“Fighting Words” – What UFC Fighters Have Learned From Boxing

[Dirt E Gomez]

I weep for your laptop.

[Dirt E Gomez]

I agree that MMA is a completely different animal to boxing. A guy with no wrestling or jiu-jitsu experience would get creamed. Look at Ali when he tried to wrestle that one guy, it looked so weird.

What attracts me to boxing is it's history, it's glory. Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston, Marciano putting Walcott to sleep, Hagler-Hearns, it just has a seductive appeal to me.

Just don't go all MMA on us David, boxing needs you.

It didn't look weird. It was the dude lying on this back in the middle of the fucking ring for like 15 minutes, if it's who I'm thinking of.

People need to lighten up with the MMA vs Boxing bullshit. Do you people have to cling to a sport so desperately as to try to shoot down any other sport that is mentioned in the same sentence as yours?


You were all born with a brain. I know most of you have rotted it away with ************, drug use, holding your breath too long, but it's time for you to learn to formulate an argument instead of plugging your fingers with your ears and stomping your feet each time MMA is mentioned on this site.

[D.C.]

I personally love both sports, and I hate to see the fans separate themselves. If you truly enjoy one, you can easily enjoy the other -- you just need an open mind. If you can enjoy a beautiful slip counter, you can enjoy a beautiful arm drag to the back or leg lock.

Boxing is an underrated skill in MMA. But it's not due to people not having the potential, it's due to having to incorporate it in with everything else. It's a lot harder to convert a more-limited offensive style like Boxing (Not an insult). It's much easier to convert Kickboxing, Muay Thai, etc...

You'll eventually see more people like Marcus Davis, but even better. You have guys like Rashad Evans, who is mainly a wrestler, starting to incorporate a lot of boxing training into their style and having it turn out amazingly. Is he a good boxer by any means? Not yet. But he has extremely fast hands, power, and the work ethic.

[Mr. David]

Just don't go all MMA on us David, boxing needs you.

I'll have been doing "Fighting Words" for four years as of next month. I ain't going anywhere but up on the main page of BoxingScene.com every Monday.

These two articles were intended to point out (1) what boxing promoters and broadcasts can learn from the UFC, a company I feel is the standard-bearer when it comes to MMA, and (2) delve into a boxer who went into MMA and a mixed martial artist who tried out boxing.

As expected, some people took these articles as yet another opportunity to argue, say, that boxing is better than MMA, or to tear down MMA as what they see as an inferior sport.

As I said in part one, some people will like boxing but not like MMA. Some people will like MMA but not like boxing. Some people will like both. Personal taste is personal taste. Me, I like cookies and cream ice cream and don't usually go for mint chocolate chip.

Yes, this is a boxing Web site. But boxing fans, even the most hardline in support of the Sweet Science, need to realize that in America the sport has stagnated while mixed martial arts grows. This is not to say that boxing is bad. It's not. I love sitting down and watching a good fight.

But, as I attempted to go into in part one, boxing does need to improve the way that is promoted, the way that decisions are made, the way it treats its fans (and appeals to potential fans). The UFC does several things in several areas that promoters and networks would be wise to incorporate in some manner.

Part two was just interesting to me -- What happens when a boxer dedicates himself to MMA? What happens when an MMA fighter crosses over, however briefly, into boxing, and then returns?

All that said, thanks to each and every one of you for taking the time to read.

I weep for your laptop.

I do, too, my friend. I do, too.

[xfiles]

I agree that MMA is a completely different animal to boxing. A guy with no wrestling or jiu-jitsu experience would get creamed. Look at Ali when he tried to wrestle that one guy, it looked so weird.

What attracts me to boxing is it's history, it's glory. Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston, Marciano putting Walcott to sleep, Hagler-Hearns, it just has a seductive appeal to me.

Just don't go all MMA on us David, boxing needs you.

Oh big deal, Walcott was a has been. Marciano would of been the one sleeping if Walcott was in his prime.