http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/mma/...ory?id=4493036
MIAMI -- Former welterweight and super-welterweight world champion Ricardo Mayorga will venture into mixed martial arts.
In a news conference Monday, Mayorga said he anticipates his first MMA fight early next year. Mayorga, of Nicaragua, currently is in a legal dispute with promoter Don King and seeks a release from his boxing contract for an opportunity at an MMA career.
"I am a fighter by nature, I learned to fight on the streets of Nicaragua before I learned to box," Mayorga said. "For many years, I have wanted to try MMA. Now I hope to get my opportunity."
Still, Mayorga, 35, will need a crash course if he is to make an impact in a sport which has expanded its fan base the past five years.
As with previous boxers who have tried the move to MMA, including ex-heavyweight champion Ray Mercer, the toughest adjustment is fighting an opponent while on the ground.
"I have had a few training sessions and once I get the approval that I can start doing MMA, I will learn even more quickly," Mayorga said. "I consider it easier than boxing in that you can use your legs to kick your opponent. The idea of using smaller gloves also has me very anxious to try it.
"Boxing has many more rules."
Mayorga said he has not retired from boxing. In addition to pursuing his MMA aspirations, Mayorga would like to box again once he settles his legal dispute with King. Mayorga's last fight was a 12th-round knockout loss against Shane Mosley in September 2008.
Mayorga, whose boxing record is 28-7-1 and 22 KOs, won the World Boxing Council welterweight le with a third-round technical knockout over Vernon Forrest in 2003 and lost the belt against Cory Spinks in a le unification fight the following year.
In 2005, Mayorga defeated Mic e Piccirillo for the vacant WBC super-welterweight belt but lost the le in his first defense against Oscar De La Hoya.
he clearly has zero idea what he is talking about...
MMA is where he will get every ligament in his body shredded once the distance is closed by a barely average Jiu Jitsu trained fighter.
imagine how silly he will look if he meets someone with Judo throwing. also can't wait to seem him breaking a shin bone or blowing a knee getting those easy kicks checked.
Last edited by Evan; 09-21-2009 at 07:37 PM.
mma- if you previous career is over come join this one
Could be interesting. A JJ fighter would obviously mess him up on the ground, but if he catches the dude with a punch it's lights out.
Hopefully he trains TD defense and anti-bjj all day, everyday.
It all goes back to a pro boxer wearing one boxing glove who got dominated by a skinny guy wearing pajamas.
Simply not true.
Not true again. I think its like appreciating defense in football, basketball or other sports...its the aspect of the game that fans understand last.
still wrong...if thats the case why hasn't kickboxing caught on? It used to be all over ESPN and FOXSports.
So he'll be able to step right in and add kicks to his arsenal?? hahaha
I really don't think boxing has many more rules. Probably about the same number of rules. This guy has no clue about MMA...lot to learn.
I do agree with lakaluva that the fans here prefer more striking. I think that's pretty obvious.
Fans understand striking more it but it doesn't mean they like it better. And mma fans shred mma fighters that claim they can go to boxing and easily succeed. Just look here at the arlovski thread at how bad we lit him up.
Last edited by Evan; 09-22-2009 at 11:22 AM.
I disagree. You only have to see the frequency that the refs stand up fighters now to understand that striking is more popular.
Nah, Chuck and o and were able to dominate because of their college wrestling backgrounds. Without wrestling, neither one of them would have gone far.
I'm not aware of too many top pro boxers besides Kermit Cintron who are also accomplished wrestlers. A boxer without wrestling and bjj is a one-trick pony that's one takedown away from being dominated or one punch away from winning.
I don't get the o and Chuck comparison, your saying they are not great fighters?
You have any idea how long it takes for someone coming from one background of fighting to master all the skills that make MMA fighters elite? Dude's like Dan Henderson that are elite MMA stars wrestled in the Olympics for god's sake.. And how many truly great fighters are left in boxing?? There's a millions scrubs holding belts, in the 8 million weight classes..
All great wrestlers and o actually has very good JJ..
I think you ment Japan
And no way a guy with only one great style (esp. stand up style) can be a decent mma fighter.
He had Machida in a Triangle, and almost finished in his last fight. He lost bad to Randy by being outwrestled but took no real damage in the fight on the ground. He only has one loss in his career by a submission hold and it came in just his 2nd ever fight.. He made a career out of beating people up with top position and staying out of submissions, not easy to do.. o has very under-rated JJ..
Agreed..Its plainly obvious that the best fighters in MMA are the multi-talented ones, Silva, GSP, Henderson, so on and so on.
o's stand-up is not fantastic, he used it mainly to set up takedowns but to say "He has no stand-up is not right either. The first fight he had with Shamrock, back when Shamrock was still a good fighter, he whipped him on the feet horribly. Knees, punches, kicks, clinch, o can do those things well, what he has never had is great KO power, like some of the heavy hitters in his weight class. But he's never lacked the technical ability to find his man with strikes.. Also watch his fights with Forrest and Evans, his standup was good in those fights.. Plus we have to understand that MMA is still a pretty new sport and when o was carrying the belt, he was not facing the level of great diversified MMA fighters of today..At the same time, guys like o had absolutely no stand up game, with a very suspect chin, and he dominated the game for a stretch, and he was basically a wrestler
Chuck has an extensive kickboxing background, he actually became too one dimensional with punches late in his career, Page loves to brawl but is freakishly strong and a great wrestler.. The Wrestling is the biggest area the boxing guys would struggle with..Chuck is a straight bar brawler, no other way to look at it. He'd rather give up his back just to get back to his feet before he stays on the ground. Rampage is another fighter that is mainly a stand up fighter, with some ground and pound mixed in.
If they had years to train, yes some of them could make it in MMA and do very well, conversely guys like Anderson Silva if they, dedicated themselves to just boxing, could have made it over there as well.. GSP spars with champion boxers and apparently holds his own with some of them..You could easily take a guy like PPF, Hopkins, Hatton, Calzaghe or Roy Jones and train them, and with time they could become top fighters, or even champions in my opinion.
so?
If a boxer got no idea about takedown defense and tasting the jj or legkicks he won't do much in mma arena.
Those guys were great because thay could utilize other guys strenghts and make their own effective in mma.
Boxing not necessarily translates to mma
Nobody is getting defensive.
Nobody says he has no chance...I think people just get frustrated when he says how easy it will be because he can kick.
You're making a lot of assumptions about how people are reacting and I don't think you're reading very closely to all the replies.
In America they boo stale mate grappling where neither fighter is doing anything...in Japan they stay dead silent. Same thing different way of expressing it due to culture. And don't give us the weak argument that they appreciate the pure sport more when Japanese MMA is a freak show half the time with highly suspect results to push through their assigned stars.
and for the record...MMA is dying a slow death in Asia faster than you might think. Its on life support so don't go overboard praising a small group of clapping fans.
Not sure what you mean here.
The day may come when pro-boxers are mainly pro-boxing and earn a little bit of money fighting in tiny shows against bad MMA fighters but they will never be in the UFC beating top level MMA compe ion if they are half assing their MMA training. 10 years ago sure but not now.. Your kidding yourself if you think that is even possible..
Who is PPF?
You're arguing in unclear circles.
Pretty Boy Floyd mayweather
One thing off the top of my head...I think something as simple as footwork would make it so hard to cross between the two.
I just don't see it, lakaluva.
Its two completely different sports I wish people would stop comparing the two. Just because you can play football doesn't mean you're good at rugby even tho they both seem like they have similarities.
A part time MMA fighter is never in a million years beating a GSP or an Anderson Silva ever, i'd lay the deed to my house my car and every cent in the bank on that.. I don't care how great they are at boxing.. There are guys in the UFC that are great kickboxers, that would KO a Floyd or a Hopkins easy.. So maybe a Floyd can make headlines and some nice cash as a circus side-show fighting some scrub in Strikeforce but if he came to the UFC and fought anyone in the LW division with a decent ground game and they all have that in the UFC top tier, he is getting tapped out fast or KO'd by a more diversified striker.. Boxers can't half ass MMA training and expect to be anything special in the sport anymore than MMA fighters with little boxing skills could half ass boxing training and expect to do anything over there..
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