Cross Match

There is a weird fight coming up at the end of August.

It is between perhaps the best boxer of all time, and a UFC fighter.

It has a lot of people all abuzz, but it is nothing but a freak show. The two types of fighting are totally incompatible.

It has been proven on numerous occasions that even a very good boxer cannot win under UFC rules against a decent MMA fighter. This won't be a factor, as the fight will be with boxing rules.

So what does that mean for the match-up? It means that the MMA guy is under an insurmountable disadvantage.

Let's say you have two equally skilled fighters from these two styles. Why can't the MMA guy win under boxing rules; they do a lot of boxing in their training?

Let's divide everything that an MMA fighter does into two areas; standing and ground. Boxers focus all of their efforts into strictly standing. That means that they will have put far more time and effort into the standing game compared to the MMA fighter. As they are fighting under boxing rules, there will be no ground fighting of any kind.

Even the standing training isn't equally focused. MMA people spend a lot of their standing training around how to get an opponent down, and defending against getting taken down.

Even the striking portion isn't the same. MMA people have to deal with and deliver kicks, and elbow strikes. Boxers focus strictly on hands.

Even with everything else eliminated other than hands, the two fighter types don't train the same.

For example; the MMA fighter is used to competing at a longer range than the boxer. It is normal to stay just at outer kick range, which is far outside of the zone that boxers inhabit. They are used to zipping into and out of range rapidly to avoid and deliver strikes, and to perform other attacks and to close for grappling. Boxers need concern themselves with none of this.

They also strike differently. Boxers have to train for their fists to perform both offensive and defensive roles. In offence, they can strike harder due to the larger, hand-protecting gloves they wear. MMA gloves afford nothing like the same level of hand protection, limiting the damage it is prudent to take in delivering power blows.

The gloves also provide boxers with a defensive-cushion form of blocking. It is quite normal to block an incoming gloved fist with one's own gloved fist. It is also possible to prevent punches from getting through a defensive posture just by merit of the incoming fist's bulk. The smaller MMA gloves mean that this style of defence is that style of combat.

So the contest is not an equal one by any means. They will be fighting under exactly the rules that the boxer is used to, and that he has trained for his entire life. A lion's share of the MMA fighter's training is irrelevant to this contest, and even his striking work has all been done under a paradigm where different tactics are the norm. He will be striking and defending strikes in a manner different than is what he is used to.

In this contest, the only hope that the MMA gentleman has is that he might be such a vastly superior athlete that he will win anyway. It doesn't look like this is the case.

The boxer has faced the elite of boxing, and currently has a record of 49-0. The MMA fighter's record is 24-3. About the only area that the MMA guy has in his favour is age. He will be 29 years old on fight night, as opposed to the boxer, who will be 40, and who will have not fought for almost 2 years.

Taken all together, how do I see it all going.

I assume that the pace will be dictated by the MMA fighter if he uses his brain at all. He will be more used to distance changes, and should be able to keep well outside of punching range should he chose to. About his only advantage will be that he should be able to zip in quickly, and then retreat out again. In comparison, the boxer will seem plodding.

In a very real way, this will be meaningless. The boxer has by far the better punching ability, and hand speed, and should be able to win every exchange that the MMA guy allows to happen.

It could also well be that the MMA guy, whose ego knows no bounds, will come out trying to beat the boxer by using traditional boxing methods. If he does this, the fight will be very one-sided indeed, and likely quite short.