Football Players Competing in MMA

The results have been mixed; mostly because they usually are getting very late starts, although some do have wrestling backgrounds as well.

The last HW TUF season had several NFL and college players, with Matt Mitrione looking like the most talented of that group, and actually looking like an MMA fighter.

At the other end of the spectrum, is Johnny Morton.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppEvQjf75Cc[/ame]

 

Morton was a tin can who liked the idea of playing a "tough man". He was also on a boat load of gear.

 

Matt's fight against Junk was the worse fight I have ever witnessed in all of combat sport......it was truly a pathetic fight.
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In my honest opinion, Rugby players especially Rugby League players would do very well in MMA. These guys are practically trained in all aspects of MMA, most Rugby teams nowadays have their own boxing coach, wrestling coaches, BJJ coaches etc. All these in a very brutal game with a higher endurance/cardio requirement than the NFL.

 

I think its clear that a pro football player has a much better chance crossing over into mma then boxing. His strengths are more directly use for in mma fighter. Raw strength comes into mma more then boxing (not saying a mma guy doesn't need skills.) But what u do in football is a bit more useful for mma...being able to tackle in football isn't the same as a take down...but its not totally different. A football guy is going to be competive in mma easier then he could be in boxing.

 

Yes, yes he was.

 

He looked much better in his last fight though, not a contender but looks like an MMA fighter rather than a football player fighting MMA.

Rugby players aren't going to be much better or worse; they train to play rugby first and foremost and would need to totally change their training to fight in MMA.

 

I think running backs, line backers, receivers, and safeties could transition well. The earlier the better.

Still, nothing beats being in a sport. As MMA gets more refined you are going to start seeing it be impossible for guys to switch over and have more than C class success.

 

Strikeforce really needs to stop pushing Herschel Walker. The guy is a physical specimen for age, but he's going to take a nasty beating that I'd rather not watch if he ever goes up against someone who's even halfway decent.

As for legit MMA fighters who have experience playing football at a high level, Matt Mitrione and Brendan Schaub both look like they have a lot of potential.

 

However a huge component of Rugby is being able to control the tackled player when on the ground, this entails submission like moves and joint and body manipulation in order to slow the play the ball. This is why most top Rugby (League especially) teams now employ Olympic Judo and Wrestlers, and also top BJJ instructors.

NFL on the other hand, the tackle is complete once the player hits the ground.

 

What did Schaub play in football? He looks pretty lean to me, for a football player anyway...

 

He played fullback according to Wikipedia.