Quote Originally Posted by ross View Post
How would you know?

Whos to say that Fury isn't a little mma weekend warrior? Watches all the mma shows and does a little training at his gym?

Ill tell you this. Most mma fighters will not train boxing with any decent boxers because they dont like to get hit, whereas grappling, you may get tied up but you wont take those sharp stinging punches. I used to box and have done freestyle karate and trained with brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners and my uncle is a trainer in tradidional jiu jitsu and none of them would ever step foot in the boxing gym and attempt to spar, whereas myself and other boxers are more than willing and enjoy stepping over and learning new things and trying other things out. Whether this is a trend everywhere I don't know but I get the feeling that most martial artists (I know boxing is a martial art and quite possibly the first ever) think f themselves as "above" boxing and for one reason or another just plain refise to even step foot in a boxing specific gym, whereas boxers are quite open to traini g alongside them? Go figure...

I'll agree 100% that a lot of grapplers don't want to get hit. That's the biggest adjustment when grapplers start training MMA: getting rid of the natural reaction to flinch, turn away from a strike, and getting their bodies used to being hit. Getting hit sucks, no question.

JDS is more than a "weekend warrior" who watches a few boxing matches on TV and trains on the weekend. JDS's particular camp trains with a lot of pro's and the Brazilian olympic boxing squad, in fact there is footage on Youtube of JDS sparring with an Olympian. He is a stablemate of Anderson Silva, who of course trained extensively for a period with Freddie Roach at the Wild Card gym. Are these guys ready to go take on a Klitschko or a Sergio Martinez? No, but they're no slouches when it comes to boxing.

Just because you were open minded, doesn't mean that attitude is universal. I've posted on MMA and boxing forums for over 10 years and I've had to defend MMA to boxing fans and defend boxing to MMA fans countless times. Generally speaking, those into boxing think the grappling game is a bunch of nonsense and don't like to partake in it. There are obvious exceptions, as the UFC has featured a few ex-pro boxers who made the switch successfully, but there is a general ignorance in the boxing community to everything that isn't boxing.