How does Boxing improve someones MMA abilities?

dudeguyman

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Go ahead, throw out the obvious ones, throw out the not so obvious ones, but most importantly...











































































<{cuts}>
 
Well I have only sparred in MMA rules but I kind of sux in it and I have not in a couple of years. I ve been boxing lately and here is what I think would help:
- actually a proper guard - parries, blocks and etc
- good jab will make people walk backwards
- good counter cross can make people think twice regarding advancing on you
- boxing is the stand up sport which pays a significant attention to footwork and body movements. I have never ever trained a fight sport in which they explain to me detailed how to move forward, backwards and to the sides while trowing and I have practised dutch kickboxing, some Muya Thai and some MMA. Only at boxing classes I was tought how to do it properly and my hands to feet coordination has improved drastically.
- the obvious one - some nice punching technique and devastating punches.
 
Enhanced motor skills and power acquired by countless repetitions using only your hands.

I still don't think it will make any ground breaking differences to your game if you don't compete in the sport. People who train recreationally tend spar soft against each other and not really test once limits. Kind of like an average traditional martial arts school.
 
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Improved motor skills and power asquired by countless repetitions using only your hands.

I still don't think it will make any ground breaking differences to your game if you don't compete in the sport. People who train recreationally tend spar soft against each other and not really test once limits. Kind of like an average traditional martial arts school.
Well, I just joined a boxing gym and they don't let you spar unless you are registered with usa boxing or something like that. So needless to say I will at least have 2 or 3 ammy boxing matches. On the point of gentle sparring any good school should teach that every now and then a hard spar is good.
 
Well, I just joined a boxing gym and they don't let you spar unless you are registered with usa boxing or something like that. So needless to say I will at least have 2 or 3 ammy boxing matches. On the point of gentle sparring any good school should teach that every now and then a hard spar is good.

I am just speaking from my own experience, maybe yours is different. It didn't make a better fighter at all from just the technical training, and the sparring was too soft against intermediate guys to have any impact. He won't let you spar full contact unless you are in the competitiors group.
 
I am just speaking from my own experience, maybe yours is different. It didn't make a better fighter at all from just the technical training, and the sparring was too soft against intermediate guys to have any impact. He won't let you spar full contact unless you are in the competitiors group.
well the way I look at it, when you spar technically you can do some science and experiment with things you aren't very good at, and when you spar hard, you can pressure test the things you've discovered.
 
I am just speaking from my own experience, maybe yours is different. It didn't make a better fighter at all from just the technical training, and the sparring was too soft against intermediate guys to have any impact. He won't let you spar full contact unless you are in the competitiors group.

You do not learn a lot of a heavy sparring if you are not advanced enough for it either. Sure you can go and bang and feel good when it lands, but in reality it is a fight between two wills in this case if you do not have the skill set to work with. I train with a guy who has been fighting for 15 years and has some medals in boxing and kickboxing and he does not love hard sparring at all. He says nothing to be learned in a hard sparring, just how hard is your jaw and your liver.
 
You do not learn a lot of a heavy sparring if you are not advanced enough for it either. Sure you can go and bang and feel good when it lands, but in reality it is a fight between two wills in this case if you do not have the skill set to work with. I train with a guy who has been fighting for 15 years and has some medals in boxing and kickboxing and he does not love hard sparring at all. He says nothing to be learned in a hard sparring, just how hard is your jaw and your liver.
You need a damn avatar picture.
:rustled:
 
when boxing with good guys youll never see hands that good and fast in mma fights so thats a huge edge for me is i know nobodys gonna match my hand speed
 
when boxing with good guys youll never see hands that good and fast in mma fights so thats a huge edge for me is i know nobodys gonna match my hand speed
now where is your avatar?
<{anton}>
you're naked.
 
The punching mechanics is pretty different esp. if your striking is predominantly from a kickboxer. One of the better fighters at the gym used to box before going into MMA, and how he sat down in his punches was completely different. Once I got the hang of it somewhat, my crosses became nasty. Funny thing is it felt like I didn't put anything in, and wondered at times why it felt "weak" when in fact is was the best I've thrown. Hook mechanics are different as well, hooks in KB for the most part are just a transition to set up the kick at the end. Whereas in boxing its meant to dish out damage.

Their sense of distance and range is pretty good as well. It will feel weird if you're normally a "walk down" fighter, because the boxers I've sparred have no concern about backstepping for some reason, they're fine fighting off the ropes sometimes.

They tend to be okay with not having every single punch your main kill. Long combinations is quite common, whereas in your typical MMA or MT gym, you rarely go past 4 strikes. Its not uncommon to be worked 8-10 strikes + movement in boxing. Oh that too, lots of focus on movement.

I'm not a boxer, but this is just my exp. training with those that have a background in it.

Oh forgot also, the most important one is you get the ability to post and lecture others on Sherdog about your expertise even though you've only been at it for 2 days.
 
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The punching mechanics is pretty different esp. if your striking is predominantly from a kickboxer. One of the better fighters at the gym used to box before going into MMA, and how he sat down in his punches was completely different. Once I got the hang of it somewhat, my crosses became nasty. Funny thing is it felt like I didn't put anything in, and wondered at times why it felt "weak" when in fact is was the best I've thrown. Hook mechanics are different as well, hooks in KB for the most part are just a transition to set up the kick at the end. Whereas in boxing its meant to dish out damage.

Their sense of distance and range is pretty good as well. It will feel weird if you're normally a "walk down" fighter, because the boxers I've sparred have no concern about backstepping for some reason, they're fine fighting off the ropes sometimes.

They tend to be okay with not having every single punch your main kill. Long combinations is quite common, whereas in your typical MMA or MT gym, you rarely go past 4 strikes. Its not uncommon to be worked 8-10 strikes + movement in boxing. Oh that too, lots of focus on movement.

I'm not a boxer, but this is just my exp. training with those that have a background in it.

Oh forgot also, the most important one is you get the ability to post and lecture others on Sherdog about your expertise even though you've only been at it for a 2 days.

True story lol. I constantly get noted I put too much body movement on my hits, especially on uppercuts. That I need to use my upper body more, especially shoulder movement to get rotations. For example in a cross you are expected to bring your left should back then forward very quickly using not much of a hip rotation. Uppercuts with rear again using the left shoulder rather then loading the entire body and lowering down. My friends will "throw" something like a jab every time they load their right hand to get that shoulder movement.

In hooks again you use the feet and the shoulders for rotation, not loading and stepping like in KB to add a kick afterwards. Hooks are pretty damn fast and nasty and are really used in close range.

As I said in the other thread we are taught to walk backwards and trowing while going backwards it is a huge part of warm up to trow going forward and backwards (right foot forward trow left, left foot forward trow right; or backwards - right foot backwards trow right, left foot backwards trow left and etc, we spend at least 5 mins on warm up on this). It is huge on padwork too. At least at the gym I practice.

Regarding kill strikes - we are taught to use our power hand for kills. But then we do not use these way too often - for example on pads I ll do a lot off 1-1-2./ 1-2, slip, 2-1-2 and neither of these will be strong punches. But we may do 1-1-uppercut, get the back hand on guard and load a strong hook to kill. I get caught a lot from my orthodox friend. Cause I try to counter him after his 1-1-2 and I touch his glove with a jab and he is just waiting for that to land a hook on me.

As I said before I have trained few fight sports as a hobist and only in boxing I have had such a great introduction to footwork and movement and I am finally clicking my feet and hands and I know how to move and trow.

Lastly these 8-10 hits come from the teaching of 1-2-1-2 or 2-1-2 going forward or backwards. It is an easy fix to continue if they do not counter you and land more or get an even more comfortable position for a kill strike.
 
the goal behind an MMA fighter is to be well rounded everywhere. Youll find that most the MMA guys are about a "C" at everything. The top guys might be a "B" at everything. However in MMA generally speaking, if there is one skill that they are usually higher in than the rest its usually BJJ. Anyways if you box, your going to have better hands then the rest of the guys. Come to think of it you now reminded of a guy I know. Hes a boxing coach, hes older, he used to be a professional boxer, hes had a few MMA fights recently and all he did was get in there and rely on his hands and has been knocking dudes out. But were talking low level pros at the local events. Without a doubt, being a retired pro boxer, his hands are better than any competition hes going to come across locally at the lower level pros either making their debut or a few fights etc.

long story short, boxing will improve your hands, and generally speaking, your hands will be better than the next guy.
 
You do not learn a lot of a heavy sparring if you are not advanced enough for it either. Sure you can go and bang and feel good when it lands, but in reality it is a fight between two wills in this case if you do not have the skill set to work with. I train with a guy who has been fighting for 15 years and has some medals in boxing and kickboxing and he does not love hard sparring at all. He says nothing to be learned in a hard sparring, just how hard is your jaw and your liver.

I don't think that's entirely true. Power matters a lot, and many things can only be effectively set up if you have someone genuinely worried about getting hit. As a taller guy, for example, when I'm sparring lightly and trying to maintain range it's relatively easy for people to walk through my jabs and teeps because there's not much on them. Shorter guys can take those shots without really having to give ground or stop advancing. If we're sparring hard, those jabs and teeps will force them to react and, if they land, will definitely keep them from moving forward. It creates a very different dynamic. Likewise it's often very hard to create genuine openings with feints in light sparring because guys just don't have to react all that much since the cost of getting hit is so low. In hard sparring feinting works much more like it does in a fight since people really react to your feints because they have to genuinely worry about getting hit. Hard sparring also reveals very quickly if you're balanced and strong as you're throwing and defending, which is crucial for fighting. If I mostly spar light and I go fight and taking punches to my guard is knocking me off balance, I'm not going to be able to throw back effectively and that's going to be a tough night for me. You don't need to spar hard every day, but if you haven't done much of it it's really important to build up a baseline competency so you know what it feels like to really throw and take hard shots.
 
Just concentrating on 2 weapons instead of 8 plus defending takedowns can help. A boxer can concentrate more on positioning(footwork) and tactics

The funny thing is I am currently doing the opposite. I am about to switch gyms b/c the boxing coach's boxing is way more suited to using the bigger pillows for defense among other things
 
Mma is a fist fight. Guys can throw kicks, knees, elbows and shoot take downs but everything is set up with punches. Fighters throw exponentially more punches than any other strike or technique.

So, go learn to throw punches. Learn to counter punches. Learn to evade punches. Learn to not stand in front of someone who’s punching at you. Learn to use your feet to get into a position to land your punches.
 
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