Pick one non-combat sports athlete who you think would transition the best to MMA.

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Elbow game is on point.




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A natural at muay thai.
 
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She's already got a little boxing, and a nasty streak.
 
Larry Bird, look at this Seagal like wrist take down

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and "The French Lick Slap"
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he once fought a man Tree times his size
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Iverson has never weighed 170 in his life. He was pretty lean so idk if he makes FW but he’s a LW at max. There are some people who think he would be the greatest American soccer player ever if he concentrated on it. And people from Virginia will swear he was a better football player than Mike Vick (who grew up in the same area)
One of the greatest athletes I’ve ever seen, quickness and coordination absolutely off the charts

MMA has never seen an athlete of his caliber, and likely never will. He'd run rings around these jokers.
He would have been amazing at it.
 
you either have it or you don't. Can't teach instinct.

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Stephen Jackson probably could have been a fighter too, since your gif made me think about it. That Pacers team was full of athletes with natural fighter's mentality.
 
The guys who translate the best would be guys in the weakest MMA division which is HW. Thats the division where just physical dimensions alone of some of these super athletes can cause an issue for fighters. Iverson is a ridiculous level athlete but I wouldn't put him into the conversation as having as much success anywhere near what some of the big freaks in the NFL or NBA would do at HW. There's a reason why Lesnar got UFC gold and was good enough to defend it twice with a few fights under his belt.
 
MMA has never seen an athlete of his caliber, and likely never will. He'd run rings around these jokers.
He would have been amazing at it.
What’s awesome is that his body type is pretty similar to max Holloway, who comes absolutely nowhere near AI in athletic ability. Teach Iverson to punch and he lands a 1-2 and is outta there before anyone could touch him.
 
Stephen Jackson probably could have been a fighter too, since your gif made me think about it. That Pacers team was full of athletes with natural fighter's mentality.
Imagine if there was some money in this "sport." Seeing real athletes trying to beat the shit out of each other would be entertaining as fuck.
 
you either have it or you don't. Can't teach instinct.

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Funny thing about that while situation is that started with Ben Wallace and Ron Artest getting into an altercation. That's why Artest was lying on the scorer's table in the first place. He was trying to get away from Wallace who the refs were trying to calm down.

Ron Artest wanted nothing to do with Ben Wallace who was looking to fight Artest.

But when the random fan threw something at Artest he was ready to start WW3 over it.
 
Funny thing about that while situation is that started with Ben Wallace and Ron Artest getting into an altercation. That's why Artest was lying on the scorer's table in the first place. He was trying to get away from Wallace who the refs were trying to calm down.

Ron Artest wanted nothing to do with Ben Wallace who was looking to fight Artest.

But when the random fan threw something at Artest he was ready to start WW3 over it.
Wallace is another guy who would have been a scary fighter. Dude's reach is so long he could hit you from half way across the cage.

Maybe it was just something about the players in the league at that time? They all had attitudes that were meant for fighting.
 
Wallace is another guy who would have been a scary fighter. Dude's reach is so long he could hit you from half way across the cage.

Maybe it was just something about the players in the league at that time? They all had attitudes that were meant for fighting.
Look at my list. It's one of the earlier ones in the thread.

I definitely have Ben Wallace on the list.

For a lot of people, me included, sports was a way to vent your anger constructively. When I punched someone in the face I would get in trouble. When I would absolutely crush a WR running a drag route in my direction and send him off the field on a stretcher I would cheered on by 10K people.

So a lot of athletes has anger issues growing up that lead them to sports so they had an outlet for that anger before they ended up in prison.
 
Look at my list. It's one of the earlier ones in the thread.

I definitely have Ben Wallace on the list.
Do we know what his reach is? I never heard a length, but I remember hearing that it was longer than his height by several inches.
 
Do we know what his reach is? I never heard a length, but I remember hearing that it was longer than his height by several inches.
Can't find it but I found a scouting report that called him 6'8 with an average wingspan. What an average wingspan to a person who's 6'8?

84 inches is 7ft.

Wtf. Jones is 6'4 with a 7ft wingspan. That's crazy. Might as well be cheating with that. "Equal" playing field my ass.
 
Can't find it but I found a scouting report that called him 6'8 with an average wingspan. What an average wingspan to a person who's 6'8?

84 inches is 7ft.

Wtf. Jones is 6'4 with a 7ft wingspan. That's crazy. Might as well be cheating with that. "Equal" playing field my ass.
Hmm. Maybe I'm thinking of someone else then. I'd have sworn it was Wallace, but this has probably 15 years ago. I haven't watched the league with any regularity in a long, long time. Still, nasty player and would have probably been a fine fighter if he had trained.
 

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