This week we have seen UFC bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw trade words with boxing star Gervonta Davis. Gervonta seemed to call him out and TJ responded, I liked his line saying "i'll show you how my shin tastes" haha. I wonder if this fight will happen... probably not for a while.
Anyway, I guess there has been lots of talk about can MMA fighters really hang with boxers? Or how would a world class boxer do against one of the best MMA fighters? Obviously we all saw Mayweather vs McGregor and know the result.
Lets have a look at how some of the top MMA fighters have done against top boxers!
Jose Aldo vs Mikey Garcia
This is obviously just a spar and training session to be honest, but you can see the way Mikey moves that he is a superior boxer. He is a top level pro boxer, and one of the best. Jose Aldo has spoken about wanting to have some pro-boxing fights, and he has great boxing.
Kevin Lee
Kevin doesn't look quite as sharp.. However... if he had even 5 seconds in a round of being able to use his MMA skills, no doubt he would shoot and take his opponent down - but that's not the point. To me Kevin looks like a very good amateur boxer in the ring, and I mean that with respect! Top amateur boxers and probably better than some 'pros'! This was a while ago and I know that Kevin has improved massively! Kevin future UFC champ.....?
Luke Rockhold
Luke's reflexes sure are very good, but still, in terms of boxing he doesn't tuck his chin as well. Infact, I think that was his downfall in his most recent fight against Yoel Romero. I'm saying this from a boxing standpoint, MMA is different and you must implement different and unique styles into your game to be succesful!
Anderson 'The Spider' Silva
Fast forward to around 3.30... Now, Anderson looks good to me! His movement is awesome! Footwork and those angles are on point! He looks to be incorporating that point style fighting explosiveness into this sparring session and it really works in this case. He looks great! He reminds me of MVP pro boxing fight he recently had! Which brings me onto...
Michael Venom Page
Page looks awesome! Actually having, and WINNING his pro boxing debut! I could almost say that he could be bringing a new style to boxing. He is using his point karate background to explode in and land shots and getting out of the way, flustering his opponent with speed and style. This strange but effective style is a good thing for the MMA world. Point fighting was never looked at as a real tough style, such as boxing or Muay Thai, but it is clearly effective and we can see this with today's top fighters such as MVP and Wonderboy.
TJ Dillashaw vs Vasyl Lomachenko
Save the best 'til last right? Two of the very best in each of their disciplines! Now, TJs movement looks awesome! He is known for his style, as is Loma. I don't believe we have ever seen a boxer like Loma.. in my eyes he is stylistically the best. Its great to see how these two masters of angles work off of each other! I actually think Loma would make a great MMA fighter, but he has lots of work to do.
Verdict
Nothing but respect for everyone in the fight game! I don't really like saying who is 'better' than who as really, I believe a pro boxer will beat a pro MMA fighter, at boxing, and vice verse. This may be quite the obvious statement, but, theres lots of talk and speculation so its always a fun conversation. But, you can't just jump from sport to sport... we might find out why with some future fights!
What do you think? What MMA fighter would you want to see box? Who against?
Or, what boxer would you like to see make the switch to MMA?
Do you think we are going to see more crossovers in the future?
Anyone remember James Tony vs Randy Couture? That showed how real wrestling can work! Well, so did UFC 1 with bjj... I won't go into all of that now.RESPECT
Again, just having some fun with conversations, I have so much respect for everyone!
I hope you've liked this article I have put together!
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