MMA is closer to real fighting than boxing

In the sense that it is less limited than boxing, in that context alone it is closer to a real life encounter. But neither sport is like a real life encounter. They have skillsets which can aid a person, but that's as far as it goes. Real life "fights" have no rules and no controlled environment, people can literally die in those type of situations. Awareness, avoidance and de-escalation are better tools for real life....and when forced to act, decisive extreme violence and aggression, adaptability, use of the environment and "tools" (weapons). It's survival not sport.

 

Boxing is closer to a real sport. That's all that matters.

Why do people care so much about "real fighting"? Nobody sane wants to see real completely unregulated fights take place because they're primitive. Personally, I want to see people challenge each other on a specific ruleset that has been in place for more than a century to see who comes out on top.

That's why boxing has always been the bigger and more popular sport. Boxing rules make sense and provide aesthetic, elegant, predictable and challenging form of dueling where there is no chance of a lucky shot or someone unskilled beating a master of the sport. The rules stood the test of time and produced a lot of great great fights. MMA doesn't even have set regulations in place because whatever ruleset they implement it's always going to involve a lot of ridiculous situations like using grappling to stall, eye pokes etc. So they need to constantly change things. PRIDE MMA was basically totally different to what UFC looks now.

I think the best comparison you can make is that Boxing is like the Formula One of the combat sports while MMA is like two bums racing in a Ford Fiesta on the street or some drag racing ****. Obviously the latter is closer to "real racing" as in something you're more likely to encounter in a day to day life and something that you yourself can participate in.

The charm of boxing is precisely that it doesn't look like a regular fight. Boxing at its best is a sport performed on an extremely high and sophisticated level that a mere mortal can't reach even after years of training, it's basically a science and only a very limited number of extremely talented people can crack the absolute elite like for example get a place in the top 20 P4P list. You'll never see someone beating boxing ATGs 3 years after their first amateur/pro boxing fight like it happens in MMA. Boxing took elements from street fighting but evolved them to an extremely sophisticated scientific level, just like Formula One is based on racing in cars on the roads but evolved it to racing in some of the most highly engineered technical masterpieces in the world. That's why people prefer it to watching people race in tractors or Renault clios, because they're seeing something special, even though mastering driving a Renault clio to the limits would be closer to "real driving" as it's something you can actually drive on the road in real life.

Basically an MMA fighter boasting that he can beat an elite boxer in a "real fight" is like some peasant bum boasting that he can outrace Alonso or Hamilton in a tractor race.

Boxing involves complete mastery of the sport and its rules. You don't see mastery of the sport in MMA because it's too much of a lottery and anyone can beat anyone, it's too unpredictable and there's too much of everything.

 

Ahem, that's where you are wrong.

There have been fighters that have been unbeatable in their primes, look no further than Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. They were the masters of all aspects of the game.

What I like about MMA is that it is very difficult to stay on top, precisely because it is so varied. Neglect an aspect of training and somebody will tear you a new one. Case in point, Ronda Rousey who neglected her boxing, and ran into a boxing-centric opponent that was able to stuff her takedowns.

It makes me appreciate the true masters of MMA even more, precisely because it is so difficult to master.

 

They didn't master MMA. Even in their primes they looked very beatable and had their obvious weaknesses. Anderson Silva never mastered the wrestling aspect and was just lucky that there weren't many of them in his division. His biggest win is against a math teacher and he went life and death with fraud Chael.

Masters of all aspects of the game? They wouldn't be able to hold their own in individual aspects of MMA other than Fedor being good in Sambo and Judo. Put them against top boxers, wrestlers etc. in their sports and they'd lose.

They just managed to be really good at bringing the fight where they wanted it to be, where they had superior skills.

And mentioning WMMA as examples just shows you what kind of joke MMA (UFC) is. They tricked people into watching that crap and convinced them those women have some sort of skills.

 

Um. No.

I guess that's an argument with respect to him, but the counterpoint is that a wrestler doesn't have his BJJ nor his striking. He'd beaten PLENTY of wrestlers. His fight with Sonnen was at the tailend of his career, and while Franklin gave him some good fights ... he still lost and went home with his face broken. I don't count Franklin as a better win than Henderson or Belfort.

Let me clarify. Masters of aspects of the game WITHIN the context of MMA. I never claimed that you could take a good MMA striker out of MMA and pitch him against a good boxer (for example) with any hope at all. Which is why McGregor / PBF is such BS and a fraud matchup.

Sure, because the other guy had neglected aspects of his own game and couldn't counter the legend. But not always. Fedor outstruck the master striker Cro Cop, and beat Nogueira the master submission artist on the ground.

 

Sorry but anyone who as ever said rousey can fight or is the greatest athlete ever need their head removing from their body
And as for her neglecting boxing she could never box in the first place come on

 

Rousey has world class Judo and submission skills. That much is unarguable. Unfortunately her boxing was woeful and she paid the price.

 

And Gladiator fight´s in the colloseum 2000 years ago was much more a real fight then MMA. So what..?

 

So Flamma > Mayweather