Demetrious Johnson: "MMA is ‘the easiest sport to become champion in."

It holds true to the heavier weight classes. It's tough for the manlet classes. Smaller guys don't really have as much glaring holes.
 
Agreed. The sport of MMA is very short as well. Like a fighters whole career is 30 fights long, so if things go right he can be fighting for the title in his like 15th fight. No other major sport has something like this. From first pro fight to title in that short of a spam.

But of course, most of the guys that achieve that already have probably already fought in other disciplines so easier said than done.
 
TGArthur said:
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I agree with him in a way but boxing is probably the worst example to use since its pretty much a meme how boxing hands out belts like participation trophies. His example of Pereira is an outlier aswell since he was rushed up due to the history between Izzy and him. Its a generalisation to act like the majority of champs have had it the same as guys like Brock or Pereira.
 
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It's comparing a family doctor to a brain surgeon. Yes, the family doctor can treat a lot of different things. But he'll never be as knowledgeable on a specialty as the person who practices it.
 
Mohawk Banditó said:
Partly right, partly not, depending on what we're calling an MMA world champ. Proliferation of titles really should be part of the conversation. Some boxing titles are seemingly handed to anyone with a bit of flair cuz there's enough sanctioning bodies and weight classes to go around. In MMA, you've got a shitoad of promotions to think about to, on huge varying degrees of regionalism. You can become a world champ fighting people who are basically fresh out the amateurs, but are we considering that world champ vs like Ares FC vs PFL or One vs only the UFC
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True, but to be fair - all his examples were UFC. I suspect he's talking about at the UFC level specifically.
 
he should've said it's much easier to become a UFC champion if you have Dana White privelege. the other thing he didn't mention is both of those guys were superstars from other sports which is how they obtained the Dana White privelege.

so if you're world famous, yes, you can win a UFC title with big holes in your game.
 
easier than boxing yes, easiest of all sports i don't think so
ultimately it all come down to the talent pool, the more the sport is popular and practiced worldwide the harder it will be to be champion
and his examples aren't really the best, yes pereira was fasttracked, but you can't say "see how easy it is! you just have to be a double weight class world champion in kickboxing, with wins over the current mma champ to be fasttracked" doesn't make any sense, or could even show that it's easier to be a champ in kickboxing than in mma
 
azerty said:
easier than boxing yes, easiest of all sports i don't think so
ultimately it all come down to the talent pool, the more the sport is popular and practiced worldwide the harder it will be to be champion
and his examples aren't really the best, yes pereira was fasttracked, but you can't say "see how easy it is! you just have to be a double weight class world champion in kickboxing, with wins over the current mma champ to be fasttracked" doesn't make any sense, or could even show that it's easier to be a champ in kickboxing than in mma
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Also, if mma is the easiest, his two belts in kickboxing are already worth more than the belts in mma, right?
Many mma fighters already have belts, trophies and what not from these “harder” sports.
 
jimmy dakine said:
Only for fighters who get streamlined into a championship fight, like Brock or Perreira.....everyone else has to go thru 15 fights, has to become the best of the unranked, then beat the top 10-15 guys then move into the top 5.....along that route, the holes in your game get found out and you dont become champ. Having said that, once you GET to a championship bout, deserved or undeserved, it might be the easiest because ONE TINY MISTAKE and bam, you lost, or you win.....hmmmm, maybe that can happen in boxing too.
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Good point. His two examples were 2 guys who were given easy fights and gifted undeserving title opportunities. I don't think that happens in other sports.
 
While I agree that it's easier to become a champion in MMA than Boxing, I feel it's harder to stay undefeated in MMA.

And becoming champion in MMA is mostly easier because a lot of fighters are fast tracked to a title shot for outside reasons.
 
He's right about succeeding with flaws, but idk that makes it the easiest.

DoubleTrouble said:
He's 100% correct. No boxer gets fast tracked in 3/4 fights like Poatan and Brock were in the elite levels of boxing.

You could potentially say Lomachenko but he'd fought ~400 bouts at amateur going 398-1 or something mad like that so was as good as a top pro already.
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Idk, look at some of those Top Rank guys- Berlanga comes to mind first. He had a bunch of fights, but his opponents were barely sentient
 
Half of BJJ practitioners are world champion of one certain belt, certain weight class, certain specialty and certain organisation.
The other half got 2nd place. And they take people from the crowd to fill out the podium.
 
Ouch, little guy so bitter UFC punted him he hates himself, so sad. His arguments are pathetic. How is Alex deficient in wrestling? He stuffed the shit out of Jan's wrestling attempts and there is no wrestler that can come close to challenging him. Not to mention if he wants to present Brock Lesnar as some kind of MMA greatness then I counter with several time boxing champ Butterbean as a shining example of what a joke that "sport" i.e. gambling racket boxing is.
 
Its only that way because of ufc fighter career steering and undeserving ts freebies courtesy of Dana
 
Absolutely true. MMA is still a very new sport and has decades upon decades of evolution and refinement to go through until it's on the level of boxing. At some point, there won't be "specialists" in MMA. Meaning, we won't have BJJ guys, or kickboxing guys, etc. It will all just be one blended style that includes both grappling and stand-up. Right now, MMA is still in the very early stages of development.
 
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