I wanted to set up a stream to continue this debate I’m having about the ability of MMA fighters to find success in kick boxing relative to boxing. Bloody Elbow’s Fraser Coffeen responded to my initial video with one of his own trying to answer the initial question I asked. I’ll get to Fraser’s points and the question he posits at the end of the video in a post tomorrow, but I’d thought I’d post Fraser’s video first for others to see:
The Famous MMA Vs. Boxing Vs. Kickboxing Debate
As for my initial video and Matthew Roth’s response, here’s what Head Kick Legend’s readers thought of our back-and-forth:
Damn good stuff, from both sides.
i love K-1 and Kickboxing(Heavyweight and otherwise).
But Kyotaro got handled easily by Gegard Mousasi and that tells me a lot about the relative skill levels of K1 talent.
Kickboxing as a sport is the last untainted combat sport in North America.This is as ridiculous a statement as anything Luke Thomas said, and Luke Thomas has made a career out of saying ridiculous things.
Why MMA guys can have some level of success in Kickboxing, and can’t do that in boxing? I don’t really recall MMA guys trying their luck at hight level boxing, so the bloded part of the question is pretty much speculation. Maybe they can have success, but there’s not that much opportunities to prove that.
Boxing market has different structure and probably has higher barriers of entry than Kickboxing, so that would explain why MMA guys don’t do the jump boxing. But it’s a really complicated subject. Masato outclassed JZ (although JZ landed some bombs). Sapp beat the shit out of Hoost (twice). Overeem won GP (so did Mark Hunt).
There no real data from the boxing world to work with, so I guess there is no answer to the inintial question (and I’m in hurry to work that why my opinion is not comprehensive and ends violently)
Labeling someone as an "MMA" fighter makes this argument difficult to sort out. MMA has guys like Overeem, JDS, and others, (hell, Anderson Silva) that can strike with the best in the world. But these guys are strikers that happen to have other skill sets that allow them to compete in MMA. It would be stupid to say that a Jon Fitch, Brock Lesnar, Chael Sonnen, or whoever else could waltz into professional kickboxing and hold their own. But the fact is that MMA fighters spend tons of time kickboxing, so it’s a natural transition. Kickboxers on the other hand, don’t spend time rolling, wrestling, or drilling MMA, so the transition is much more difficult. (unless you face Aoki and knee him in the head) James Toney got made into a fool for his failed attempt at MMA, so what does that say about boxers? Nothing really, other than the fact that it’s a different sport.
I hope that the day comes that we finally get to see Anderson Silva vs Roy Jones Jr. That would be a potential chance to sort this out, or at least get a fair look at two athletes from the top of their respective food chains competing in the boxing ring.
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