Colin, You mistook my arguement. Pain beat a top ten ranked boxer - no Tyson, but who is Pain? Pain wrestled a little in high school, has an orange belt in judo and has been training bjj for less than a year. If you look at the sport records of most pro mma fighters they have usually got long competition records in other sports - competing at an equally high level as a boxer. You think boxing is tough, try wrestling/judo/bjj etc. It’s all the same in terms of dedication, atheletic ability and toughness once you get to an elite level. Of course any decent pro mma fighter crosstrains outside of his system - actually in todays mma world people don’t tend to define themselves by one style as they practice a conglomeration of styles/techniques. Tyson would do very well in mma - once he crosstrained for a year or two. A man of his athletic ability wouldn’t have too much trouble adapting if he dedicated himself. For those in the know (i.e. those who actually fight full contact) this wouldn’t even have been a serious question. You are right about one thing Colin - most martial artists are “ninja’s” who couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag. Pro mma fighters are an entirely different breed.
For those who laugh at Tank - he had mediocre boxing skills (good enough to be a pro though) and excellent college wrestling skills. He may have pretended to be a dumb thug but the man has some skills not too mention being super strong.