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Fans of both MMA and Boxing: Skill vs Size, hypothetical fights


damndaniel

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So obviously, boxers are better at boxing, duh. Khabib vs Floyd, Stipe vs Tyson Fury, and other fights being thrown out, I think its silly, and the boxer will win 99 times out of 100. (if anyone disagrees, please explain in comments)

 

My question is, would size advantages even out the playing field and even tip in favor of an MMA guy, and if so, how much of a size advantage would the MMA guy need? In the build up for MayMac, Dana and others kept saying how much bigger Conor was, and could his power give Floyd problems. Well, Floyd ate his punches like candy. Almost no effect it seemed like. So here are some hypothetical matchups.

 

Who would win, how and why? All fights are open weight, boxing rules, 10 rounds, 3 min each. All fighters in their prime.

 

1. Manny Pacuiao vs Israel Adesanya

2. Canelo vs Rumble Johnson

3. GGG vs Anderson Silva

4. Roy Jones Jr vs Francis Ngannou

5. Floyd Mayweather vs Fedor

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Pacman vs Adesanya.
Pacman is an all time great, one of the best to do it and a champion over multiple decades.
He's slick and fast enough to get to Adesanya, but the height difference and weight difference might trouble him.
I wouldn't bet on it though, we've seen greater height and weight differentials overcome in boxing, albeit Izzy is a highly technical striker and is the most likely of causing an upset here. and I think he gets the decision, after frustrating Adesanya over ten rounds. he might get buzzed himself, or might drop Adesanya though.


Canelo vs Johnson.
Canelo by late knockout, or really however he wants to win.
Rumbles powerful, but he's not even breathing the same air as Canelo, would be beaten to every single punch, and punished for trying to find the one knockout blow (his only real shot).



GGG beats Silva, easiest one to pick, close enough in weight to make it not even close to competitive, Silva gets stopped late, and pasted early if he showboats and doesn't take it seriously (If weidman can sleep him with an errant punch, GGG eats like a lion.)

RJJ in his prime beats Ngannou, he'd better be wary, but he's heavy enough and powerful enough to get Ngannou's legs to wobble in the mid to early rounds. Stipe was a golden gloves standard boxer, by no means an amateur in the standup, but if even he can get Ngannou (albeit a less experienced one) to think twice, a world class, legendary boxer like RJJ (a former heavyweight champion in his own right) would have little difficulty.
The only drawback for RJJ is his style is a little unorthodox, while that might throw off technically sound boxers, and did, and his pure athleticism made up for it, its almost a drawback against someone equally raw and wild.
But a focussed RJJ keeps away from Ngannou's punches, and stops him anywhere from round 5-8. Ngannou has the power to knock him out though, and a better chance than any other heavyweight in MMA today.


Mayweather vs Fedor
Prime Fedor has a punchers chance, he really does, although we've never really seen floyd hurt that often (most memorably against sugar shane mosely, where he was almost dropped and finished) Fedor carries the power and reach to do it.
I think Fedor runs out of gas after the first few rounds however, if he hasn't clipped mayweather, he's just getting peppered and embarrassed, could see him getting an early knockout if he just *went* after him, everything else is pretty unlikely.


The one takeaway from this is, even the boxers on this list not renowned for power, are by MMA standards, at the very least "heavy hitters"
And *everyone* on this list, with perhaps the only exception of RJJ (once his athleticism went, he faded, but I'm not taking anything away from how incredibly gifted he is, and by far more talented than any of the MMA counterparts on this list) was a technical master, they'd have no trouble beating fighters with the boxing ability that was only the level they *needed* to be at, or just ahead of the competition.

A more interesting list would be giving heavier boxers matchups against lighter MMA fighters, a lot more variables to consider.

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Size means a lot in boxing, that’s why their is a new weight class every 3 pounds.

 

Most of these MMA fighters would just be waaaay to large, they would be awful fights to watch as one would be running away trying to survive.

 

Saying little Floyd who barely moved up in weight beats Fedor in a 12 round anything is ridiculous. Fedor would KILL him if a single one of those punches even half connected. Fedor’s Power was unmatched against HW’s let alone some guy 100 lbs lighter.

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Size means a lot in boxing, that’s why their is a new weight class every 3 pounds.

 

Most of these MMA fighters would just be waaaay to large, they would be awful fights to watch as one would be running away trying to survive.

 

Saying little Floyd who barely moved up in weight beats Fedor in a 12 round anything is ridiculous. Fedor would KILL him if a single one of those punches even half connected. Fedor’s Power was unmatched against HW’s let alone some guy 100 lbs lighter.

If you read the criteria, its across 10 rounds.

And the same weight differential has been brought up again and again

You talk about a 100 pound weight difference?

 

David Haye defeated Nikolai valuev to win a world title at heavyweight.

Haye weighs 224lbs, Valuev 330. the Heaviest, and tallest heavyweight in history. was rocked, and badly badly outpointed by a much smaller, much slicker fighter.

 

Now, valuev was a *pro* boxer, world champion calibre no less.

Fedor, as GOAT as he is in MMA, is not.

 

And he'd be chasing the *greatest defensive boxer of all time*

 

 

I'm not saying Fedor wasn't a great fighter, Fedor would beat *Muhammed Ali* in a street fight, but he'd get toyed with by Mayweather in a Boxing match. Even at his prime, against Prime floyd, he hits fresh air for the first two rounds, and is gasping for air by the fourth.

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If you read the criteria, its across 10 rounds.

And the same weight differential has been brought up again and again

You talk about a 100 pound weight difference?

 

David Haye defeated Nikolai valuev to win a world title at heavyweight.

Haye weighs 224lbs, Valuev 330. the Heaviest, and tallest heavyweight in history. was rocked, and badly badly outpointed by a much smaller, much slicker fighter.

 

Now, valuev was a *pro* boxer, world champion calibre no less.

Fedor, as GOAT as he is in MMA, is not.

 

And he'd be chasing the *greatest defensive boxer of all time*

 

 

I'm not saying Fedor wasn't a great fighter, Fedor would beat *Muhammed Ali* in a street fight, but he'd get toyed with by Mayweather in a Boxing match. Even at his prime, against Prime floyd, he hits fresh air for the first two rounds, and is gasping for air by the fourth.

If you know anything about Boxing youd like Valuev was a can crusher, and 330lbs vs 220lbs is much much much different then. 145 lbs man facing a 245lbs man, not even close to the same.

 

Maywhether isnt even top 10 greatest P4P boxers ever and if his actual loss to Castillo and multiple scorecard gifts Over the years were posted on his record, no one would still think of Floyd one bit. He couldnt beat Pac-Man And he didnt, boxing is corrupt and has been for decades. He beats guys his own size or smaller and barely moved up in weigh compared to other legendary fighters especially around his weight.

 

Any place, any time, anything, Fedor kills Floyd.

 

Even hear Dominick Cruz when he was the best in the world say if some of these Hws were to land one punch on someone his size they would die. A glancing shot of Floyds glove would easily put him out if Fedor hit him./end of that convo lol again there is a weight class in boxing every 3 pounds for a reason.

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If you know anything about Boxing youd like Valuev was a can crusher, and 330lbs vs 220lbs is much much much different then. 145 lbs man facing a 245lbs man, not even close to the same.

 

Maywhether isnt even top 10 greatest P4P boxers ever and if his actual loss to Castillo and multiple scorecard gifts Over the years were posted on his record, no one would still think of Floyd one bit. He couldnt beat Pac-Man And he didnt, boxing is corrupt and has been for decades. He beats guys his own size or smaller and barely moved up in weigh compared to other legendary fighters especially around his weight.

 

Any place, any time, anything, Fedor kills Floyd.

 

Even hear Dominick Cruz when he was the best in the world say if some of these Hws were to land one punch on someone his size they would die. A glancing shot of Floyds glove would easily put him out if Fedor hit him./end of that convo lol again there is a weight class in boxing every 3 pounds for a reason.

I agree with Mayweather's 50 record being unfairly unblemished, he should have lost to castillo, to completely throw out any credibility because he beat guys his own weight?

To ignore the infrequency at which world class opponents could even land on him? The schooling he gave (an admittedly weight drained but still lethal) canelo?

 

And your finishing point is *if* Fedor hit him?

He wouldn't land clean for sure. the best of Mayweathers era (if you dislike him because of the obvious reasons to, we can substitute any equivalent world class defensive boxer in there, say Pernell Whitaker) as fast as they were, and as polished as they were couldn't pin him down, someone with very good striking ability by MMA standards, but *nowhere* near elite level pro boxing ability wouldn't touch him. He'd have to catch him with his first punch clean, he could do it, the odds just are not in his favour.

 

It'd be like point karate, he'd be touched before he'd throw, and he'd be completely made to miss and be tired by the end of the opening few rounds.

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Dom talks a lot of shit man
Some openweight freak show fights (Valuev vs Uysal, Uysal giving up 158lbs) Abdin vs Chancellor, abdin giving up 211lbs) have taken place over the years.
A lot of people die in boxing, but neither of the smaller gentlemen I just named died in one punch.

Uysal was knocked out, Abdin won by knockout.



I'll admit though that I'm probably overly zealous in my defense of boxing, so I'll own up to having a bias

I do see your points, and accept their validity, I don't want to appear all 'Joe Rogan saying Rhonda Rousey would beat bantamweight males'
But I do think you completely underestimate the ability to avoid damage, and force people to stick to certain predictable patterns, and movements that the *true* elite boxers can utilise that might as well be witchcraft to a lot of mixed martial artists.

Fedor included, (To which you yourself hold an understandable, but *definite* bias)


I respect your opinion anyway, the enjoyment is in the debate.

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All the bigger fighters if they landed once, they would win. I would maybe give manny a possible W but that's a huge reach advantage izzy has so again idk.. not giving any of the boxers the win, although size doesn't matter a whole lot, bigger dudes generate more power and much easier. A big guy isn't harder to knock out than a smaller guy by any means, it takes as little as 50-400 lbs of pressure on the right spot to KO somebody.. and that is easy for a professional fighter to generate, the average boxer hits with almost 950 lbs of pressure...with that said, bigger people, especially professional fighters generate that power MUCH easier.

Despite contrary belief, it takes the same amount of pressure to knock out your average 205 lb man as it does to knock out the average 145 lb man.. There may be small variables i.e. neck strength, bone density, or the fact some people just don't go all the way out... But I still have got to go with the bigger guys in a boxing match with gloves on.

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These are some meaty weight discrepancies. But I am not much one for these debates on fantasy fights, that are just too wild or impossible to ever happen. The truth is either in the cage/ring or nowhere. So I'll tackle this thing in a more general sense.

 

If one of the big guys lands early, the boxer will be fucked. Especially Mayweather Fedor would be a crazy weight discrepancy. And yes - as stpierrecanada pointed out - a heavyweight running into super heavyweight is not the same as a featherweight running into a heavyweight. The relative (!) weight and also size discrepancy is just MUCH bigger, when the latter occurs.

 

HOWEVER (assuming boxing rules)

 

If this skull splitting hit doesn't come through like in the first three rounds, all MMA guys will be in trouble. The output, accuracy and the hand speed in boxing are something else. MMA doesn't even come close. Needless to say that the striking game in boxing is governed by a drastically different framework (in every sense).

 

I still have to chuckle, when I think about some fight fans, who thought before the McGregor Mayweather hype job, that McGrergor may actually have a chance. He never did. And Mayweather demonstrated that in no uncertain way, when he walked him down for three rounds without throwing a damn punch.

 

There may be two or three weight discrepancies in your selection of fantasy fights, that could prove to be sizable enough for the MMA guy to bridge the gap by way of bulk, power and reach. But if it was to happen, it better should happen quickly. Either that or it wouldn't happen at all. And the problem is that any world class boxer (or anything close there to) would know this as well.

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And to be fair Gabriel, I have been into boxing longer then MMA and I started boxing when I was 4 years old until I was 20, so I have a lot of love for the sport of boxing but if youve been watching your whole life you know its a pile of shit and totally corrupt and has only gotten worse over the years

 

Now there are way to many examples to describe but in 2014, I hit my breaking point with putting up and ignoring the corrupt ways of the sport for so many years. Tyson Cave, a local fighter from where Im from, was robbed by split decision to a guy named Oscar Escondon when Tyson EASILY WON 10 rounds easy. (Im not even a big fan of Tyson Cave, he showboats and acts crazy)but he won. That was the fight that Teddy Atlas went on a rampage about and called the sport a joke and it when I realized boxing is about promotion and money, and when there are more and more promotions with padded Record champs because it makes money. I havent been into boxing after that like I was, I used to watch every single event.

 

I still love boxing, but its hard to take it seriously anymore. The GGG/Canelo bullshit judging proves the corruption is still live and well.

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Mma is definitely more pure, at least with the ufc all the best fighters always fight each other sooner rather than later. Joe rogan was chatting on his podcast recently about the possibility of their being more cross promotion with other mma companies. But that would then be more likely to end up with dodgy decisions in the cage like what there is with boxing. I too always loved boxing before mma was fully established like it is today.

Its fun trying to work out these fantasy matches between boxing and mma, but in reality an mma fighter stepping into a boxers world is always going to favour the boxer. Just like if a fight between the two were fought out in a cage under mma rules. What definitely would make things interesting is if a future bout was contested over two fights over both codes. One possibility of a bout actually happening would be Tyson Fury versus Stipe Miocic. Fury has already said that he would be prepared to fight in a cage match, I personally think it would be brilliant if this was done over two fights, one in the ring and one in the cage.

What do you guys think of how such a fight would play out??...

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Guys like Lomachenko keep me a boxing fan. That dude is fucking insane. You’re getting hurt and schooled if you fight that guy.

Oh its entirely politically infested I'm not doubting that : P

I despise how many good fights we've missed over the years, or how many decisions have been - with no uncertain terms - bought

I remember that T.Atlas rant well, I have a playlist of him yelling at stupid shit in boxing on loop, very cathartic.

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