Quality levels between lower level boxing and mma in the UK

[Finn]

Sadly i am just watching the new mtv show caged about the lives of some amature MMA fighters in the US, the thing i have noticed is the level they are at compared to the level here in the UK is incomparable.

I may be wrong in saying this but the perception was that the talented youngsters in boxing in the US were way ahead of those in the UK but there has been a switch in recent years and the talent seems to be coming for the UK at the moment.

I dont really have a point but i was just wondering what people thought and if the growth of MMA in the US has caused the decline in the boxing talent they are producing.

[smoggy7188]

I think when discussing the lack of talent in boxing from the usa over recent years you have to take into account the amount of money that is now avaiable in other major sports over there such as basketball, nfl and baseball.

[jBacca]

The Yanks have got the wrestling which seems to have hampered pretty much every UK fighter apart from Bisping.

Unless our MMA 'prospects' are heavily involved in some sort of heavy, wrestling plan, or don't regularly go over to the States for teaching, then I can't see us beating the top Yanks.

Stand-up only goes so far.

[Deserter]

I'm going to 'park' our debate on the other thread as this is a good question

I think Smoggy and Jbacca are both on the money in terms of their respective points. Regardless of the emergence of MMA I think a generation of talent at the higher weights has been lost to the more lucrative/stable professions of basketball and baseball. In some respects it mirrors the fact that if all the top level rugby players in the UK boxed instead we'd have far deeper talent in the UK at those weights.
I think MMA has simply acted as a catalyst to the situation that already existed in the States and eroded the talent further.

As for the UK, bar football, we've never had the culture of professionalism in sport at such an early age. It's not just the experience at school and college level that the wrestlers get, it's the discipline that's drilled into them in terms of weight-cutting and training. If you read the likes of 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell and Matthew Syed's 'Bounce', they'll talk about the importance of physically putting the hours in to achieve, and if you compare an 18-year-old from the UK with an 18-year-old from the States, the difference in hours on the mats by that point is vast.

The thing I find fascinating about MMA is that it's still a 'baby' of a sport in evolutionary terms, so it's going to be really interesting seeing it develop in front of our eyes. Wrestlers have the upper hand at the moment, but what happens when you get more top level boxers lured into the sport, for example? You look at Dos Santos at the moment and I find it plausible that someone like Haye could, with a couple of years' top-level grappling experience, take him out, given Dos Santos is by his own admission primarily from a boxing background...

[safeerah]

Sadly i am just watching the new mtv show caged about the lives of some amature MMA fighters in the US, the thing i have noticed is the level they are at compared to the level here in the UK is incomparable.

I may be wrong in saying this but the perception was that the talented youngsters in boxing in the US were way ahead of those in the UK but there has been a switch in recent years and the talent seems to be coming for the UK at the moment.

I dont really have a point but i was just wondering what people thought and if the growth of MMA in the US has caused the decline in the boxing talent they are producing.

I think you are totally wrong on the boxing front, the states have and always will be in front, many british boxers have gone to the USA as good prospects and come back tail between there legs e.g Our current Euro Middleweight champ, who went over there and was beaten twice, since coming back he has had success.

[Finn]

Sadly i am just watching the new mtv show caged about the lives of some amature MMA fighters in the US, the thing i have noticed is the level they are at compared to the level here in the UK is incomparable.

I may be wrong in saying this but the perception was that the talented youngsters in boxing in the US were way ahead of those in the UK but there has been a switch in recent years and the talent seems to be coming for the UK at the moment.

I dont really have a point but i was just wondering what people thought and if the growth of MMA in the US has caused the decline in the boxing talent they are producing.

I think you are totally wrong on the boxing front, the states have and always will be in front, many british boxers have gone to the USA as good prospects and come back tail between there legs e.g Our current Euro Middleweight champ, who went over there and was beaten twice, since coming back he has had success.

Possibly i was thinking in terms of the olympics mainly.

[safeerah]

Sadly i am just watching the new mtv show caged about the lives of some amature MMA fighters in the US, the thing i have noticed is the level they are at compared to the level here in the UK is incomparable.

I may be wrong in saying this but the perception was that the talented youngsters in boxing in the US were way ahead of those in the UK but there has been a switch in recent years and the talent seems to be coming for the UK at the moment.

I dont really have a point but i was just wondering what people thought and if the growth of MMA in the US has caused the decline in the boxing talent they are producing.

I think you are totally wrong on the boxing front, the states have and always will be in front, many british boxers have gone to the USA as good prospects and come back tail between there legs e.g Our current Euro Middleweight champ, who went over there and was beaten twice, since coming back he has had success.

Possibly i was thinking in terms of the olympics mainly.

In the Ams you are right, when the rules of scoring where changed to put the Ams further away from the Pros the USA has found it hard to win things, where as before they one a lot of gold medals, they have changed a lot of things lately, so we will have to see how the USA do in the next Olympics, one thing is for sure GB will do good.

[Poncey]

One of the primary reasons for me is funding. We have the lottery. They have fornicate all.

[CiganoBoxer]

Funny thing is boxing has just of late become a major part in mma,more and more fighters are using great boxing with good takedown defense ,i love the way the JDS UFC Heavyweight champ uses long range boxing with footwork to get in out etc
Then we got Nick Diaz whom according to Andre Ward could very easy box at a decent level .