On the front page of ESPN.com their "expert" panel has come to the conclusion that out of 60 sports polled, boxing is the toughest. Martial Arts is ranked 6th. Not MMA just Martial Arts. WTF? Check it out...
well you do generally take less damage in mma
True, but there is so much more involved in MMA, and there are 4 sports between boxing and martial arts.
I'd say it's pretty accurate.
Boxing, Ice Hockey, Football, Basketball, Wrestling, then Martial Arts.
Boxing is brutal on the body.
"We sized them up. We measured them, top to bottom. We've done our own Tale of the Tape, and we've come to a surprising conclusion. Pound for pound, the toughest sport in the world is . . .
Boxing.
The Sweet Science.
That's the sport that demands the most from the athletes who compete in it. It's harder than football, harder than baseball, harder than basketball, harder than hockey or soccer or cycling or skiing or fishing or billiards or any other of the 60 sports we rated.
In Page 2's Ultimate Degree of Difficulty Grid, boxing scores higher than them all.
But don't take our word for it. Take the word of our panel of experts, a group made up of sports scientists from the United States Olympic Committee, of academicians who study the science of muscles and movement, of a star two-sport athlete, and of journalists who spend their professional lives watching athletes succeed and fail.
They're the ones who told us that boxing is the most demanding sport -- and that fishing is the least demanding sport.
We identified 10 categories, or skills, that go into athleticism, and then asked our eight panelists to assign a number from 1 to 10 to the demands each sport makes of each of those 10 skills. By totalling and averaging their responses, we arrived at a degree-of-difficulty number for each sport on a 1 to 100 scale. That number places the difficulty of performing each sport in context with the other sports we rated.
On the grid below, click on each sortable category to find out how our 60 sports rank in each skill. A glossary key is included at the bottom of the grid that explains each category.
So put on the gloves, get in the ring and let the roundhouse hooks begin."
from espn.com
Let's not hate guys. Boxing is pretty damn tough. At least they didn't say golf was #1 or soemthing. Personally, I think Boxing, Judo, Wrestling and football arte the top 4 (in no particular order).
I think football is a bit rougher on your body. Pro football players put their bodies through hell, and are expected to play every game with at least 3-4 injuries that should be checked out.
This is great news. After all, if a panel of unparalleled sports experts and all around geniuses (no doubt the typical ESPN expert meets these parameters) have decided that MMA is only the sixth toughest sport in the world, and other sports that they do show are tougher, then clearly MMA is not some brutal human cockfight and should be allowed on regular cable TV.
Ok, maybe I can accept boxing, what about the other sports ahead of martial arts (assuming they are lumping mma as martial arts). I've played organized basketball and football for years, neither was more physically demanding then mma training. The football games of course were tough, but they were once a week. MMA training is daily, and the physical demands put on your body each and every day IMO are more than whats required for basketball and football.
I'd say Muay Thai as it's practiced in Thailand, then boxing, followed by football.
djones, football at a pro level is more demanding that MMA. There. I said it.
Also for the idiot who said these guys at ESPN don't know what they are talking about, do you?!? Who are you? A top computer warrior? Yea, your opinion counts, lol.
I'm sure they're talking about professional sports, in which case the athletes in basketball and football train and workout very hard and very often and get banged up a hell of a lot during their games. The NFL and the NBA and being an elete enough athlete to play there are way different than the organized basketball and football you've played.
I don't doubt that football at a pro level isn't extremely demanding, I made it through some of the college level and it was tough, but personally, MMA training has been more demanding on my body because it has been day in and day out.
I played Hockey for 10 years and i'll say its pretty damn tough!
And i'd also like to add that outside of MMA (which is like 0.0001% of the martial arts world) most of the Martial arts world are one small step above pussy... I'm suprised MA is on there at all to be honest
What about Basketball?
MMA supposedly has a very little injury percentage compared to other pro sports such as boxing, football, and hockey
Think outside the box here people.
You can't compare the level you've played with the pro level.