Boxing fans who do not like MMA; what are your reasons?

[Dip_Slide]

I don't hate MMA I just don't really like watching it. The top fighters have that white-trash attitude that just puts me off somehow. I also don't like the very poor punching technique and the blatant mistakes these fighters make.

There's a very long history to boxing as boxing was synonymous with prize fighting for longer than a century. That nostalgic feel that boxing delivers and seeing fighters follow in others footsteps and comparing fighters with past fighters are some of the things I love about boxing and MMA still has a lot of years to catch up in that field.

You can also get very close to perfection in boxing, the ways you can win or lose are limited compared to MMA, so in boxing it mostly comes down to quality and not physicality. I can go on and on but still I respect MMA.

[ralex]

My main issue is the lack of elite skill. Case in point the nunes cyborg fight tonight. There was absolutely NO defense in that fight just a bunch of wild shots thrown.

[Armchairhero]

The champs have so many losses because the records aren’t padded with stiffs, the best fight the best.

The champ doesn’t get easy touches, it’s the way it should be in boxing, no ducking no complaining about splits or marinating.

I prefer boxing but enjoy both

[Scary_canary]

Right. my biggest frustration is how any non star is treated in ufc. Get such a tiny cut of the pie. But it’s a young sport compared to boxing. Too many ways to win and lose in mma though, hard to quantify records or build a superstar. U had to watch to see if Floyd would lose. Almost everyone’s got losses in mma. It’s more like a never ending tournament. I’ve seen fighter lose a million dollars just on the scale in boxing. Put that into perspective.

But that’s the great thing about mma compared to boxing.. how competitive it is, generally anyone can win....so yea nearly all fighters take a few loses,but it makes it so much greater when one is underfeated... boxing fans shouldn’t care so much about a few loses on a record or “building a star”.... I just want to be entertained and when boxing is 90% mismatches it’s hard to stay entertained sometimes

[Citizen Koba]

I'm curious as to whether any of the posters here practice any martial arts (besides boxing)? Could be having some personal experience gives greater appreciation of the nuances involved, especially in grappling where the subtleties involved - in sometimes minute shifts of balance and position - can be every bit as fascinating as those involved in the Sweet Science (to my mind at least).

[DaNeutral.]

Im a Boxing fan who doesnt like MMA. I dont know what im watching with MMA. I cant see subtle changes in game plan, i cant see traps being set and im not keen on them rolling around on the floor for any amount of time. What im trying to say is i cant get out of MMA what i get out of Boxing. I cant get the bigger picture. I trained Judo and Karate to a decent level and even though both those arts are used in MMA its like a mutant form of it and i struggle to spot it or fully read it as it happens.

Ive been into Boxing most my life, i can see all the changes, stances, tells, traps, Boxing is so natural to me that i can see the full big picture of a fight as it pans out and thats how get the most out of it, i just cant do it with MMA.

But dont get me wrong im more than happy to sit through the UFC Knockout reels. I dont think its a bum sport what so ever but it just doesnt seem to be for me. I did give it a good go a few years ago, threw myself into it, watched that contender series what ever that was called and read up on the fighters but my attention for the sport in general didnt last so long. Its a good sport, its a good sport i thought id get in to but nahhh, it just wasnt for me.

[EL_GRINGO]

lool i ain't into ground fighting,but i sometimes watch mma contest, when strikers are fighting

[aAgger]

I'm a fan of both personally. Historically thou MMA is thousands of years old (pankration is basically the precursor).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration

I think its more of a boxing fans feel threatened by MMA as it become mainstream and MMA fan's feel disrespected by Boxing fans.

Boxing is older, with depictions dating back some 5,000 years to ancient Iraq/Mesopotamia. And wrestling is even older, dating back to prehistoric cavemen, and apes before them.

MMA is essentially a mixture of boxing and wrestling. Various martial arts have combined boxing and wrestling to various degrees over thousands of years. Modern MMA is mostly evolved from a mixture of judo and kickboxing.

[_Rexy_]

its boring to me. I know it is disciplined, but it appears undisciplined and just ends up being rolling on the ground for minutes at a time. I have no interest in it. Just like how i stopped following the HW scene during the Klit era.

[Scopedog]

its boring to me. I know it is disciplined, but it appears undisciplined and just ends up being rolling on the ground for minutes at a time. I have no interest in it. Just like how i stopped following the HW scene during the Klit era.

Same, I know it's a very multifaceted discipline and you're at a severe disadvantage unless you pick up half a dozen different martial arts and get good at them all, but that rarely seems to translate to entertaining action. The fights either drag on or end really abruptly - the fight may be one guy pressed face-first against the cage with nothing happening for minutes at a time, or one fighter gets into a good grapple or scores a hard knockdown and the fight just ends instantly. There never seems to be that comeback potential that you get in boxing, where the count allows a fighter to get back up and win. In UFC if someone gets dropped the other guy just jumps right on him and starts hammering him on the ground and the fight just ends right there. Likewise if a fighter works his way into a good choke or grapple then the other guy almost never seems to find his way out of it.

Plus, like others have said, it can be more fun to watch two guys who are very good at one thing than two guys who are mostly just average at everything. Like, McGregor is considered to be an extremely good puncher by UFC standards but he was a joke against Floyd, there was absolutely nothing on his shots. I reckon that even an average, domestic level fighter would have beaten McGregor at boxing.

That said, most of this applies just to UFC and not MMA in general. I think kickboxing and muay thai are okay, mostly because they keep the general boxing format but allow the use of feet, knees elbows etc.