Boxing or MMA?

Thinking about picking up one of these sports, in the end I want to be able take part competively. Which do you think is best?

If you want to do MMA you need boxing, you need BJJ and you need wrestling.

Instead think in terms of BJJ.

Yep I would pick up Jiu Jitsu honestly.

I did a little boxing when I was young, but if I was a teenager again I would definitely choose MMA over boxing.

If you talk about combat sports it's the most complete version that is out there..

BJJ is great also, but if you do MMA, you train boxing, BJJ, wrestling and Muay Thai all together..

Although MMA is obviously the best all round fighting sport, I wonder however if its better to specialize in one of the fighting areas instead?

I would rather good at boxing than mediocore at MMA if you understand what Im getting at?

that's the thing that is debated within the MMA world.


Is it better to specialize in something first? Like be a great BJJ competitor, or have a strong background in wrestling and then go into MMA or just go straight into MMA and train a little of everything.

It seems good to specialize in something for people that started very young. Guys that wrestled all through high school and college seem to have a leg up.

How old are you?

I was thinking of joining the local Gracie BJJ school, but just to train recreationally. It would've been nice to start at 14 or 15 plus wrestle throughout high school.

I think I would prefer to box competeviely, Im not a big fan of UFC/MMA fights to be honest, I find the wrestling and BJJ aspect the most boring. However, the reason Im considering MMA is because I know for getting in fights "on the streets" (for a lack of a better term) its more effective.

Doing it to compete and doing it for self defense are two slightly different things.

I did train some boxing in high school and I think learning some basic boxing goes a long ways in knowing how to fight and defend yourself but there's limits as with everything. And with sparring a lot, I don't like the idea of getting punched in the head over and over which is what tends to happen in boxing gyms.

The cool thing about BJJ is you can train and roll all you want in the gym without having to worry about head shots and brain damage. There's still injury risk but atleast your brain doesn't get smashed and you learn some real techniques that work on an actual resisting person.

Thanks for the advice SoCal.

I think Im gonna specialize in boxing as I actually want to be competing in it. But Im going to take a few wrestling, BJJ, and Muay Thai classes whenever I get the chance just to get the basic knowledge of each area so I can use it for self-defence. The average person knows very little about martial arts so I think knowing the basics will suffice. The problem is that Im f***** if I ever run into someone who competes in MMA lol

Ne1020 how old are you? The problem with boxing is that fights begin and end with fighting. If you ever consider yourself good looking you can kiss those looks good buy.

Look at Mickey Roarke he looks like chop meat now.

I have been in hundreds of fights but they were not against real fighters.

They definitely did not take a lot of time either. Plus if a got my hands on something I used it to win.

My advice run into someone who reall knows MMA or wrestling or bjj shoot him.

I always associated Micky Roarke's bad looks with botched plastic surgery...

The most I want to advance into is amatuer boxing, and headgear is required in amatuer bouts so it lessens the chance of cuts/scarring so I don't think damaging my face is an issue. A broken nose can be fixed too.

Most fights always start with punching but they usually miss or don't 100% connect and then it just ends up with wrestling on the floor.

If you get in the first punch and you hit hard. The fight can end in one or two more after that. That how you win fights make up your mind to hit him first and often until he drops. Then decide what you want to do after that walk away or make sure he doesn't walk away.

amateur boxing no money in it. My Daddio used to fight Amature had a 100 fights they fought for watches back then. Funny now I collect watches have about 300 of them. I would have loved some of his that he got in Amature. No I have none of those.

but he did learn how to beat up people for a living from it. Too bad he would practice on me and my brother even my mother. He was a chain smoker he would burn Ma with his cigs.

What a guy

Go with boxing , as in ufc a lot of the fighters go for takedowns , then try to lock in a submission move