Delicate difference between boxing, MMA
'You have to work out twice as hard and twice as much,' Noons says
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San Diego’s KJ Noons exemplifies the delicate difference between mixed martial arts and professional boxing, if they can be called delicate.
It’s not easy to compare both sports.
Noons is one of the few who boxes and fights MMA and though he’s truly equipped to participate in both sports those little differences between the two combat disciplines can be staggeringly difficult inside the ring or cage.
“It’s definitely tough,” stated Noons. “You have to work out twice as hard and twice as much.”
The middleweight Noons (3-1) will be featured against Edson Berto (11-3-1) on the main event at the Chumash Casino in Santa Inez on July 27. The MMA bout is part of the “ShoXC: Elite Challenger Series” that will be televised by Showtime.
Inside the boxing ring Noons displays a rugged style that depends mostly on his strength and power. But after losing once in the boxing ring to Danny Z, a short but powerful middleweight at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood, he learned quickly that strength is not enough. There are stronger boxers out there.
His last MMA loss came to Charles “Crazy Horse” Bennett. Once again he learned strength is not enough. Noons was knocked out.
The difference between professional boxing and MMA is that the former depends on punching, blocking, slipping punches, creating angles, counter-punching and leg mobility. It takes years to master all of these techniques. A slip in any of these departments can mean an early knockout against a polished boxer.
MMA fighters, though they do indeed punch in abundance, are not dependent on using fists. Because take downs are allowed including kicks, elbows, knees, chokeholds, arm bars and various ground war techniques, the same defenses used in boxing cannot be used with the same effect in MMA.
A fighter looking to create an angle can find himself driven to the ground in quick fashion by a wrestling oriented fighter.
In the early 1990s when wrestlers and jujitsu artists gained control of the MMA world, it seemed that fighters depending on their fists were obsolete. But with a few adjustments here and there knockouts returned and fighters like Chuck Liddell and Tim Sylvia proved that you could survive and even thrive by punching.
“The stand up fighters caught up,” said Dan Henderson, the Pride FC welterweight and middleweight champion signed to fight Ultimate Fighting Champion light heavyweight Quentin “Rampage” Jackson. “The sport has changed a lot since the early days when Royce Gracie won those early titles.”
Boxing and MMA history
If you look back far enough you realize MMA and boxing were exactly the same. I’m not talking about 1987 but how about 1687 during the English reign of King William III. Or 2000 B.C. in ancient Egypt or the first Olympics held in Greece. Even during the invasion of Troy, according to Homer in the Iliad, two champions fought each other with their fists during the siege by the Greeks.
Before the Marquis of Queensbury established the modern rules for boxing in 1867, the sport was more like MMA today. Wrestling, throwing, elbows and such were all part of fighting or boxing as it was called. Oh, one other thing, they could pull hair too. Famous British pugilist Daniel Mendoza lost to John Jackson in 1795 because the latter pulled him down with a fist full of hair and with a firm grip on the mane proceeded to batter the champion to unconsciousness.
The rules were changed because of the constant badgering by local community leaders in Great Britain who forced the police to stop all fights immediately. During those times fights were staged by word of mouth. People would pass the word and show up at a locale hoping the police weren’t waiting for them.
Queensbury’s rules helped quell the community disapproval of the sport they called barbaric.
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