Which sport is harder to become successful MMA or Boxing ?

[Roadblock]

Boxing without a doubt is the hardest sport in the recognized world without a doubt but let’s be honest MMA has hold its own no questions asked. The thing with boxing is that the promoters and televised events have wrecked havoc on the sport itself selfishly unlike MMA. They seem to have a hard time adopting to the new standards of sporting events and yes the occasional boxing ppv will make enough money that does not mean that the rest of the sport benefits from it. It boils down to each their own preference honestly, but you’ll hardly see a true boxer champion trying to transition to MMA in the real world. (My own take obviously)

Hardest as in gruelling but the not the hardest to learn its quite basic as far as the technical moves are, but the speed, accuracy, power, courage, and determination decides the outcome, you could have all the boxing skill in the world but without the human attributes needed for one on one combat, the skill don't mean anything, the equivalent of looking like a WC on the equipment yet cant fight for sht while getting tapped on the chin and body.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

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.

I’m a massive Brock fan. He is a special athlete but you could not make that type of progress in boxing within 18 months. It would just be unfathomable. Despite being an Amateur Wrestling national champ, Brock hadn’t even had one amateur MMA bout, it’d be like a kick boxer turning pro and beating Fury in his 4th fight.

Brock on the Vikings squad was more of a publicity stunt, he went to Minnesota college and got them mainstream publicity being a WWE star. He was out of his depth on the football field, he only played during garbage time and I think he only made one tackle throughout any of his practice games.

[famicommander]

I’m a massive Brock fan. He is a special athlete but you could not make that type of progress in boxing within 18 months. It would just be unfathomable. Despite being an Amateur Wrestling national champ, Brock hadn’t even had one amateur MMA bout, it’d be like a kick boxer turning pro and beating Fury in his 4th fight.

Brock on the Vikings squad was more of a publicity stunt, he went to Minnesota college and got them mainstream publicity being a WWE star. He was out of his depth on the football field, he only played during garbage time and I think he only made one tackle throughout any of his practice games.

You are dead wrong about Brock with the Vikings. He was given a legitimate offer to play in NFL Europe and he had a really great showing at the NFL combine.

And for the record I never said he could make that level of progress in boxing in that timeframe. But he's an anomalous case in MMA and in general, and I still think you're under-selling his amateur wrestling. A lot of extreme high level specialists (Rousey in Judo, Holm in boxing, the Gracies in BJJ, Sakuraba in Catch wrestling, etc) made astounding progress in MMA. It's not because MMA doesn't require skills, it's because there are such a wide variety of skills and ways to win a fight that there are too many variables to control and you never know which one will help which fighter dominate at any given point in time.

Boxing has a higher skill ceiling due to specialization but people here are trivializing the skill level in MMA.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

You are dead wrong about Brock with the Vikings. He was given a legitimate offer to play in NFL Europe and he had a really great showing at the NFL combine.

And for the record I never said he could make that level of progress in boxing in that timeframe. But he's an anomalous case in MMA and in general, and I still think you're under-selling his amateur wrestling. A lot of extreme high level specialists (Rousey in Judo, Holm in boxing, the Gracies in BJJ, Sakuraba in Catch wrestling, etc) made astounding progress in MMA. It's not because MMA doesn't require skills, it's because there are such a wide variety of skills and ways to win a fight that there are too many variables to control and you never know which one will help which fighter dominate at any given point in time.

Boxing has a higher skill ceiling due to specialization but people here are trivializing the skill level in MMA.

Have you watched the footage of his games? He was terrible. It was a complete PR stunt like Usain Bolt getting football deals.

He was a great amateur wrestler at college level. Never went the Pan Ams, Worlds, Olympics etc. He never got close to the pinnacle of amateur wrestling.

[Nash out]

Nash is unbeaten in both (0-0) and the P4P King. Nash would say boxing. In boxing you need to be 9/10 or 10/10 with your hands (overall skillset) unless you have freakish one-punch Wilder power. In UFC, if you are 7/10 across the board of all the different skills, then that will put you amongst the very top guys in the sport.

You had to be 8.5/10 across the board back in the days when Wrestling was real in the WWF Attitude Era, when Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock ruled the roost, of course it was real back when the likes of Hulk Hogan, Rick Flair, Andre the Giant, Macho Man, and the Ultimate Warrior were fighting as well, but since around 2007 it turned PG with it's verbal content and dangerous stunts, and changed from very real fights, to scripted fights/results.

Nash will never forget it all unfolding on live TV between Stone Cold Steve Austin - The Texas Rattlesnake, Brian Pillman, and a gun. It was incredible to see nobody get killed that night. Real wrestling got very heated at times. Even boxers are much softer, I mean, we saw Tyson Fury kick a taxi (cab) but that's not on these hardcore levels. Nash out

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Nash is unbeaten in both (0-0) and the P4P King. Nash would say boxing. In boxing you need to be 9/10 or 10/10 with your hands (overall skillset) unless you have freakish one-punch Wilder power. In UFC, if you are 7/10 across the board of all the different skills, then that will put you amongst the very top guys in the sport.

You had to be 8.5/10 across the board back in the days when Wrestling was real in the WWF Attitude Era, when Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock ruled the roost, of course it was real back when the likes of Hulk Hogan, Rick Flair, Andre the Giant, Macho Man, and the Ultimate Warrior were fighting as well, but since around 2007 it turned PG with it's verbal content and dangerous stunts, and changed from very real fights, to scripted fights/results.

Nash will never forget it all unfolding on live TV between Stone Cold Steve Austin - The Texas Rattlesnake, Brian Pillman, and a gun. It was incredible to see nobody get killed that night. Real wrestling got very heated at times. Even boxers are much softer, I mean, we saw Tyson Fury kick a taxi (cab) but that's not on these hardcore levels. Nash out

2007 was the year I stopped watching. Still follow it more as a casual fan but not like I did in the late 90’s- early 00’s.

[RoadOfTheGypsy]

I would say MMA as the guys get paid a lot less. In boxing you can get paid more and not be a main eventer.

[Willow The Wisp]

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.

Troy Dorsey

[HeadShots]

Troy Dorsey

I specified no manlet divisions

batam weight is 120 lbs.


there are 100 men this size in America. And 90 of them are Asian.


Vast majority of men don’t come in that size

[Willow The Wisp]

I specified no manlet divisions

batam weight is 120 lbs.


there are 100 men this size in America. And 90 of them are Asian.


Vast majority of men don’t come in that size

Actually bantamweight is 118 in professional boxing.

I suppose you did specify, but the term "manlet division" was unfamiliar.

Troy Dorsey was a Featherweight and Jr. Lightweight titleholder in Boxing, in any event. Can't say where your manlet line cuts off.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Dorsey