Hey guys,
I get asked about this all the time, and because I'm really struggling to care about UFC on FX 8 I decided to talk about it!
Hope you don't mind clicking the link and as always all feedback is welcomed,
Cheers,
Jack
Something which I get asked a lot based on my technical analyses is the question of who is the best boxer in mixed martial arts. When people ask me this what they normally want is for me to reaffirm the argument for either Junior dos Santos, Anderson Silva or Nick Diaz (or occasionally there will be a hyper passionate Vitor Belfort fan).
These are the sort of questions I don't like to answer for several reasons - the first being that many fans of these fighters are so passionate about their chosen hero that they don't want to hear an objective evaluation of their boxing skills. The second is that it is almost impossible to make direct comparisons in the truly elite boxers of MMA because they use such vastly differing styles.
Here for instance is a list of possible criteria one could use to get a idea of just how good of a technical grasp someone has on boxing (aside from fundamental positions and movements). Beside each I will give examples of popular MMA fighters whose game each factor is particularly prominent in, and others who show very little aptitude or preference for said factor.
The marks of a good boxer are the ability to:
- Tie up whenever he wants to avoid punishment or smother an exchange that he is losing. (Fedor did this very well, Michael Bisping and Andre Arlovski do not).
- Move his head or entire body off line or occupy his opponent's hands as he comes in, to prevent the opponent from simply punching back blindly and still finding the mark. (B.J. Penn was great at this, Rashad Evans, Diego Sanchez, Takanori Gomi and Frank Mir are not).
The Fabio Maldonado collage of agony returns to show why a fighter shouldn't just walk straight in.
- Exit at a different angle from the line on which he entered - accompanied with head movement to evade the most likely counter. (Dominick Cruz is good at this, Vitor Belfort and Nick Diaz are not).
Dominick Cruz enters with a right hand lead.
And exits to the right, on a completely different line to the one he entered on.
- Use footwork, distancing and head movement to take away the opportunities for strikes, not always use his gloves and forearms to block them. (Anderson Silva and Junior dos Santos are good at this, Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson is not, though Stefan Struve might be the worst).
Covering up in MMA is just not a viable defence.
And that's about it!
If a fighter is working to get in safely and get out safely, and not simply relying on reactions and speed - he is doing a better job than most.
Even some great professional boxers can forget these basic principles - Ken Norton was able to beat Muhammad Ali up badly in their first bout because Ali got into the mindset that simply throwing his jab would work because it had every time before, rather than thinking about how he was going to step in without Norton simply throwing back a punch simultaneously and landing.
Really the line between mediocre and good, and good and great, is one of discipline and the understanding that good boxing is something you perform throughout the fight, not something you go in already having.
For example, it didn't matter that Alistair Overeem had performed far better against elite strikers than Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva, Overeem acted as if he was entitled to a win rather than having to work for it and ducked straight into a punch for his efforts.
Now we'll get on to aspects of boxing which make a fighter a more advanced boxer (or elite in MMA) - but you will note that every single name put forward as the best boxer in MMA doesn't do some of these things. These are the factors which make it pretty much impossible to point to a "best boxer" in MMA...
Continues at: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1637011-junior-dos-santos-or-anderson-silva-who-is-the-best-boxer-in-mma
