MMA looks so sloppy compared to Boxing

[darius45]

Watched some UFC fights last night. I hadn't watched MMA in a while. I forgot how sloppy and utterly less-than-amateurish the striking looks. All due respect to these guys for their polished BJJ and wrestling skills... But when they're standing the sport looks completely RUBBISH.
..it's almost unwatchable...


I don't even know why people compare these two sports... They're both "combat sports" but that's where the similarity ends..might as well be comparing downhill skiing to competitive ping pong...You have to REALLY enjoy BJJ to be able to enjoy MMA...If you're into it for the striking you're better off just watching kickboxing or Muay Thai.

[Bunch Pag]

Someone on here labelled it perfectly...

Bar fighting..

[TMLT87]

Sloppy or not guys like Aldo and Volkanowski who were on that card could beat most elite boxers of comparable size in a pure stand up fight. Also kickboxing itself is sloppy as **** (all striking arts get sloppy once you add in a bunch of new elements other than punching) and MMA is littered with ex-high end kickboxers getting KTFO. MMA striking to boxing is just apples to oranges, I dont find a good MMA striking war "unwatchable" at all.

[famicommander]

Boxers are specialists.

MMA fighters generally train in, at minimum:
boxing
at least one flavor of kickboxing (Muay Thai, Dutch style, K1 style, American style, Sanda, etc)
at least one flavor of submission grappling (BJJ, Judo, catch wrestling, Sambo, etc)
at least one flavor of wrestling (freestyle, collegiate/American folk, Greco-Roman, etc)

And many mix in other styles like Karate, Taekwondo, Capoeira, traditional Chinese styles, etc. Plus sparring under actual MMA rules.

And then they have to mix all of it together under pressure in a cage fight. Your boxing form isn't going to be perfect when you also have to know how to check a leg kick and defend a takedown. Your Judo isn't going to look perfect when you have to worry about getting punched in the face.

MMA has old roots but as a mainstream sport it really only goes back about three decades. Boxing has a big head start and the advantage of extreme specialization, so of course high level boxing is going to look a lot smoother and more technical than high level MMA (or kickboxing, for that matter).

[GrandpaBernard]

mma is very watchable when they striking

Almost every other fighting system punching looks like crap compared to boxing

At least mma guys train boxing

[GrandpaBernard]

Boxers are specialists.

MMA fighters generally train in, at minimum:
boxing
at least one flavor of kickboxing (Muay Thai, Dutch style, K1 style, American style, Sanda, etc)
at least one flavor of grappling (BJJ, Judo, catch wrestling, Sambo, etc)
at least one flavor of wrestling (freestyle, collegiate/American folk, Greco-Roman, etc)

And many mix in other styles like Karate, Taekwondo, Capoeira, traditional Chinese styles, etc. Plus sparring under actual MMA rules.

And then they have to mix all of it together under pressure in a cage fight. Your boxing form isn't going to be perfect when you also have to know how to check a leg kick and defend a takedown. Your Judo isn't going to look perfect when you have to worry about getting punched in the face.

MMA has old roots but as a mainstream sport it really only goes back about three decades. Boxing has a big head start and the advantage of extreme specialization, so of course high level boxing is going to look a lot smoother and more technical than high level MMA (or kickboxing, for that matter).

What difference between grappling and wrestling

[GrandpaBernard]

Floyd’s good friend McG would regularly pullcounter foos to sleep

That’s better hands than most martial arts

[famicommander]

What difference between grappling and wrestling

Grappling includes submissions and chokes whereas wrestling in this sense is about whole body control. You can consider them all grappling but I was being more specific.

[TMLT87]

Deep down everyone appreciates a brutal slugfest no matter whether its super refined or not. We just dont see real wars in boxing as often as we do in MMA, especially nowadays. Just look at that Poirier/Hooker fight from a few weeks ago, that was Ward/Gatti levels of crazy.

[Szef]

Sloppy or not guys like Aldo and Volkanowski who were on that card could beat most elite boxers of comparable size in a pure stand up fight. Also kickboxing itself is sloppy as **** (all striking arts get sloppy once you add in a bunch of new elements other than punching) and MMA is littered with ex-high end kickboxers getting KTFO. MMA striking to boxing is just apples to oranges, I dont find a good MMA striking war "unwatchable" at all.

Log off and never come back again.

You don't know anything about fighting whatsoever

Sherdog is where you want to be though you probably already are a user on there