Which sport is harder to become successful MMA or Boxing ?

[Smash]

in mma u are a jack of all trades but master of none, in boxing u are either a master craftsman or a hypejob

a master craftsman takes a lot of time and effort, the other 2 are easier to attain

[BodyBagz]

Boxing
You have to do more with less
Also, any punch can be your last

[HeadShots]

Jon Jones was an amateur wrestler in high school and junior college before he started training MMA. Ngannou trained in boxing for a year when he was 22, then got sick, then started training MMA again at 26, turned pro at 27. He didn't become UFC champion until he was 34.

It's called mixed martial arts because you literally mix the martial arts. All of Jones' wrestling training contributes to his MMA, as does Ngannou's boxing training. Almost everyone who is good in MMA has a highly specialized background in other martial arts. It's not like they just walked into an MMA gym at 23 and started from scratch.

Amanda Nunes trained in Karate and Capoeira as a little girl and then Judo, boxing, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a teenager before she started MMA.

Anderson Silva trained in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, boxing, Capoeira, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu among others before he got into MMA.

Lyoto Machida trained and competed in Sumo, boxing, Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, catch wrestling, and Muay Thai from age 4 until he turned pro in MMA at 25.

Valentina Shevchenko:
-former national amateur champion boxer, International Master of Sport in Boxing, 2-0 pro boxing record
-former national champion in Judo, 1st degree black belt, International Master of Sport
-former world bronze medalist and 2X continental champion in Taekwondo, 2nd degree black belt, International Master of Sport
-multiple time amateur and pro world champion in kickboxing, International Master of Sport
-multiple time amateur and pro world champion in Muay Thai, International Master of Sport

training one martial art does not mean you've been training MMA.

it's a totally different sport. eg: karate has punching. what karate practitioner became a boxing world champion (excluding manlet divisions)?



i don't even count women's mma. their entire talent pool is prob 500 people world wide. it's a fringe sport.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Boxing by a million miles. Brock Lesnar. Case closed.

Brock had no MMA experience, hadn’t wrestled since college, yet turned pro at nearly 30 and became Heavyweight Champion within 18 months and just 4 fights. That would NEVER happen in boxing.

It’d be a like a kid winning a National Golden Gloves at 20, not boxing for 9 years, returning to the sport and beating Fury in his 4th fight. Completely unthinkable.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Some interesting comments here. Some seem very sound, others less so.
One important aspect, and perhaps the most important question is this:

"How many bodies do I have to climb over to get to the top?"

It seems to me that discussions of the difficulty in mastering the sport, payrates, promotional opportunities, geography, etc. Are all applied to both You and your competitors in the sport rather evenly.
So it becomes stricly a question of "Who've I gotta beat to get to the top around here?"

Here are your numbers:

June 2023

Total Active* Professionals World wide:
Boxing............................23,454
Mixed Martial Arts..........5,967

(*Active means having fought during the prior 12 months).

That's your answer

Good point. Didn’t think of it that way.

[tophat1]

Probably boxing because theres alot more people taking part

[Quiksilva]

Awhile ago, I remember watching an MMA documentary based with fighters in Dagestan. Majority of them were training and wanting to compete in MMA UFC, because it was easier to make money and become Champion and the best there.

They also said, Boxing was a hard sport to be successful in. So definitely, Boxing.

[famicommander]

training one martial art does not mean you've been training MMA.

it's a totally different sport. eg: karate has punching. what karate practitioner became a boxing world champion (excluding manlet divisions)?

i don't even count women's mma. their entire talent pool is prob 500 people world wide. it's a fringe sport.

MMA is striking plus grappling. That's all it is. Any previous striking and grappling experience is applicable. Boxing has an incredibly narrow ruleset which results in a very specific skill-set with a very high ceiling. It's an apples to oranges comparison.

Again, MMA is mixed martial arts. Everyone who does MMA is actually training multiple martial arts. You name any MMA fighter and I promise you they started out specializing in boxing, BJJ, some flavor of wrestling, some flavor of kickboxing, Judo, Karate, Sambo, or Taekwondo. They all have a base style or martial art, and before they turn pro in MMA they try to fill in the gaps with other arts. Lesnar was a master wrestler so they taught him just enough striking to protect himself while he got in position to use his wrestling and then turned him loose. Holly Holm was a world champion pro boxer and amateur national champion kickboxer so they taught her just enough grappling to stay on her feet so she could set up her jabs and head kicks. Stephen Wonderboy Thompson is a master Karateka so they taught him just enough boxing to protect his chin and just enough grappling to stay on his feet.

[famicommander]

Boxing by a million miles. Brock Lesnar. Case closed.

Brock had no MMA experience, hadn’t wrestled since college, yet turned pro at nearly 30 and became Heavyweight Champion within 18 months and just 4 fights. That would NEVER happen in boxing.

It’d be a like a kid winning a National Golden Gloves at 20, not boxing for 9 years, returning to the sport and beating Fury in his 4th fight. Completely unthinkable.

I agree that boxing has a higher overall skill ceiling because of rule specializations, but Brock Lesnar is a very special case.

He's a world class freak of nature athlete. He didn't play football for over 8 years (since before he left high school) and he walked into the Minnesota Vikings training camp and was good enough to be offered a deal to play in NFL Europe. It was said he may have made the team outright but he got hurt. He was a national champion amateur folkstyle wrestler, he's an incredibly talented pro wrestler (I know the outcomes are scripted but he's still a 260 pound dude that can do a backflip of a 20 foot tall steel cage), he's a former UFC champion, and quite obviously he's a PED monster too.

Wilder and Joshua became Olympic medalists and pro world heavyweight titlists pretty damn fast in boxing too. Not as fast as Lesnar, but it's easier at heavyweight in every combat sport.

[WillieWild114]

Some interesting comments here. Some seem very sound, others less so.
One important aspect, and perhaps the most important question is this:

"How many bodies do I have to climb over to get to the top?"

It seems to me that discussions of the difficulty in mastering the sport, payrates, promotional opportunities, geography, etc. Are all applied to both You and your competitors in the sport rather evenly.
So it becomes stricly a question of "Who've I gotta beat to get to the top around here?"

Here are your numbers:

June 2023

Total Active* Professionals World wide:
Boxing............................23,454
Mixed Martial Arts..........5,967

(*Active means having fought during the prior 12 months).

That's your answer

Best answer thank you