[quote]Loftearmen wrote:
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
Do you not have any reasonably experienced 6’+ guys fighting a standup style at light heavy (boxing-12st10) or above? I know you’re obviously a big strong guy, but aren’t you only 6’1 or something? Not like you’re working the crazy reach of a Kiltschko kind of fighter. I don’t mean this in a disrespectful way, but I’d be very surprised if any half decent light heavy and above fighter couldn’t school you any way they wanted to at this stage of your development. Anyone who’s 6’+ and over 175, with a good level of competition under their belt, should have the skills to work with you and help you improve. If you don’t have those kind of guys in your gym, then I sympathise, and in another month or two it may be time to start talking to your coach about looking elsewhere for sparring. Again, I don’t mean that in a disparaging way, but if I put any seasoned fighter at light heavy and above in the ring with you, I’d be watching them to make sure they didn’t hurt you, not really the other way round at this point. I’m sure you are able to take a good hit, from your size alone (if nothing else), and dish them out too (again, even leaving technique aside), but a good amateur or a pro of decent size would still have the skills to really hurt you pretty much at will at this point in your fighting career. Obviously as your skills improve, that could change more quickly than it would for a smaller fighter than yourself.
Edit: if you can’t get the sparring in your own gym, I can guarantee you any decent boxing gym in your area will have half a dozen guys at least who’d be happy to fight you. It may not be ideal for Muai Thai or whichever style of standup you are favouring, but quality ring time with real fighters is the biggest part of improving as a fighter. If everyone is running away from you, they are a bunch of pansies and it doesn’t sound like a gym full of fighters. I know loads of 135lbers who’d still stand and go toe to toe with you, just because it is in their DNA. Again, this is no reflection on you, you can only do the best you can with what you have. But you’re a good dude with a great attitude, and it’d be a shame if you weren’t making the progress your efforts deserve because you aren’t training with the right guys. [/quote]
I agree with everything you just said. I’m new and I should be going home with black eyes, especially because I’m terrible at defending myself (I don’t get any practice defending myself because people won’t get close to me). There are 2 guys at my gym who are pro mma fighters but they both fight at about 135 and would rather not spar with me. This is probably mostly do to them not wanting to waste their time sparring with a newbie when they have a career to worry about and their training has to count. Having the ability to go the ground makes a big difference too. A boxer who is fast isn’t going to have an issue slipping in, sticking me with a few punches and dancing back out before I can hit him with a punch but if he has to worry about me doubling him, slamming him on his back and laying 300+ lbs of sweaty dude on his chest while applying an Americana or a hand triangle he’ll be less likely to want to fight with me. Going to the ground does make a big difference but, again, a seasoned MMA fighter in the light heaviest could still make quick work of me even if I got him on the ground (although, he’d have an easier time doing so while standing).
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To play devils advocate slightly, I don’t actually believe a beginner should be going home with black eyes, at least not regularly. I am from the school of thought that likes to see a total mismatch in sparring initially, in the sense that I like beginners to be put in with seasoned guys initially, so that they can work their skills and techniques in a controlled environment. A good fighter can just use you to work on specific defenses and aspects of his game. He can also control his power and hit you just hard enough that you don’t keep making the same mistakes. In return, the whole thing doesn’t turn into a dick swinging contest between two new guys who forget technique and the fact that they are meant to be helping each other improve, and instead just start swinging for the fences.
In my opinion, that is the kind of sparring partner you need. What you don’t need is some little bitch who just runs away all the time.
I do take your point about kicks and takedowns, but it ought to be possible to work specific aspects of your game without needing to work all of them at once. For example, yes, if you were up against a light heavy weight boxer and he was playing by boxing rules, and you by MMA rules, then sure, maybe you’d take him down. But as the beginner, where does that leave you? You’ll just resort to that all the time because you can, and because you know you can’t match up in stand up. BUT, if you remove the other facets of MMA, and force yourself to play by his rules, suddenly you have no choice but to get better at standup.
This goes to a larger point about lower level MMA competition. I’m talking purely from outside observation here, but a lot of low level MMA fighters tend to be pretty shit, compared to the level of guys of equivalent experience who have focused on just one discipline. I don’t think it’s as simple as saying that they are jacks of all trades so have mastered none. I think a lot of the problem is that MMA gives you a lot of opportunity to ignore the things you’re not good at. Don’t like being punched in the face? No problem, just grab the guy and roll around on the floor. Shitty wrestler? Just jab, kick and run. I don’t think it is a coincidence that most (all?) of the higher level MMA fighters, certainly the ones I know, train in specific gyms for specific arts, and then maybe only dedicate one day a week to putting it all together as ‘MMA’. So they might do BJJ at a BJJ only gym two nights a week, Muai Thai 2 nights at a Muai Thai gym sparring exclusively in Muai Thai, one day doing boxing/wrestling at a specific gym, and then one day putting it all together making sure they can transition between the arts.
I understand that many MMA gyms have coaches for all the different arts, but it flat out isn’t the same. You don’t have the level of competition for a given art as you would if you just went to a gym that trained only that art. So all of the fighters are less good, and the need to improve to be competitive isn’t as great, because, well, you can always just tell yourself you’re a wrestler not a striker.
I’m not saying any of this is directed at you, more at the MMA gyms in general. I don’t know what the quality of fighters is like at your gym, other than the two 135lb pros, but it may well be that you need to go to different gyms to get yourself the sparring that your hard training deserves.
I need to quit trying to move so fast and start focusing on moving correctly.