Is boxing the most difficult sport? This ESPN article compares 60 sports.

I personal would put ALL contact type of fight sports as tough. Chuck Norris in his prime was a pretty good fighter.

 

In terms of sheer skill (natural aptitude/talent and developed), football (as in soccer) is the most difficult.

However taking into account physical factors (strength, explosiveness etc), and intangibles such as courage, I think without a doubt boxing is the most demanding and thus the most rewarding.

 

Always has been, might always be. MMA could be more difficult.

 

wow. cricket not even mentioned in the top 60. poor form from ESPN. the skill level required to make it to international level in cricket is immense.

 

Not sure, riding a Bull with one hand might be harder thinking about it. You have to be in shape, and FAST once that bull bumps you off. Other wise you get stomp to death.

 

Great thread. When they made curling an olympic sport it made it concievable that my 72 year old dad could win a gold medal.

 

the list is woefully US-centric (but that is to be expected given it is ESPN), hence the ludicrous inclusions of calf-roping, bass fishing and cheerleading.

Seeing those 'sports' in the same list as core, international sports with glittering histories like boxing, football (soccer) and T&F almost makes me want to weep.

while i disagree with virtually every individual number on the list, I am happy to see boxing in the top slot, though!!

as for cricket: getting to international level in any ball sport clearly requires great skill.

However, I would have thought that as cricket is not played in continental Europe, North or South America, most of Africa and most of Asia - the overall talent pool is certain to be on the weak side as far as international sports go.

 

Aren't sports, by definition, impossible to measure the difficulty of? They are only as hard as whoever you are competing against.

 

I think it's by far the most difficult.

Boxing for 12 rounds is hard work, and throwing punches all the time is really draining. If you get to tired you can't throw punches, you're going to get a beat down as well.

Why do you think so so many pros don't ever get anywhere and just end up being Jouneryman. Becoming elite is damn hard.

 

I want to SEE you try and ride a wild bull. That is RELLY a hard sport.

Cheerleaded is in the same way as Gymness or so. You have to be light, and flex to be able to do the flips they do in the AIR.

 

Cheerleading. See them do thsos flips lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACHeOjQP2Vc

You have to have talent.

 

And Bull riding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw55QP_pFL4

 

MMA is glorified street fighting in my opinion. The deciding factor is usually aggression from what I can see -especially at the local level. What is the average length of a bout? It is also far safer than boxing, because there is no standing 8. In boxing, the head trauma is repeated for a far longer period, which increases the chances of injury and death.

 

I'd say bodybuilding is more difficult.

It's a 24/7, 365 days a year profession, no time off.
You're also constantly in pain, either in the workout itself or afterwards.

 

This rankings list looks biased in favour of North American sports; to convince yourselves, compare the scores for Rugby and "Football". They are right about boxing though; it was being considered the toughest and most difficult of sports even by the ancient Greeks.