If you are into combat sports, you surely have some memories of Sparring. For me, One of the unique memories of my MMA journey was watching two of my seniors doing friendly sparring.
It wasn’t just a routine sparring session, It was a decider: Which sport truly reigns supreme— or MMA or Boxing?
As one of the seniors has Boxing experience, he was adamant that boxing is the true king of combat sports. This debate is not new and Entertainment industries have leveraged it by arranging events like Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor.
From that day, When my seniors decided to settle the debate of MMA vs. Boxing in the ring, I became curious about the question.
I searched the internet and found that I wasn’t alone! I was only looking for the answers to who would win, But to my utter surprise, I noticed people were also asking questions like Which sports pay more? Which sport has a bigger fanbase? And so on.
That’s why I have decided to write this blog- to offer insights and compare about two most famous combat sports on the earth.
What is Boxing?
Boxing-One of the oldest and most popular combat sports- played among two players. Both of them attack and defend from each other with their fists.
The winner of a boxing match can be decided in two ways. One way is to count the points. Referees and judges decide who scores the most points based on attacks and techniques. The highest scorer was declared to be the winner.
Another way is to knockout. The player tries to attack in a way that the opponent loses his capability to continue the fight.
Each Bout consists of 3-12 rounds and each round lasts for usually 3 minutes.
How old is Boxing? Well, The oldest evidence for boxing was found in Sumerian relief carvings from the 3rd millennium BC.
There is evidence that in Egypt and the Middle East, there were boxing matches with spectators. Boxers used to wear leather on their fist for fighting. In Greece, Boxing was popular and it was evident with its presence in Homer’s Illiad.
Boxing was first integrated into the Olympics in 688 BCE. Its modernization started in the 17th century in England.
With its popularity, More and more rules such as the Marquess of Queensberry rules were integrated to ensure the safety and popularity of this sport.
What is MMA?
Mixed martial arts, or MMA, is a full-contact combat sport in which players can use both striking and grappling techniques against their opponents.
In Karate or Taekowando, you practice some techniques and then get promoted to higher grades where you can learn advanced techniques based on your performance.
But MMA is different. It focuses on teaching attacking combos and defense techniques which are originally from other styles of martial arts.
In 1993 an event called Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was started to see which styles of fighters can win against different styles of martial arts.
With time this became the most popular martial arts event and the way of fighting with various techniques became Mixed Martial arts.
Like Boxing, In MMA a player can win by either points difference or by knockout. One uniqueness of MMA is its fighting stage. Boxing uses square-shaped rings, And in MMA players fight in an eight-sided stage which is called Octagon.
MMA vs. Boxing: Rules and Techniques
When comparing MMA and boxing, I think we should first, We should consider how rules and techniques are different for these two fighting arts.
Rules of Boxing
As I said earlier, Boxing started long ago, and its playing rules have evolved. The first written boxing rule was the Marquess of Queensberry rules.
Boxers are allowed to wear gloves which have to be of a certain weight. And they are allowed to attack their opponent above the waist.
Punches can target areas like the head and torso, but hitting below the belt, grappling, or using elbows is strictly prohibited.
- Equipment used: Hand gloves (with a certain weight), Mouthpiece
- Knockout (KO): Available
- Technical Knockout (TKO): If the referee, doctor, or corner determines a fighter cannot continue due to injury
- Submission: Not Allowed.
- Judges’ Decision: Scoring is Based on aggression, control, striking, and techniques
- Attacking Options: Only Punches. Attacks are allowed only over the waist.
Rules of MMA
“Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts” is the governing rules for mixed Martial Arts. According to these rules, players are divided into certain weight classes.
MMA fighters can use mouthpieces and gloves. But their gloves are different than boxers.
An MMA match, usually called a Bout, has 3-5 rounds and takes 5 minutes each.
- Knockout (KO): Similar to boxing.
- Technical Knockout (TKO): Similar to boxing. If the referee, doctor, or corner determines a fighter cannot continue.
- Submission: Allowed to force the opponent to give up the match due to choking or leg locks.
- Judges’ Decision: Scoring is Based on aggression, control, striking, and grappling techniques
- Attacking Options: Kick, Punch, Grappling, Takedowns, knee, elbow. Attacks are allowed on both legs.
Techniques Compared
Boxing players’ range of attacking options is limited. They can only use Jab, Cross, Uppercut, and hooks.
With these attacks, Players use defensive techniques like slipping, bobbing, and parrying.
Although boxing has limited moves, Boxing has more rounds, and it’s physically demanding.
Due to the lack of attacking options, Players are trained rigorously to perform these attacks with power and combine these attacks for maximum results.
On the contrary, MMA has a wide range of attacking options. From round-house kicks to single-leg takedowns, every move is available.
For this, the training methods of MMA are different than Boxing. MMA fighters have to practice punches like boxers, but more often they use a combo of punching, kicking, and then takedowns.
With these different rules and techniques, Boxing and MMA training methods are different.
MMA vs Boxing: Which Sport is More Dangerous?
A sport will be considered dangerous if participants get injured or in extreme cases die.
Boxing and MMA, Both full contact martial arts can be ended up with any of these scenarios.
MMA or Boxing, which one is more dangerous? To find out, let us check some data.
Types of Injuries in Boxing:
The following injuries can happen during a boxing match. Apart from these injuries, Muscle pulling and other sprains can happen during training time:
- Head or Brain injuries such as concussions.
- Cut in the face (Laceration), Broken Jaw or nose.
- Fracture in knuckles or wrists or in the collar bone.
Boxing Fatalities and Injury Rate:
- Fatalities: Let us take a look at some recent statistics regarding fatalities in boxing.
According to a CNN report, From 1890 to 2011, there have been 1604 deaths reported due to injury from boxing matches.
The Association of Boxing Commission published another report.
From 2000-2019, there were reportedly 100 casualties. The main reasons for such death were heart failure, kidney failure, and overtraining.
Based on these statistics, boxing is pretty dangerous.
- Injury Rates: How often do boxers get injured? To find out the answer, A Research was conducted on 524 boxing rounds.
The result shows the chances of getting injured is 3.72 percent per round and The most common injury is facial laceration (50.7%).
The chances of getting injured are higher for those who lose the match than those those who win.
There has been lots of research conducted on the medical issues of boxers and from that, it’s evident that fatality and injury rate is high in boxing.
Now let’s talk about MMA and its injury and fatalities scenario.
Types of Injuries in MMA:
Because of its versatile nature, MMA is prone to different types of injuries. The following injuries can happen during an MMA bout or training:
- Concussions and facial fractures are common in MMA because of strikes like kicks, punches, and knee strikes.
- Deep skin cuts occur from punches, and kicks in MMA.
- Sprains, dislocations, and ligament tears from submissions and grappling.
- Broken bones, especially in the hands, legs, and ribs, are seen from striking and takedowns.
- Severe dehydration is common in MMA as players often opt for insane weight cutting.
MMA Fatalities and Injury Rate:
- Fatalities: As MMA’s inception was not long ago, and when MMA started, there were already existing laws and regulations for safe combat sports, Death in MMA is quite low.
According to Wikipedia, As of 2023, there have been 20 recorded deaths resulting from sanctioned MMA contests and nine from unregulated bouts.
- Injury Rates: A study conducted by Andrew R. Janson et al reported an injury rate of 22.9 per 100 athlete exposures, with the most frequently injured regions being the head/face (66.8%-78.0%) and the wrist/hand (6.0%-12.0%).
Skin lacerations were the most frequent injury type at 36.7% to 59.4%, while fractures accounted for 7.4% to 43.4%, and concussions for 3.8% to 20.4% of competition injuries.
While both boxing and MMA carry inherent risks, the nature and frequency of injuries differ:
- Boxing‘s focus on head strikes contributes to a higher incidence of chronic brain injuries and fatalities.
- MMA‘s diverse techniques distribute the risk across various injury types but still present significant dangers, including a notable concussion rate.
Are boxers better at Fighting than MMA?
This debate has no definitive answer because boxing and MMA demand vastly different skill sets. From my experience training in both disciplines, I’ve seen how each sport shapes its athletes uniquely.
In boxing, you will be trained to punch your opponent with precision and create angles with footwork.
The benchmark on how to do that has been set by GOAT’s like Mohammad Ali, Mike Tyson Floyd Mayweather, and many more.
What is common among these fighters is that their game shows how mastering jabs, hooks, and defensive techniques can turn a match into a strategic masterpiece.
MMA, however, is about striking or using submission techniques to make the opponent tap the floor or knock him out (If not it then at least win by judges’ decisions!)
Mixed martial arts Fighters must be skilled in striking and grappling. You might be a good striker, but you are weak in grappling, Then your fight might be finished within the first round.
So, Answering the question of Who is the better fighter is almost impossible. You can ask who is the better striker? But then striking power is often considered to be god gifted. Let’s see some other similarities between these two fighting styles:
MMA Skills vs. Boxing Skills
- Boxing:
- Precision punches and counters
- Advanced defensive footwork
- High endurance for extended bouts
- MMA:
- Striking from various disciplines
- Grappling and submissions
- Transitioning seamlessly between techniques
Combat Sports Skill Comparison
Boxers thrive in their specialized craft, where perfection of punches and footwork takes precedence. Meanwhile, MMA fighters are multi-dimensional athletes capable of handling diverse scenarios.
Who’s better depends on context. In a boxing ring, the boxer dominates. In an MMA cage—or a more open environment—the MMA fighter’s versatility may prevail.
Both sports demand immense dedication, discipline, and toughness. It’s not about who’s superior but rather what type of fighter you admire: the focused precision of a boxer or the dynamic adaptability of an MMA athlete.
MMA vs Boxing: Which fighters are Fitter?
As you can not fly a jet without jet fuel, Both MMA and Boxing demands Fitness from its players. If you look at the fighters from both disciplines, They looked super jacked and fit.
But as the skills needed for these games are different, their training routines are focused on achieving the specific skill set, which makes this comparison so fascinating.
How Their Conditioning Differs
In boxing, the focus is on endurance and rhythm:
- Running long distances builds stamina.
- Skipping rope helps with timing and footwork.
MMA fighters, however, need versatility:
- Weightlifting and bodyweight exercises improve functional strength.
- Recovery methods like yoga and swimming enhance flexibility and prevent injuries.
MMA Fitness vs. Boxing Fitness
Boxers are built for sustained endurance and repetitive, focused movements—think jab after jab for 36 minutes. MMA fighters, by contrast, are all-around athletes. They blend strength, speed, and stamina because their fights demand constant adaptation.
So, who’s fitter? It depends on what you’re measuring. If you value specialized endurance, boxers take the win. But if you’re talking about overall versatility and athleticism, MMA fighters might have the edge.
Does Boxing Pay More Than MMA?
The journey of Boxing started as a means of entertainment and the same happened with MMA.
And with time the focus shifted from entertainment to business and profit maximization.
Both of the industry have grown exponentially and both have the ingredients to go further. Many combat sports enthusiasts ask “Which sport pays better—boxing or MMA?”
I have tried to find the answer:
Top-Level Earnings: The Heavy Hitters
When it comes to the top-tier athletes according to payments and money, boxing takes the crown.
If we want to compare the earnings of Boxers and MMA fighters, then we can look at the famous fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.
From that match, Floyd reportedly made a staggering $275 million!
On the other hand, despite being one of the biggest names in MMA, McGregor made around $85 million for the same fight. While that’s still an impressive figure, the gap is evident.
This fight had generated a total of 978$ Million! This holds the record for the highest revenue from Pay-Per-View buying worldwide.
Even beyond the mega-events, boxing’s top names command significant paychecks.
Canelo Álvarez, For example, Signed a deal with DAZN, A sports streaming service which was around $365 million with DAZN.
The deal was for 11 fights and if you compare this number with MMA, Till now no one has gotten this much money from sponsorship.
If you look at MMA, the highest-earning fighter is Conor Macgregor, who has made 39.2 million from his fights in the UFC, excluding Pay-per-revenue.
Sponsorships: Boxing Wins Again!
Sponsorship gives you an idea of how much money a game has been generating. The more it makes, The bigger the paycheck from sponsors.
Till now, the most valuable sponsorship in combat sports has been given to Boxing.
Look at the Forbes Highest Paid Athletes list of 2023.
Canelo Alvarez and Anthony Zosua are on the list who made lots of money, but there is no one from MMA.
With all this information, We can conclude that in terms of payments, Boxing or “Sweet Science” is leading the chart. But MMA is not far behind though.
Which Sport Has a Bigger Fanbase?
To assess how big the fanbase is for MMA and Boxing, I have looked into two specific data sets:
- Number of Pay-Per-View
- Number of events worldwide
Number of Pay-Per-View: This number represents how many people worldwide are watching a live match. If I compare the numbers for these two sports, I can give you a clear picture of how big the fanbase is.
Till now, The most popular event of boxing in terms of PPV was staged in 2015 when Floyd Mayweather fought with Manny Pacquiao.
According to Statista, The number of people who bought that fight’s PPV was 4.6 Million. Next to that is Floyd Mayweather vs MMA celebrity Conor Macgregor which had 4.2 Million.
Now take a look at MMA’s PPV count. Till now, the most iconic event in terms of PPV was Macgregor vs Khabib, which had a 2.4 million PPV.
The next big number is Poirier vs MAcgregor, which was bought by 1.8 Million People.
So, in terms of PPV, Boxing is the winner.
Number of Events worldwide: MMA events, compared to Boxing events are limited. The biggest MMA event is UFC and they try to stage an event every two months.
But boxing events are very common and there are lots of sponsors and event management involved with this.
One advantage that boxing has is its inclusion in the Olympics. This gives a popularity boost to this sport.
Because of boxing’s numerous events worldwide and its PPV, It can be said that Boxing has a bigger fanbase than MMA.
Final Thoughts
MMA and boxing are two iconic combat sports, each with its unique strengths and appeal.
While boxing shines with its rich history, precision, and higher paydays, MMA captivates fans with its dynamic versatility and rapid growth.
Boxing or MMA, Which one is superior? No data or Logic can establish a concrete answer to such questions.
Yes! Boxing has a rich history and bigger fanbase, But MMA is not far behind.
So, My recommendation is, Instead of looking for the answer, Practice one of them, or even both. These two combat sports have many mind-blowing techniques that can mesmerize you.
Why miss such a chance?
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