What is more likely? An African or Russian takeover of MMA?

[Manassamaulerx]

The current African and Russian champs both train in America most of the time.

Most of the top gyms are in the states. It's kind of unfair to give the credit to Nigeria, when Usman learned to wrestle and do MMA in America.

I'm surprised I'm defending America... but fair's fare.

Don't hold your breath for anyone to acknowledge the value of great training and coaching.

 

[Grapplefest]

Lol, there are 2.9 million Dagestanis, yet there are more successful Dagestani fighters in the UFC/champs in other big organizations like PFL/ACB/etc than there are successful African fighters. And there's 1.2 billion Africans. Not close.

 

[MMACroatia]

What does that mean? "Lol Africa" ?

It means as great man once said,stuck in the mud.
No event there or let alone takeover(can you believe it) comes a possibility.

 

[DLX]

I'd say Russia right now.

Africa's on it's way, but we need to slow down on them. MMA still isn't that big there.

 

[Danunzio]

It means as great man once said,stuck in the mud.
No event there or let alone takeover(can you believe it) comes a possibility.

That's not even english.

It's still not clear what "Lol Africa" means.

You "laugh out loud Africa"? Is that it?

 

[MMACroatia]

That's not even english.

It's still not clear what "Lol Africa" means.

You "laugh out loud Africa"? Is that it?

Ok white belt,keep the dumb play on.

 

[djason1988]

Considering they're all coming to America to train, I'mma say America

 

[Danunzio]

Ok white belt,keep the dumb play on.

At least I can construct sentences. Your explanation was made of incomplete sentences. It was incomprehensible, you need to formulate or learn to write.

White belt. Now I can use the "lol".

Do you not like the people who happen to be born in Africa? Or do you see no way for the people in Africa to advance their lives?

If you know the man in my AV picture, we can further discuss this topic, with the depth it deserves.

 

[djason1988]

The current African and Russian champs both train in America most of the time.

Most of the top gyms are in the states. It's kind of unfair to give the credit to Nigeria, when Usman learned to wrestle and do MMA in America.

I'm surprised I'm defending America... but fair's fare.

Pretty much said the same thing. While I am American, I really don't care what country a fighter is from. Matter of fact, I tend to root for foreign fighters. Maybe the exotic factor is cool to me. But yes, they're all training here. Or in gyms that franchised out from here (I know Top Team and SBG have locations all over the world). MMA's biggest fanbase is America, and there's a massive amount of martial arts talent to pull from here with wrestling, boxing, TMA's, and BJJ all having strong popularity.

 

[Loriquero]

MMA is already an american thing like football, baseball and basketball.

There will be some champions from othe regions, but the core business will be the USA. This kinda make other places not to be encouraged to practice these american sports because of the american dominance. Just like almost nobody else in the world practices american football. Also, the US is a huge country. You can have healthy core centers for MMA in many places (Cali, NY, Texas...)

You can train boxing and have elite training camps in Mexico, Russia, UK, Japan, Cuba and some other places. You just need a pair of gloves and some elite sparring partners and coaches that you can find in many countries It helps also that there is not a clear superpower for the sport. You can become an elite boxer or soccer player coming from many places in the world. The South America - Europe fight for dominance in soccer makes it a lot more popular and decentralized thing. People is looking for real globalized sports. FIFA world cup is an event hold in all the continents of the world, and they make tons of money from it in any country is hosted. They think globally because they profit globally. The UFC is an American company, they think locally. Their european and asian cards are usually lackluster, full with c-level athletes. Their cashcows usually fight only in the US. Conor talked a lot about fighting in Dublin, but this is the one thing the UFC has not allowed him to do. They need them murican money. This refrains the sport of MMA to become a really global thing.

Besides, training MMA is a complex and expensive thing. You need boxing coach, wrestling coach, BJJ coach, Muay Thai coach etc. The USA is the only place in the world with a complete infrastructure for this. Even top brazilian talents go to train and live in the USA for this reason. The best russians also go to train in the US. Whitaker, Conor and Adesanya are the exceptions.

MMA faded in China before it became popular in there. The UFC is never going to put their best cards in chinese territory. Japan was once the epicenter of global MMA less than 20 years ago and now is almost dead in here (yes, I happen to be in Japan right now... A coincidence, going back to Colombia in a couple of weeks) And is because japanese were used to have the best MMA fighters in the world fighting in japanese soil. The US dominance made MMA popularity in Japan fade away. And this may happen in Brazil as well.

On the other hand, Kickboxing is obviously a poorer sport than MMA, but you have different talent pools and epicenters in many places. It has many requirements for becoming a global thing. You have elite talent training in Thailand, Brazil, UK, Holland, France, Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan and in those ex-soviet nations. You have events with top talents happening in Europe, China, Japan, Thailand and even the US. Is not enough popular in the USA so allows the developing of the sport in many other places... They just a new Badr Hari, or Conor abandoning MMA for Kickboxing, and the sport may explode globally. Here in Japan Kickboxing is already more popular than MMA right now. Takeru and Tenshin are the Brock and Ronda here. They have top talents fighting here the whole time in Rise and K-1. And the same happens with Glory-Enfusion events in Europe and Kunlun - WLF - GoH in China. Adesanya was a fairly popular fighter in China before deciding to do MMA and abandon Kickboxing for good.

 

[djason1988]

MMA is already an american thing like football, baseball and basketball.

There will be some champions from othe regions, but the core business will be the USA. This kinda make other places not to be encouraged to practice these american sports because of the american dominance. Just like almost nobody else in the world practices american football. Also, the US is a huge country. You can have healthy core centers for MMA in many places (Cali, NY, Texas...)

You can train boxing and have elite training camps in Mexico, Russia, UK, Japan, Cuba and some other places. You just need a pair of gloves and some elite sparring partners and coaches that you can find in many countries It helps also that there is not a clear superpower for the sport. You can become an elite boxer or soccer player coming from many places in the world. The South America - Europe fight for dominance in soccer makes it a lot more popular and decentralized thing. People is looking for real globalized sports. FIFA world cup is an event hold in all the continents of the world, and they make tons of money from it in any country is hosted. They think globally because they profit globally. The UFC is an American company, they think locally. Their european and asian cards are usually lackluster, full with c-level athletes. Their cashcows usually fight only in the US. Conor talked a lot about fighting in Dublin, but this is the one thing the UFC has not allowed him to do. They need them murican money. This refrains the sport of MMA to become a really global thing.

Besides, training MMA is a complex and expensive thing. You need boxing coach, wrestling coach, BJJ coach, Muay Thai coach etc. The USA is the only place in the world with a complete infrastructure for this. Even top brazilian talents go to train and live in the USA for this reason. The best russians also go to train in the US. Whitaker, Conor and Adesanya are the exceptions.

MMA faded in China before it became popular in there. The UFC is never going to put their best cards in chinese territory. Japan was once the epicenter of global MMA less than 20 years ago and now is almost dead in here (yes, I happen to be in Japan right now... A coincidence, going back to Colombia in a couple of weeks) And is because japanese were used to have the best MMA fighters in the world fighting in japanese soil. The US dominance made MMA popularity in Japan fade away. And this may happen in Brazil as well.

On the other hand, Kickboxing is obviously a poorer sport than MMA, but you have different talent pools and epicenters in many places. It has many requirements for becoming a global thing. You have elite talent training in Thailand, Brazil, UK, Holland, France, Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan and in those ex-soviet nations. You have events with top talents happening in Europe, China, Japan, Thailand and even the US. Is not enough popular in the USA so allows the developing of the sport in many other places... They just a new Badr Hari, or Conor abandoning MMA for Kickboxing, and the sport may explode globally. Here in Japan Kickboxing is already more popular than MMA right now. Takeru and Tenshin are the Brock and Ronda here. They have top talents fighting here the whole time in Rise and K-1. And the same happens with Glory-Enfusion events in Europe and Kunlun - WLF - GoH in China. Adesanya was a fairly popular fighter in China before deciding to do MMA and abandon Kickboxing for good.

Great post. Just wanted to chime in though and say American football isn't popular anywhere else cuz it's a weird frickin sport. Basketball and baseball are both American sports, but popular outside of America too. Football is just uncanny though. It requires a massive amount of players, a lot of protective equipment, and every role requires a different athletic skillset. It's an odd sport and for the life of me I can't figure out how it became so popular.

 

[Danunzio]

MMA is already an american thing like football, baseball and basketball.

There will be some champions from othe regions, but the core business will be the USA. This kinda make other places not to be encouraged to practice these american sports because of the american dominance. Just like almost nobody else in the world practices american football. Also, the US is a huge country. You can have healthy core centers for MMA in many places (Cali, NY, Texas...)

You can train boxing and have elite training camps in Mexico, Russia, UK, Japan, Cuba and some other places. You just need a pair of gloves and some elite sparring partners and coaches that you can find in many countries It helps also that there is not a clear superpower for the sport. You can become an elite boxer or soccer player coming from many places in the world. The South America - Europe fight for dominance in soccer makes it a lot more popular and decentralized thing. People is looking for real globalized sports. FIFA world cup is an event hold in all the continents of the world, and they make tons of money from it in any country is hosted. They think globally because they profit globally. The UFC is an American company, they think locally. Their european and asian cards are usually lackluster, full with c-level athletes. Their cashcows usually fight only in the US. Conor talked a lot about fighting in Dublin, but this is the one thing the UFC has not allowed him to do. They need them murican money. This refrains the sport of MMA to become a really global thing.

Besides, training MMA is a complex and expensive thing. You need boxing coach, wrestling coach, BJJ coach, Muay Thai coach etc. The USA is the only place in the world with a complete infrastructure for this. Even top brazilian talents go to train and live in the USA for this reason. The best russians also go to train in the US. Whitaker, Conor and Adesanya are the exceptions.

MMA faded in China before it became popular in there. The UFC is never going to put their best cards in chinese territory. Japan was once the epicenter of global MMA less than 20 years ago and now is almost dead in here (yes, I happen to be in Japan right now... A coincidence, going back to Colombia in a couple of weeks) And is because japanese were used to have the best MMA fighters in the world fighting in japanese soil. The US dominance made MMA popularity in Japan fade away. And this may happen in Brazil as well.

On the other hand, Kickboxing is obviously a poorer sport than MMA, but you have different talent pools and epicenters in many places. It has many requirements for becoming a global thing. You have elite talent training in Thailand, Brazil, UK, Holland, France, Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan and in those ex-soviet nations. You have events with top talents happening in Europe, China, Japan, Thailand and even the US. Is not enough popular in the USA so allows the developing of the sport in many other places... They just a new Badr Hari, or Conor abandoning MMA for Kickboxing, and the sport may explode globally. Here in Japan Kickboxing is already more popular than MMA right now. Takeru and Tenshin are the Brock and Ronda here. They have top talents fighting here the whole time in Rise and K-1. And the same happens with Glory-Enfusion events in Europe and Kunlun - WLF - GoH in China. Adesanya was a fairly popular fighter in China before deciding to do MMA and abandon Kickboxing for good.

Hat off to making sense in a race-bait thread.

 

[SpongeJoshSquareCheck]

None of the above. All about Brazil. Rise of the filthy animals

 

[Bacco]

Yup, male, female, fat, skinny, tall, short

I say we abolish weight classes and gender specific divisions and make open weight for all

Sounds like the orgy in Zoolander

 

[yookfarb]

Olympic combat sports have more international representation because of standardized ranking system and meritocracy.

First of all, educate yourself and then stfu trying to say Olympic boxing is a pure meritocracy. The only sport more overrun with corruption and incompetence is pro boxing.


but yes amateur boxing/wrestling has a vastly superior infrastructure to MMA... because both sports have been around since the FIRST modern Olympic games

 

[CutStryker]

Russian

IMO

 

[yookfarb]

MMA is already an american thing like football, baseball and basketball.

There will be some champions from othe regions, but the core business will be the USA. This kinda make other places not to be encouraged to practice these american sports because of the american dominance. Just like almost nobody else in the world practices american football. Also, the US is a huge country. You can have healthy core centers for MMA in many places (Cali, NY, Texas...)

You can train boxing and have elite training camps in Mexico, Russia, UK, Japan, Cuba and some other places. You just need a pair of gloves and some elite sparring partners and coaches that you can find in many countries It helps also that there is not a clear superpower for the sport. You can become an elite boxer or soccer player coming from many places in the world. The South America - Europe fight for dominance in soccer makes it a lot more popular and decentralized thing. People is looking for real globalized sports. FIFA world cup is an event hold in all the continents of the world, and they make tons of money from it in any country is hosted. They think globally because they profit globally. The UFC is an American company, they think locally. Their european and asian cards are usually lackluster, full with c-level athletes. Their cashcows usually fight only in the US. Conor talked a lot about fighting in Dublin, but this is the one thing the UFC has not allowed him to do. They need them murican money. This refrains the sport of MMA to become a really global thing.

Besides, training MMA is a complex and expensive thing. You need boxing coach, wrestling coach, BJJ coach, Muay Thai coach etc. The USA is the only place in the world with a complete infrastructure for this. Even top brazilian talents go to train and live in the USA for this reason. The best russians also go to train in the US. Whitaker, Conor and Adesanya are the exceptions.

MMA faded in China before it became popular in there. The UFC is never going to put their best cards in chinese territory. Japan was once the epicenter of global MMA less than 20 years ago and now is almost dead in here (yes, I happen to be in Japan right now... A coincidence, going back to Colombia in a couple of weeks) And is because japanese were used to have the best MMA fighters in the world fighting in japanese soil. The US dominance made MMA popularity in Japan fade away. And this may happen in Brazil as well.

On the other hand, Kickboxing is obviously a poorer sport than MMA, but you have different talent pools and epicenters in many places. It has many requirements for becoming a global thing. You have elite talent training in Thailand, Brazil, UK, Holland, France, Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan and in those ex-soviet nations. You have events with top talents happening in Europe, China, Japan, Thailand and even the US. Is not enough popular in the USA so allows the developing of the sport in many other places... They just a new Badr Hari, or Conor abandoning MMA for Kickboxing, and the sport may explode globally. Here in Japan Kickboxing is already more popular than MMA right now. Takeru and Tenshin are the Brock and Ronda here. They have top talents fighting here the whole time in Rise and K-1. And the same happens with Glory-Enfusion events in Europe and Kunlun - WLF - GoH in China. Adesanya was a fairly popular fighter in China before deciding to do MMA and abandon Kickboxing for good.

You make a lot of good points, but these epicenters you're talking about also exist in Brazil, Canada, SE Asia, Europe and China(2nd UFC performance institute coming to Shanghai this year).

In fact, I would even say the first ones were both in Brazil... BTT and Chute Boxe.

You bring up soccer too... the South American/European race for dominance... but where do the best of the best spend 90% of their careers in the world's most global sport? Europe

I think what you're really getting at is that you're still mad the UFC shut down Pride

 

[caxias]

MMA is already an american thing like football, baseball and basketball.

There will be some champions from othe regions, but the core business will be the USA. This kinda make other places not to be encouraged to practice these american sports because of the american dominance. Just like almost nobody else in the world practices american football. Also, the US is a huge country. You can have healthy core centers for MMA in many places (Cali, NY, Texas...)

You can train boxing and have elite training camps in Mexico, Russia, UK, Japan, Cuba and some other places. You just need a pair of gloves and some elite sparring partners and coaches that you can find in many countries It helps also that there is not a clear superpower for the sport. You can become an elite boxer or soccer player coming from many places in the world. The South America - Europe fight for dominance in soccer makes it a lot more popular and decentralized thing. People is looking for real globalized sports. FIFA world cup is an event hold in all the continents of the world, and they make tons of money from it in any country is hosted. They think globally because they profit globally. The UFC is an American company, they think locally. Their european and asian cards are usually lackluster, full with c-level athletes. Their cashcows usually fight only in the US. Conor talked a lot about fighting in Dublin, but this is the one thing the UFC has not allowed him to do. They need them murican money. This refrains the sport of MMA to become a really global thing.

Besides, training MMA is a complex and expensive thing. You need boxing coach, wrestling coach, BJJ coach, Muay Thai coach etc. The USA is the only place in the world with a complete infrastructure for this. Even top brazilian talents go to train and live in the USA for this reason. The best russians also go to train in the US. Whitaker, Conor and Adesanya are the exceptions.

MMA faded in China before it became popular in there. The UFC is never going to put their best cards in chinese territory. Japan was once the epicenter of global MMA less than 20 years ago and now is almost dead in here (yes, I happen to be in Japan right now... A coincidence, going back to Colombia in a couple of weeks) And is because japanese were used to have the best MMA fighters in the world fighting in japanese soil. The US dominance made MMA popularity in Japan fade away. And this may happen in Brazil as well.

On the other hand, Kickboxing is obviously a poorer sport than MMA, but you have different talent pools and epicenters in many places. It has many requirements for becoming a global thing. You have elite talent training in Thailand, Brazil, UK, Holland, France, Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan and in those ex-soviet nations. You have events with top talents happening in Europe, China, Japan, Thailand and even the US. Is not enough popular in the USA so allows the developing of the sport in many other places... They just a new Badr Hari, or Conor abandoning MMA for Kickboxing, and the sport may explode globally. Here in Japan Kickboxing is already more popular than MMA right now. Takeru and Tenshin are the Brock and Ronda here. They have top talents fighting here the whole time in Rise and K-1. And the same happens with Glory-Enfusion events in Europe and Kunlun - WLF - GoH in China. Adesanya was a fairly popular fighter in China before deciding to do MMA and abandon Kickboxing for good.

The UFC is an american company. MMA is not an american thing and american fighters suck in non-american owned corporations.

 

[HSM1]

Brazilian. Lol. There is no good Russians really coming. Theres that Cuta guy in LHW but his hands arent bombs like you would think. I see Reyes or Walker destroying him. Volkov got destroyed.
Israel and Usman are pretty good. So is Ngannou

 

[cheesus]

I think it's possible Yan, Francis, Khabib, Usman, Zabit and Style Bender can all be champ at the same time.