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I'd actually like to see a fight between Lebron and Covington.
Lebron has massive strength, weight, athleticism, and reach advantages but Covington actually knows how to fight and its likely significantly tougher.
Let's make it happen!
That's a freak show fight that should never be sanctioned. It delegitimizes the progress MMA has made over the last 15 years to become accepted as a sport. We're less than a handful of years since it was sanctioned across all 50 states!
That's a freak show fight that should never be sanctioned. It delegitimizes the progress MMA has made over the last 15 years to become accepted as a sport. We're less than a handful of years since it was sanctioned across all 50 states!
I think it's a fight that would answer an old question, at what point can skill not overcome size and athleticism advantages.
The purpose of MMA is to test fighting techniques, that would be quite a test, no?
It certainly is a sport. Not the best athletes but is a sport. Based on a consensus of a panel of sport scientists, Martial Arts falls 6th, when is comes to measuring required athleticism behind Boxing, Ice Hockey, Football, Basketball and Wrestling. Note that MMA is a combo of Martial Arts, Wrestling and a little bit of Boxing.
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Not true at all. MJ was starting to look half way decent at the plate towards the end of his short baseball career. His fielding was good and was also stealing bases. Much better then say Tim Tebow at Baseball.
To me, there is no indication that Jordan would have ever made the big league let alone become a star.
But your argument strengthens what I said. Jordan was not heavily trained in baseball. He might have made the big league had Jordan been training in baseball his whole life. It is a different skill than basketball where he was heavily trained.
Likewise, Lebron isn't trained in fighting. It wouldn't shock anyone with a brain to see him lose to a pro MMA fighter in a street fight.
Connor wasn't heavily trained in boxing going up against the probably the best boxer alive in a boxing match. Had it been MMA I would have bet on Connor, it was boxing so I bet on Mayweather.
Last edited by michiganmoon; 09-22-2020 at 08:20 AM..
I think it's a fight that would answer an old question, at what point can skill not overcome size and athleticism advantages.
The purpose of MMA is to test fighting techniques, that would be quite a test, no?
We've seen it before. Randy Couture gave up 40-50 pounds to Lesnar (decent proxy for the Colby/LeBron size difference) and still controlled him against the fence for most of a round. If I recall, Couture may have had a takedown robbed by a fence grab. Brock was a freak athlete AND had multiple pro MMA fight experience AND had a high level D1 college wrestling background.
LeBron has a puncher's chance and massive deficits. His cardio isn't built for MMA-style rounds (and training for an MMA fight, my guess is he'd drop muscle mass) and Colby is a cardio machine. Colby's boxing defense held up against experienced KO-artist power punchers, and LeBron's arms will tire quickly. Colby can probably press, control, and dirty box LeBron against the cage. Do you remember GSP pressing Penn against the cage for the first couple of rounds in their second fight? He knew Penn's only path to winning was punching his way to a knockout, and forcing Penn to defend against the fence would tire his arms to slow and weaken his punches. LeBron could rush Colby and land something in a scramble in the first couple minutes of the fight, but he opens himself up to being taken down and completely dismantled on the ground inside of a round.
It COULD go either way, but LeBron's paths to victory are incredibly narrow and Colby is good enough to diminish the risk of those playing out. Let's say Colby wins that fight 9x out of 10x, and the one time the fight actually gets sanctioned, LeBron lands the 1/10 knockout punch - what did we actually learn?
Me, there is no indication that Jordan would have ever made the big league let alone become a star.
But your argument strengthens what I said. Jordan was trained in baseball. He might have made the big league had Jordan been training in baseball his whole life. It is a different skillet than basketball.
Likewise, Lebron isn't trained in fighting. It wouldn't shock anyone with a brain to see him lose to a pro MMA fighter.
Connor wasn't heavily trained in boxing going up against the bext boxer alive.
There is no indication for most Minor Leaguers that they will ever make the Big Leagues. But MJ playing in the minors was pretty impressive for a guy that did not play since HS. Played at the AA level. Started out hitting a ton until he was getting a steady diet of breaking balls. He also played in the Arizona Fall League and started to show some real power.
As far as comparing Boxers with MMA fighters, I believe most MMA fighters would never make it in boxing, where as most boxers would be successful in MMA if chosen that route. But why would a talented boxer want to step down to MMA with less earnings? No MMA fighter will ever earn anywhere close to what McGregor earned boxing Mayweather.
On another note Don King once said that Lebron James would of made a great heavyweight if he was a boxer. Now of course that is pure speculation while King was making a point that the Heavyweight field was no longer what it once was because all the potential boxers were in the NBA and NFL. Michael Vick was another guy King named as a potential boxer.
There is no indication for most Minor Leaguers that they will ever make the Big Leagues. But MJ playing in the minors was pretty impressive for a guy that did not play since HS. Played at the AA level. Started out hitting a ton until he was getting a steady diet of breaking balls. He also played in the Arizona Fall League and started to show some real power.
As far as comparing Boxers with MMA fighters, I believe most MMA fighters would never make it in boxing, where as most boxers would be successful in MMA if chosen that route. But why would a talented boxer want to step down to MMA with less earnings? No MMA fighter will ever earn anywhere close to what McGregor earned boxing Mayweather.
I am not saying MJ wasn't impressive at baseball.
I am saying he didn't make the big leagues when he tried?
Why?
Despite being an all time elite athlete he was what? Never heavily trained in the sport. Had he been maybe he would have made the big leagues.
I am saying he didn't make the big leagues when he tried?
Why?
Despite being an all time elite athlete he was what? Never heavily trained in the sport. Had he been maybe he would have made the big leagues.
When you say "tried", it was not like he was rejected after just one season. Who knows had he continued? It was his choice to go back to the NBA. He was never released from the White Sox organization. In fact if my memory serves me correct he was offered a "replacement player roster spot with the Sox" pending a players strike. MJ declined the offer.
We've seen it before. Randy Couture gave up 40-50 pounds to Lesnar (decent proxy for the Colby/LeBron size difference) and still controlled him against the fence for most of a round. If I recall, Couture may have had a takedown robbed by a fence grab. Brock was a freak athlete AND had multiple pro MMA fight experience AND had a high level D1 college wrestling background.
LeBron has a puncher's chance and massive deficits. His cardio isn't built for MMA-style rounds (and training for an MMA fight, my guess is he'd drop muscle mass) and Colby is a cardio machine. Colby's boxing defense held up against experienced KO-artist power punchers, and LeBron's arms will tire quickly. Colby can probably press, control, and dirty box LeBron against the cage. Do you remember GSP pressing Penn against the cage for the first couple of rounds in their second fight? He knew Penn's only path to winning was punching his way to a knockout, and forcing Penn to defend against the fence would tire his arms to slow and weaken his punches. LeBron could rush Colby and land something in a scramble in the first couple minutes of the fight, but he opens himself up to being taken down and completely dismantled on the ground inside of a round.
It COULD go either way, but LeBron's paths to victory are incredibly narrow and Colby is good enough to diminish the risk of those playing out. Let's say Colby wins that fight 9x out of 10x, and the one time the fight actually gets sanctioned, LeBron lands the 1/10 knockout punch - what did we actually learn?
I think some of that might be traditional logic, but we're talking about a world class freak athlete here who has such a ridiculous reach advantage that he'd be able to hit Covington before Covington would be in range for kicks. On top of that we're talking about at least an 80 lb weight advantage and a massive strength advantage as well.
At a certain point, size matters no matter what polite girlfriends might try to make people think.
I think quite the opposite, Lebron would bulk up ahead of a match, increase his size and strength advantages. While we've seen Covington hold up against people of similar size and strength, could he do so in a situation with all of those disadvantages? That's the kind of question that the UFC was originally formed to answer.....and we had mixed results.
Now since then, they've abandoned that in order to gain widespread legality and appeal....but to me it was better when they were answering those questions. Hell, the early UFC all but landed death blows on many traditional martial arts by exposing them as bullshido.
One of the things that propelled BJJ to the forefront was when Royce Gracie at 175 lbs would take out absolute monsters like Kimo Leopoldo or Dan Severn. He almost never fought someone in the same weight class in those early years and it didn't matter. Even then, he never fought someone with the size, strength AND athleticism advantage that Lebron would have over Covington. That's why I'd be interested in seeing it.
When you say "tried", it was not like he was rejected after just one season. Who knows had he continued? It was his choice to go back to the NBA. He was never released from the White Sox organization. In fact if my memory serves me correct he was offered a "replacement player roster spot with the Sox" pending a players strike. MJ declined the offer.
I think you are actually agreeing with me.
Probably the greatest athlete on earth didn't make the big leagues. Might have had he had the training, didn't because he didn't.
If you put Lebron James in an MMA ring with little training, I don't expect it to go well.
If you put Connor who has done less boxing in a boxing ring with the best boxer alive, I don't expect him to win. Conversely. Mayweather would likely lose quickly to Connor in an MMA fight.
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