Boxing beats the heck out of MMA: Watching two guys breathing on each other for a minute or mo...

Watching two guys breathing on each other for a minute or more while they try to extricate themselves from a tangle of arms and legs on the ground leaves me frustrated. So do the weak punches and elbows thrown at a fighter who is trying to play turtle from a prone position. Watching one opponent put another in a chokehold leaves me feeling empty.

Margarito won an 11th-round technical knockout. It was a wonderful display of Cotto's boxing skills and Margarito's relentlessness. Cotto's record fell to 32-1. Margarito is 37-5.

That brings me to another sore spot. When you watch an MMA title fight, it's not unusual to see a fighter with a 9-4 record going for a championship. Randy Couture, one of the legends of ultimate fighting, has a 16-8 record. Yes, it's a young sport, and fighters are evolving. But why do the best of the best seem to lose so often?

15 days ago Nick Thomas Comment 25 comments 0 recs |

Story-email Email | Print |

Comments

No matter what some people aren’t going to understand and/or like the ground game.

by Tonley on Aug 4, 2008 3:59 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

“But why do the best of the best seem to lose so often? “

Umm, maybe because in this sport there are so many different ways to lose?!

by steveoc24 on Aug 4, 2008 4:08 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Basically

http://tharealness.wordpress.com/

by Tha Realness on Aug 4, 2008 4:13 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Exactly.

"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"

by BJJDenver on Aug 4, 2008 4:38 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Not to mention Randy wasn’t babied for 25 fights before fighting legit competition.

by asa on Aug 5, 2008 2:41 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

On the one hand, you have a handful of boxers who have risen to the top, beating utterly unknown opponents en route to amassing a stacked record so they can then avoid fighting the other fighter in their weight class with a sparkling record for fear of tarnishing it.

On the other hand, MMA (perhaps we should limit this to Zuffa promotions) by and large puts the very best fighters, or at the very least comparable fighters, against one another on each show. It’s one thing to have Randy Couture, who has faced the best fighters in the world time after time fighting for and winning a championship. It would be another if, say, Bo Cantrell were given the same opportunity.

All records are not created equally.

by Brett Jones on Aug 4, 2008 4:13 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Boxing does beat MMA...

...in the number of combatants who die every year and the % of those with end up living with chronic traumatic brain injury.

by dmayeda on Aug 4, 2008 4:24 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

But seriously...

Why must we compare and pick one? What’s wrong with picking both?

by Tonley on Aug 4, 2008 4:25 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Amen...

that’s what I’m sayin…

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by brentbrookhouse on Aug 4, 2008 5:54 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Just laugh at the ignorant little man and move on.

lol.

by mythbuster on Aug 4, 2008 4:25 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

I read this

It was dumb on every level. Even just his perception of the Cotto-Margarito fight is off. Cotto lost the way he did because he tried to be Mr. Boxing instead of the fighter he’s always been before. It was a great fight, yes. He got that right.

As for the moronic records argument (as if it matters at all), the top MMA fighters lose “so often” because they fight the other top MMA fighters and you don’t get a whole lot of Pavlik-Lockett matchups on the top level.

"Yesterday I was lying, today I am telling the truth." -- Bob Arum

Camden Chat
Bad Left Hook

by SC on Aug 4, 2008 4:32 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Although I was a fan of boxing at one time, I love mma b/c there are so many ways to win a fight and the fights can take place standing or on the ground. Now I just see boxing as that sock em’ game with the red and blue guy. Just two guys aiming for the head of his opponent.

by lovingmma25 on Aug 4, 2008 4:33 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

I still like boxing, but mma is far better for ME.

You can choose either one or both or neither, but don’t try and justify your preference by making ignorant, uneducated analysis.

Yes, that was a great boxing match, but brutality wise, watching two guys take repeated trauma to the head for 30 some minutes, is not exactly artistic, imo.

"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"

by BJJDenver on Aug 4, 2008 4:41 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

instead of bemoaning MMA, he should worry about the horrible toupée he’s wearing.

by monkeyfightclub! on Aug 4, 2008 4:57 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

When I look at his pic I want to say – “Why the long face?”

by lovingmma25 on Aug 4, 2008 5:09 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

or… “Why so serious?”

by cyph on Aug 4, 2008 5:41 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Ahh, just another ignorant hater...

If ground game grinds fights to a “halt” then why is it that someone with a weak ground game has that look of nausea in their eyes when they hit the mat? I think he simply hates seeing people like noguiera who would break his favorite fighter (excuse me, boxer) without ever throwing a punch. He must also hate the fact that in a full contact fight, that can go anywhere, lazy soft jabs don’t do one thing, and wearing 4oz gloves and trying to block makes 20oz gloves seem like blocking punches with a trashcan lid.

by MMAsubb on Aug 4, 2008 7:14 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

It’s never about how many you beat, but who you beat (and how!). It seems to be the motto that most anti-MMA boxing enthusiasts fail to grasp.

by Gong on Aug 4, 2008 7:16 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Comparing MMA and boxing is like comparing baseball and rugby. They’re two DIFFERENT sports.

by EnsignFrog on Aug 4, 2008 7:54 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

I prefer...

baseball and cricket…both use a “bat” and involve “hitting” but once you get past that…it isn’t the same

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by brentbrookhouse on Aug 4, 2008 8:41 PM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Boxing is checkers. MMA is chess.

by Cmad77 on Aug 4, 2008 8:07 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Oversimplification...

Boxing’s stand-up could claim equal superiority and much more tactical depth than what you see in MMA. And that is even low level boxing.

The problem isn’t the sport of boxing…or the sport of MMA. It is the people who are fans of one or the other and feel the need to trash the other.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by brentbrookhouse on Aug 5, 2008 10:01 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Agreed.

They’re both awesome sports. But as has been mentioned previously in this thread, one advantage (as I see it) that MMA has over boxing right now is that most of the matchups are quite competitive..and with those light gloves, one punch really can knock a decent fighter out early in the fight.

There is no need to build a divide between any forms of the martial arts. Boxing is great, been around a long time and has tremendous history. MMA is new, fresh, and (seemingly) more complex.

My lone quibble with boxing is how there really are so few fantastic matchups. This year’s been great so far, but there are exceptionally long dry spells for boxing fans. MMA fans get great cards every month, it seems.

by misterjonez on Aug 5, 2008 10:04 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs