[John Kilduff]

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I didn't say we had proof either. But neither do we have so much as hard evidence. Someone being a "professional" boxer and leaving boxing argues strongly against him being a good one. Why would he want to make markedly less money? Him leaving a profession because he was not good at it makes a lot more sense. And regardless, that yet one more dude makes one more assertion isn't evidence of anything no matter what it is that he says. It's only an anecdote.

This is all going to remain speculation until we get at least a few noted boxers in their prime to fight noted MMA'ers in their prime. I can't foresee that happening anytime soon.

Meanwhile, this is all pretty much mental masturbation.


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Come on now. See the light. We have found 2 examples of good boxers losing to a grappler.

The first was Ali, the greatest of all time. While you and Smash would likely say this doesn't prove anything as it's guaranteed money and an exhibition, and while that is true, it isn't the point. The point is that Ali's boxing style looked terribly ineffective against a grappler. The grappler had the fight all but ended on the ground.

Then we have the above judo v boxer fight. It was a RANKED boxer. He clearly isn't a boxer who wasn't very good and went looking for greener pastures. The boxer even had some judo training and was much better suited to defend himself than if he had just used the boxing style only and the boxer still lost.

Not once in the limited history we have of boxers fighting MMAers or grapplers do we have a boxer dominating the match or even winning. This is hard evidence and proof.

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That's neither hard evidence nor proof. The Ali-Inoki "fight" was a publicity stunt to make a predetermined amount of money for each contestant, and neither contestant took ANY serious risks nor fought in the least bit assertively during the bout. Just count that as a PT Barnum act, with the paying spectators playing their usual role as suckers a bit more prominently than usual.

The other example cited occurred many decades ago and is but one example and therefore statistically insignificant. Heck I generally favor grappling too, but those two examples cannot realistically be claimed as any sort of meaningful evidence.