This content is protected I was at the gym with my friend today, and we saw this really huge guy, like bodybuilder size, and he looked fit too and tall, not stocky. My first thought was, damn I do not want to mess with that dude, even though we have no idea about his background in fighting or if he has ever been in a fight. All I know is, I wouldn't want to be kneed, leg-kicked, punched or choked by a huge muscular guy. I heard in fighting, strength can give you an advantage in grappling to an extent (if skill gap is not too great), and wide shoulders give your punch more snap. Not to mention they can probably pick you up and slam you. My opinion is lifting and combat sports can go hand in hand, but mainly if its lifting for functional and explosive strength rather than just mass, as that can add weight class. I have seen fighters lift huge amounts of weights, Jones, even lighter guys like Conor, Cejudo lift weights. Is it possible to excel in both combat sports and bodybuilding or powerlifting etc?
From my experience, I think in sport wrestling (collegiate/freestyle/greco), weight training is pretty much mandatory to be able have the strength to be able to compete. You're right in that there is a difference between functional strength and weight lifting strength, but do sometimes correlate. I've heard that if you are going to do weight training for that purpose, you should focus on lower weights and higher reps. From MMA, it's a much trickier question. The more weight training you do, the more you tend to give up in terms of flexibility and dexterity that you need in striking. I've heard both George st-pierre and Josh Koscheck both say they think weight lifting is extremely overrated for MMA but other very successful fighters disagree. Freddie Roach talked about always trying to maintain the perfect balance with GSP between the dexterity he needed for boxing and the strength he needed for wrestling and grappling. I think this is probably even more true if you lifted weights during your teenage years and build up that muscular frame. If you take advantage of those formative years, you tend to have that muscle mass forever even if it gets soft if you don't train it. Personally, I think that most of that time and energy would be better off spent in training your skills, instead. I have some friends who fought ammy and pro in MMA and they spent like 80-90% of their time on skills training rather than strength and conditioning. But that physical fitness training does become a greater priority during camp. Still, I don't think there's a one size fits all approach to this, and MMA fighters and coaches will probably debate this issue forever.
Thanks a lot. I think in my situation, I will put bodybuilding first and probably try out MMA as a secondary hobby, and who knows, if i do well in MMA maybe i will pursue that more. But I am getting pretty old so it would be quite difficult. Its all about the balance, and like you said, skill and technique is more important. I've seen small trained dudes knock out huge muscular guys all the time on YouTube etc. Size can give you the intimidation factor, and the average person who doesn't know much about combat sports will assume big guys can beat small guys up, so its never too bad to be muscular
