Author: Levi Nile

MMA Fighters Wanting to Enter the Boxing Ring? Please, No More

So, just when it seemed that the two premier combative sports on the planet were content to agree to disagree and coexist as best they can, Junior dos Santos is coming out and saying he could knock out Wladimir Klitschko in what we assume to be a boxin…

So, just when it seemed that the two premier combative sports on the planet were content to agree to disagree and coexist as best they can, Junior dos Santos is coming out and saying he could knock out Wladimir Klitschko in what we assume to be a boxing match.

Eh, not so much.

Granted, there is no harm in one man having a strong opinion and a confidence in his own abilities. Dos Santos is the UFC heavyweight champ, and that’s no easy bull to ride. I think I would be more worried about him if he wasn’t confident.

But I do begin to worry when a certain MMA fighter begins to bring up the subject of how they could defeat a boxer in a boxing ring, over and over. Thinking about it whimsically is one thing, but to seriously contemplate the feat is another.

Dos Santos is not alone in his belief that he could easily transition to the world of boxing and dominate: Nick Diaz was in negotiations with boxing promoters to fight Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy, and then we have Anderson Silva, who still seems to be holding on to the dream of boxing Roy Jones Jr.

God, please no.

Diaz, Silva and dos Santos have great boxing in the world of MMA, but in a boxing match they would get eaten alive.

In regard to dos Santos, either Klitschko brother would give him a pronounced beating, and Wladimir would almost surely knock him out. MMA-style boxing is a totally different animal than traditional boxing, built around the notion that you must be able to stuff takedowns, block kicks, etc—and that does not translate well into the world of professional boxing.

Compared to the Klitschkos, dos Santos has almost no defensive skills and far too many bad habits that would see him countered to death. It wouldn’t be competitive once dos Santos realized that his bull rushes and clinches don’t do much in boxing except get you warnings from the referee.

Diaz, for his part, seemed a bit more humble while he was pursuing an entry into the world of professional boxing—but Jeff Lacy would have probably taken his head off in the first round. Once again, severe defensive deficiencies (like little to no head movement) would see Diaz get hit flush—hard and often. Couple that with the power Lacy generates, and you get Diaz laying flat on his back, blinking into the overhead lighting.

Then, there is the case of Anderson Silva, who seems to want to fight Roy Jones Jr. simply because he idolizes the man and has a true love for professional boxing. There is a reverence Silva has when he speaks about the sport and Jones, which almost makes it easier to swallow.

But even against a well-past-his-prime Jones, Silva would get utterly annihilated. As bad as Silva made Griffin and Bonnar look, Jones would make him look worse. Silva may look like a defensive genius in MMA, but against a fighter with the speed and experience of Jones, he’d be very hittable.

A time must come when men such as dos Santos, Diaz and Silva finally understand that there is such a thing as serendipity. They are among some of the best MMA fighters of their divisions and generations because they were destined to be MMA fighters, not boxers.

Sooner or later, some successful, highly praised and thought to be unbeatable MMA fighter is going to let this kind of thinking go to his head, and he’ll leverage his fame and standing to get his wish: a boxing match with a good boxer.

Then, he’s going to get his pride and reputation handed back to him, in pieces, and he will carry those pieces to bed with him every night for the rest of his life. This might sound like a simple thing, but many a fighter doesn’t bounce back from a true humiliation, and given the enormous scope and spotlight the rivalry between MMA and boxing is…well, he’d have to move to the North Pole to avoid hearing about it.

More and more boxers are beginning to voice their admiration for MMA. For every uninformed comment by Zab Judah or Floyd Mayweather Jr., you have fighters and trainers like Wladimir Klitschko, Mike Tyson, Freddie Roach and others who honestly appreciate the sport and treat it with humility and respect.

There will always be a rivalry between the two sports, and as long as there is a separation between them, a little back-and-forth across the fence is fine, and in some ways good for business.

But when MMA fighters of high renown begin talking as if their sport isn’t challenging them enough and begin eyeing the professional boxing ring, we can only hope that they have someone in their camp to remind them that one cannot serve two masters.

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Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen: If That Works, Why Not These Fights?

So, we have it laid before us: Chael Sonnen will coach opposite Jon Jones on the next season of TUF, then will fight the champ for the title, because according to Dana White ,“it makes sense.” Granted, White has guided the ship very far thr…

So, we have it laid before us: Chael Sonnen will coach opposite Jon Jones on the next season of TUF, then will fight the champ for the title, because according to Dana White ,“it makes sense.”

Granted, White has guided the ship very far through some very turbulent waters and has done so by going with his gut. But no one is flawless, and this decision by White was clearly done with an eye to saving The Ultimate Fighter franchise rather than seeing due process served in the light heavyweight division.

No amount of fan uproar will change any of this: White believes he is right and anyone who disagrees with him is wrong or a moron, as he so eloquently put it when he addressed the issue of booing fans at the title fight between Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez.

This is White’s ship, and we’re just along for the ride, so we should shut up and enjoy the view, or so it might seem. However, there is an interesting hangnail in all of this: If White is so pleased with his decision to have Sonnen leapfrog everyone in the light heavyweight division for a shot at the champ, then perhaps there will be other fights in the future that can benefit from the same philosophy of dollars and cents making enough sense to throw divisional ramifications to the wind.

There are some good fights out there that could be made using the same, or close to the same, argument that saw Sonnen win the light heavyweight lottery because he bought a ticket by saying “I will” instead of “I can’t” or “I won’t.”

Granted, none of the fights in this list have much divisional significance; they don’t follow any true form of due process (well, most of them don’t). They are just really good fights that could fit into the same mold as Jones vs. Sonnen.

So, if Jones vs. Sonnen “makes sense,” then why not these fights?

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MMA Fights That We Wish We Could Have Seen

Ever since fighters have been passing into retirement, leaving behind their legacies to be appreciated, pondered and scrutinized, one of the most recurring questions is based around fights between men who are separated by time. As fight fans, we need t…

Ever since fighters have been passing into retirement, leaving behind their legacies to be appreciated, pondered and scrutinized, one of the most recurring questions is based around fights between men who are separated by time.

As fight fans, we need to have questions answered; it’s one of the reasons why consistent fighters have both fans and detractors in abundance. The fans believe most of the questions have been answered and the result is perfection in the form of their man, while the detractors say “not so fast,” and they continue to watch believing that one question remains, and when it is answered, that man will fall.

Of course, much of it is name recognition and the style vs. style debate, but all of it comes back to the fact that the question itself is transcendent: generation gap be damned, the question will be asked, and the answer debated until we are all tired and move on to the next hypothetical fight.

Still, we can take comfort in knowing we are not the only ones asking the question—the fighters do it as well; how could they not compare themselves to the greats of times past?

In that spirit, here are 12 fights that ponder the question.

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MMA Fan Michael Clark Duncan Dies at Age 54 in Los Angeles

Actor Michael Clark Duncan died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, as reported by the New York Daily News. Duncan first came to prominence in the role of John Coffey in The Green Mile, a film adaptat…

Actor Michael Clark Duncan died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, as reported by the New York Daily News.

Duncan first came to prominence in the role of John Coffey in The Green Mile, a film adaptation of the Stephen King serialized novel of the same name. He earned an Oscar nomination for the role, a shock to many considering his relative inexperience in the field.

Since that time, he has starred in several films including Armageddon, Talladega Nights, Planet of the Apes and Kung Fu Panda.

Duncan has long been know to the MMA community as a passionate fan of the sport and was a fixture at UFC events going back as early as UFC 44, when he predicted Tito Ortiz would defeat Randy Couture.

Duncan’s massive physique, baritone voice and easy smile made him an approachable figure who was always accessible to the fans.

Born in Chicago in 1957 and raised by a single mother, Duncan saw his life take many turns before he began acting in this thirties. He was a bodyguard for Will Smith and Jamie Foxx among others, and the murder of one of his clients—the Notorious B.I.G.—led Duncan to quit the profession and go into acting full time.

The condolences of everyone at Bleacher Report go out to his family in this time of need.

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Jon Jones vs. 5 of the UFC’s Best Heavyweights

It’s shocking how a fighter can go from being favored in both the books of the odds makers and in the hearts of fans to being considered a pariah who has more detractors than he has advocates. Such is the strange case of Jon Jones. Since he claim…

It’s shocking how a fighter can go from being favored in both the books of the odds makers and in the hearts of fans to being considered a pariah who has more detractors than he has advocates.

Such is the strange case of Jon Jones.

Since he claimed the belt by destroying Shogun Rua, and then proceeded to defend it easily against Rampage Jackson and Lyoto Machida, fans have begun to find things about Jones they simply cannot abide.

Outside of the cage, they don’t like his attitude for any number of reasons: he’s either too cocky or too fake in his humility or too whatever.

Inside the cage, they hate the fact that he enjoys what seems to be some seriously unfair advantages, mainly based upon his considerable wingspan and reach. Thus, as Jones continues to roll over the opposition at light heavyweight, those detractors continue to call Jones out to the land of heavyweights, where they are positive they would get to see Jones get his comeuppance.

I am not so sure about that. Read on and find out why.

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Could Zuffa Promote Boxing Better Than Bob Arum and Golden Boy?

In less than 20 years, the UFC has grown to the point that it’s now officially standing side-by-side with boxing, just like the little brother who grows to the height of his older sibling, and in the next five years, it looks like little brother …

In less than 20 years, the UFC has grown to the point that it’s now officially standing side-by-side with boxing, just like the little brother who grows to the height of his older sibling, and in the next five years, it looks like little brother will be taller and bigger.

How did this come to pass? How did boxing fall from being a sport full of big stars and big-money fights to a series of events dominated by many foreign fighters with foreign motivations?

Sure, boxing still has some great fights—excellent even—but not nearly as many people know about them now as they did 10 years ago.

Simply put, boxing has lost a lot of followers, for a variety of reasons.

For one, getting the fights the fans want to see made and turning them into a reality is more difficult now than it ever has been. While many a fan has been kept waiting, they decided to turn their attention elsewhere, and with them, they took their money.

Of course, this happens in every sport, but no one expected it to happen to the degree it has with boxing. Without names Like Oscar De La Hoya, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr., Arturo Gatti and so on, the sport has lost a great deal of name recognition, and fans do attach themselves to names.

So, how on earth could Zuffa change that? Were they of the mind to get into the business of promoting boxing?

For starters, it wouldn’t be easy because boxers expect more money than your average MMA fighter, and rightly so, as boxing is more dangerous. But, what if it wasn’t a consideration of money? What if Zuffa was willing to pay out the big bucks in such a venture—could they do better than promoters like Bob Arum and Golden Boy?

Well, it would be a bit of both yes and no in the beginning.

Granted, Zuffa has all the right connections, especially in Nevada, and many of their top men know the world of boxing—in all of its aspects—inside and out, coming and going.

But still, the way business is conducted is vastly different, and perhaps, that’s where Zuffa could do the most changing and having the most success.

As they wouldn’t have any titles of recognition or importance to give out, they would have to focus on getting fighters who love to put on a show, and from there, take those fighters and put their accomplishments on a damn big stage under some very big lights.

In short, they would be looking to get fighters who think actions speak louder than words and who believe they have a lot to say and then give them all the exposure they need to do just that.

It would be the only real way to begin: letting the fighters sell themselves and helping them do so to the utmost of their ability; Zuffa could do that with a vengeance.

The second thing Zuffa would do is listen to the public and set up the fights the fans wanted to see, with no contractual hang ups. This is what attracts fans: knowing they are going to get to see the fight they want or at least the fight they’ve been hearing about around the water cooler for the past four months.

No more “Wouldn’t it be great if…?”—now it would be: “Did you hear? Those two guys on Zuffa’s Tuesday Night Fights—the one’s who’ve been kicking so much ass the past year? They’re fighting in July.”

After establishing themselves and their boxers in the minds of the public, they begin to target other promoters and their fighters and start to put on the pressure—your guy vs. my guy.

It’s simple, aggressive and totally to the point, and it would give boxing the shot in the arm it needs. Boxing suffers not from a lack of passion, but from being too encumbered—streaming it back to the glory of the earlier days is not a matter of addition, but subtraction.

It was simple back then because it was about bragging rights, and thus, so shall it be now on Zuffa boxing cards—or something like that.

Granted, this boxing model of Zuffa would be limited in scope and power, and in truth, would act much like a star builder for bigger promotions who already have the biggest names in the sport and the purses to match, but it would also get the fans to talking, and talking is how changes get made.

Back in the 1980s, boxing’s mega-bouts got made very quickly. Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Tommy Hearns was rumored to have been made in less than a week after serious talks began.

Think about that for a moment: the biggest fight of its time, made in less than a week.

That kind of deal-making happens in MMA, especially in the UFC, but in boxing, the only thing big stars could decide upon in a week is what size gloves they would wear if they were ever to decide to fight—and that’s pushing it.

Of course, this flight of fancy is nothing more than that, but it does beget a question: how badly would Bob Arum and Golden Boy be sweating if Zuffa were to get into the boxing promotion business?

Perhaps, not at all; or perhaps, enough to begin to put aside their differences and sign the fights the fans want to see in an effort to get Zuffa out of the sport of boxing and back into MMA.

If for no other reason than that, it would be worth it.

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