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First off id like to state that this guy they interview is a ****, and i in no way agree with what he says.
And secondly, he says in the article that the training for MMA is much harder then it is for Boxing... Shut the **** up. Thats what made me stop reading what this guy had to say. Its completely up to the fighters how hard they are gonna train. Floyd Mayweather trains about 50x harder then this guy has trained in his entire life. He's just so overly biased that you cannot take it seriously.
He was a Bum in boxing, got ancy and left, and now he's a success in MMA... and he says that Mayweather has no chance? see the mistep in logic there?
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There was a bit of stir last week when Dan Rafael and Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported that the vacationing Floyd Mayweather was in talks with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban about the possibility of him participating in an MMA bout on his HDNet Fights series.
"If I said there's a guaranteed $30 million payday, Floyd would be lacing them up," Cuban is quoted as saying in the story. Now if you've seen the way Cuban overpays for much of his NBA roster (just look at what he shelled out for Devean George), it's conceivable that Cuban would make such an extravagant offer.
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At the very least, Mayweather got himself back in the news without even stepping into the ring (or cage). From 24/7 to Dancing with the Stars, he's become quite the shrewd self-promoter. And because of that he became the highest paid athlete in 2007 not named Tiger Woods with his blockbuster pay-per-view outings against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.
But make no doubt about it, he ain't getting into mixed martial arts. He got his headlines and that's all he wanted. He's much too smart of a manager to actually get in there.
"It makes no sense; he's not going to be successful at it," says UFC welterweight contender Marcus Davis, who more than anybody has a unique perspective on this issue, having been a professional boxer from 1993 to 2000. 'The Irish Hand Grenade' compiled a mark of 17-1-2 with 12 knockouts before transitioning into mixed martial arts.
"It's not going to happen," says Davis of Mayweather's rumored foray, "and if he does anything and tries to be successful at it, it's going to be him fighting a bunch of stiffs and bums and he's not going to get any recognition from it."
Of course, in the past Mayweather had perfected the art of fighting 'stiffs and bums' and getting paid quite lucratively for it. But since HBO isn't involved, that's no longer an option.
"If he goes and he fights anybody that people are going to look at, somebody in MMA that's 20-8 or something, he gets knocked out, stopped, or submitted in one minute. So he'll look like a fool."
In other words, like Michael Jordan trying to hit a curve ball or Muhammad Ali facing Antonio Inoki. But much more dangerous.
"The sports aren't even related," Davis says of the difference between boxing and MMA. "I tell my friends, 'It's like this - boxing is like basketball. MMA is like basketball with no fouls. So once you do that, it's not basketball anymore. They're not related at all. You're hands are basically tied up, per se; in boxing, you can punch and that's it. And you can get away with doing a lot of stuff. All that herky-jerky movement where guys lean away and slip to the side and lean back away from punches - you can't do that in MMA. You can't do it because you leave your legs there and your legs get chopped or you get taken down."
Boxers face some severe disadvantages in mixed martial arts. One, they aren't conditioned to protect against kicks on the lower half of their body.
"I never respected it (MMA) at all," says Davis, who initially believed that his boxing and striking skills would be able to carry him through. "When I first started, I was like, 'C'mon now, it's a kick to the leg. That's never going to hurt me.' Until I got kicked in the leg by somebody who knew exactly what they were doing. And then the next three days I was bed-ridden and my legs were locked up and I had blood clots in my legs."
Then there is the issue of the ground game; simply put, boxers aren't very good once they are taken off their feet.
"He'll have to relearn everything," Davis says of Mayweather. "He is not going to be able to fight in an MMA cage the way he boxes. It's impossible. It's not going to work. He will be taken down to the ground. He can't be a boxer. There's no such thing as a successful boxer boxing in MMA. It's going to have to be a boxer transitioning to MMA and learning the skills you need to know."
Which is precisely what Davis did seven years ago.
"I was actually bored with boxing," says Davis, who has crafted a solid career with the UFC. "On top of the politics and everything else that goes with boxing, I saw MMA - I was watching it when it first started in '93, the first UFC, anyways - and I just knew that it was going to blow up. I just knew it was a matter of time and I knew I wanted to get into it right at that time when I did and I wanted to be in it right when it started to blow up, which is what I've done at the perfect time."
Money was a factor in his decision. Unlike Mayweather, he wasn't earning $20 million a fight.
"At the stage that I'm at, I made more money in my last fight than I did my entire boxing career," says Davis, who made "six-figures" for his last outing. "Out of all my fights (boxing), I fought on ESPN a bunch of times, NESN. No big venues but Foxwoods, but all over New England, and I never made any real money."
But the metamorphosis took some time. It was like a sprinter becoming a decathlete. Davis says it wasn't till about a year-and-half, two years ago that he felt fully comfortable as an MMA fighter.
"Since then I've felt comfortable. I'm not worried about the fight happening in any place and I haven't lost a fight since then. So it really took till then. I was always worried about being taken down to the ground and it happened. I was always too cautious and I waited too long to commit to a punch because I was afraid the guy would shoot underneath and take me to the ground. You can't fight like that in MMA. You've just got to let it all hang out and if you hit the ground you've got to be able to fight on the ground," said Davis, who started, in his own words, "experimenting" with some MMA maneuvers in 1995 and took part in unsanctioned contests in 2000 before having his first officially recorded match in 2003.
The learning curve for Davis was steep as he hung up his Everlasts.
"It takes time and you have to be intelligent. You have to be dedicated and you have to be with a good camp. You have to have total trust in the people that are teaching you, that when they're showing you something, you're not saying in the back of your head, 'That looks like crap' or 'that's not going to work' or 'that wouldn't work on me,' whatever. You've got to have total faith that what you're being taught is the real deal. If he (Mayweather) thinks all he's got to do is stop the takedown, somebody is going to get him down and keep him there," he says.
And there were some big adjustments that Davis had to make. For one thing, MMA practitioners have much more rigorous training regimens than boxers on a day-to-day basis.
"When I was a boxer, one day you did your roadwork in the morning and then you go to your gym and you did the fight training and spar. Then the next day might be your weightlifting rather than your roadwork day and then that night you're doing your boxing training," he explains. "Whereas in MMA, I wake up, and first thing in the morning I do a plyometric workout. Then I go home and I eat. Then I go to the gym and lift my weights. Then I go home and I eat and I rest. Then I go to the gym and I do technical training. Then I go home and I rest. Then I go back to the gym and do my sparring. Then I go home and I go to bed. And I wake up the next morning and start all over again."
There are also the issues of physical strength. Because of the grappling that takes place in MMA, a premium is put on weight training.
(CONTINUED ON NEXT POST)
And secondly, he says in the article that the training for MMA is much harder then it is for Boxing... Shut the **** up. Thats what made me stop reading what this guy had to say. Its completely up to the fighters how hard they are gonna train. Floyd Mayweather trains about 50x harder then this guy has trained in his entire life. He's just so overly biased that you cannot take it seriously.
He was a Bum in boxing, got ancy and left, and now he's a success in MMA... and he says that Mayweather has no chance? see the mistep in logic there?
------------------------------
There was a bit of stir last week when Dan Rafael and Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported that the vacationing Floyd Mayweather was in talks with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban about the possibility of him participating in an MMA bout on his HDNet Fights series.
"If I said there's a guaranteed $30 million payday, Floyd would be lacing them up," Cuban is quoted as saying in the story. Now if you've seen the way Cuban overpays for much of his NBA roster (just look at what he shelled out for Devean George), it's conceivable that Cuban would make such an extravagant offer.
ADVERTISEMENT
At the very least, Mayweather got himself back in the news without even stepping into the ring (or cage). From 24/7 to Dancing with the Stars, he's become quite the shrewd self-promoter. And because of that he became the highest paid athlete in 2007 not named Tiger Woods with his blockbuster pay-per-view outings against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.
But make no doubt about it, he ain't getting into mixed martial arts. He got his headlines and that's all he wanted. He's much too smart of a manager to actually get in there.
"It makes no sense; he's not going to be successful at it," says UFC welterweight contender Marcus Davis, who more than anybody has a unique perspective on this issue, having been a professional boxer from 1993 to 2000. 'The Irish Hand Grenade' compiled a mark of 17-1-2 with 12 knockouts before transitioning into mixed martial arts.
"It's not going to happen," says Davis of Mayweather's rumored foray, "and if he does anything and tries to be successful at it, it's going to be him fighting a bunch of stiffs and bums and he's not going to get any recognition from it."
Of course, in the past Mayweather had perfected the art of fighting 'stiffs and bums' and getting paid quite lucratively for it. But since HBO isn't involved, that's no longer an option.
"If he goes and he fights anybody that people are going to look at, somebody in MMA that's 20-8 or something, he gets knocked out, stopped, or submitted in one minute. So he'll look like a fool."
In other words, like Michael Jordan trying to hit a curve ball or Muhammad Ali facing Antonio Inoki. But much more dangerous.
"The sports aren't even related," Davis says of the difference between boxing and MMA. "I tell my friends, 'It's like this - boxing is like basketball. MMA is like basketball with no fouls. So once you do that, it's not basketball anymore. They're not related at all. You're hands are basically tied up, per se; in boxing, you can punch and that's it. And you can get away with doing a lot of stuff. All that herky-jerky movement where guys lean away and slip to the side and lean back away from punches - you can't do that in MMA. You can't do it because you leave your legs there and your legs get chopped or you get taken down."
Boxers face some severe disadvantages in mixed martial arts. One, they aren't conditioned to protect against kicks on the lower half of their body.
"I never respected it (MMA) at all," says Davis, who initially believed that his boxing and striking skills would be able to carry him through. "When I first started, I was like, 'C'mon now, it's a kick to the leg. That's never going to hurt me.' Until I got kicked in the leg by somebody who knew exactly what they were doing. And then the next three days I was bed-ridden and my legs were locked up and I had blood clots in my legs."
Then there is the issue of the ground game; simply put, boxers aren't very good once they are taken off their feet.
"He'll have to relearn everything," Davis says of Mayweather. "He is not going to be able to fight in an MMA cage the way he boxes. It's impossible. It's not going to work. He will be taken down to the ground. He can't be a boxer. There's no such thing as a successful boxer boxing in MMA. It's going to have to be a boxer transitioning to MMA and learning the skills you need to know."
Which is precisely what Davis did seven years ago.
"I was actually bored with boxing," says Davis, who has crafted a solid career with the UFC. "On top of the politics and everything else that goes with boxing, I saw MMA - I was watching it when it first started in '93, the first UFC, anyways - and I just knew that it was going to blow up. I just knew it was a matter of time and I knew I wanted to get into it right at that time when I did and I wanted to be in it right when it started to blow up, which is what I've done at the perfect time."
Money was a factor in his decision. Unlike Mayweather, he wasn't earning $20 million a fight.
"At the stage that I'm at, I made more money in my last fight than I did my entire boxing career," says Davis, who made "six-figures" for his last outing. "Out of all my fights (boxing), I fought on ESPN a bunch of times, NESN. No big venues but Foxwoods, but all over New England, and I never made any real money."
But the metamorphosis took some time. It was like a sprinter becoming a decathlete. Davis says it wasn't till about a year-and-half, two years ago that he felt fully comfortable as an MMA fighter.
"Since then I've felt comfortable. I'm not worried about the fight happening in any place and I haven't lost a fight since then. So it really took till then. I was always worried about being taken down to the ground and it happened. I was always too cautious and I waited too long to commit to a punch because I was afraid the guy would shoot underneath and take me to the ground. You can't fight like that in MMA. You've just got to let it all hang out and if you hit the ground you've got to be able to fight on the ground," said Davis, who started, in his own words, "experimenting" with some MMA maneuvers in 1995 and took part in unsanctioned contests in 2000 before having his first officially recorded match in 2003.
The learning curve for Davis was steep as he hung up his Everlasts.
"It takes time and you have to be intelligent. You have to be dedicated and you have to be with a good camp. You have to have total trust in the people that are teaching you, that when they're showing you something, you're not saying in the back of your head, 'That looks like crap' or 'that's not going to work' or 'that wouldn't work on me,' whatever. You've got to have total faith that what you're being taught is the real deal. If he (Mayweather) thinks all he's got to do is stop the takedown, somebody is going to get him down and keep him there," he says.
And there were some big adjustments that Davis had to make. For one thing, MMA practitioners have much more rigorous training regimens than boxers on a day-to-day basis.
"When I was a boxer, one day you did your roadwork in the morning and then you go to your gym and you did the fight training and spar. Then the next day might be your weightlifting rather than your roadwork day and then that night you're doing your boxing training," he explains. "Whereas in MMA, I wake up, and first thing in the morning I do a plyometric workout. Then I go home and I eat. Then I go to the gym and lift my weights. Then I go home and I eat and I rest. Then I go to the gym and I do technical training. Then I go home and I rest. Then I go back to the gym and do my sparring. Then I go home and I go to bed. And I wake up the next morning and start all over again."
There are also the issues of physical strength. Because of the grappling that takes place in MMA, a premium is put on weight training.
(CONTINUED ON NEXT POST)
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