Thread: why do boxers hate MMA and vise versa?

al the guys at my boing gym hate the fact that i do mma and constantly call it gay and shit. even some of the trainers dont like me because i do mma. any idea whta i should do?

Originally Posted by BoneCrusher

It's not that MMA fighters hate boxing. We just hate that boxers have their heads up their asses and think because we kick, knee, and ground fight we are less skilled at boxing.

I think this is the general consensus in the boxing community. Most boxers just view MMA as less skillful and less of an actual sport and more like a sanctioned street fight. In boxing (generalizing here), one may have to go ten or twelve rounds and rely mostly on boxing skill (as opposed to the Gatti/Ward type brawling which I think gives boxing a bad name to an extent). Also with boxing, you have less arsenal (only your fists) and stricter rules (correct me if I'm wrong here).

I think with the last statement, that MMA fighters are just as good of boxers as boxers are is kind of ridiculous. No professional MMA fighter equivalently ranked in an equivalent weight division as a professional boxer can beat a boxer under boxing rules. Boxers train only to box, while MMA fighters train for a far greater variety of fighting styles like wrestling, grappling, BJJ and other mixed martial arts. If one person dedicates 100,000 hours to boxing while another dedicates 100,000 hours to a bunch of different things, you are going to get far less boxing hours, therefore (assuming no variables here), the first would be assumed a better boxer.

I don't hate MMA by any means. In fact, I like the idea of it; it's more practical than boxing in my opinion. In fact, a lot of boxing fans are also MMA fans. But, one thing I don't like is what's the deal with MMA guys calling out boxers? Dana White offering Floyd Mayweather Jr. only $1M to fight an MMA guy and then call Floyd a chicken when he didn't accept it? He got over $25M for his last fight alone. If you're going to call out the top P4P boxer, pay him what he's worth. And boxers turning MMA? How does beating an old, FAR past prime Riddick Bowe in MMA mean anything?