing in MMA not being as high as the level of say wrestling, BJJ or MT says more about the previous experience of the fighters than it does those arts being easier to master than boxing.

 

Haye KO1

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DenRrdeasoY[/ame]
This is Joel Diaz who hasn't boxed professional since 1997 and is blind in one eye and is 37 years old. He spars an MMA fighter and you can see the rest, make sure to read the video description too

 

Would you not agree that many kickboxers train in boxing. Or that BJJ players train in wrestling to supplement their skillset? This is known as cross training, which becomes more and more important the larger the necessary skillset.

I have already expressed my view that MMA fighters will NOT be making an instant transition to boxing, however I have to question the assertion that MMA is not a style in itself.

 

They certainly do and those arts are tailored to MMA with some of them(such as GnP) being exclusive to MMA.

That fighters are just learning the elements of boxing that are most useful within MMA is a factor in switches to boxing itself being difficult but as I said I think a bigger factor is that few MMA fighters have previous boxing expereince.

The idea that most MMA fighters turn up to a gym in there mid 20's with no previous expereince is nonsense. You see a MMA fighter with high level skills in one area and most likely he's been training in that area for at least a decade, generally exclusively for a number of years in his teens before starting MMA.

 

yes, fighters like belfort, rampage etc could make the transition. there might even be a shocker in fighters like henderson and chuck, just due to durability and power. like i said, the main thing would be the transition - feinting more, going to the body, staying in the pocket etc

mma are improving as boxers every day, even without going into boxing. look at GSPs jabbing displaying - a punch once avoided in MMA. look at melendez and diaz as the rake the body with multiple shots. look at silva use boxing defence with his hands low, going against the most effective boxing guard in mma - full guard. its all evolution or more accurately - effective integration of multiple martial arts.

i haven't even mentioned the nogs who have a good boxing background and JDS has some serious potential.

 

So you actually think that these guys could go straight into boxing and make the top 20 ranks? seriously?

How do you justify this assertion, seeing as you have already identified aspects of boxing that are currently missing from their game.

And the whole durability and power thing doesn't cut it. The same could be said for boxers going into mma. Ray Mercer is an example of this.

You're not taking into account the scoring and rules of boxing, I know you think you are, but you're not.

Out of the MMA fighters you mentioned, they all stand square and yet none of them have great head movement (by boxing standards) this alone would stop them getting into top 20 ranks WITHOUT EXTRA BOXING TRAINING.

Do you want me to repeat the question for you?
It didn't mention extra training, it simply asked who in MMA could make the top 20 ranks in boxing.