[The Clockwork Rat]

Aye, no shit.

It'd be like comparing football in the '50s to now.

[layman]

Scotland were pretty good in the 50's though ...

[The Clockwork Rat]

Aye, some teams/fighters were good for their time, but nowadays would get picked apart.

[Godstud]

Yep. I think even the great Gracie(hallowed be His name), at his peak, would struggle in the current MMA.

[The Clockwork Rat]

Ha. Jones tested positive for coke in December.

[Godstud]

Cocaine isn't a performance enhancing drug, unless taken directly prior to a fight. At least his win still stands, against Cormier.

[Solastalgia]

Cocaine isn't a performance enhancing drug, unless taken directly prior to a fight. At least his win still stands, against Cormier.

Or when you're in training and need that "extra boost" when you've been doing 3-a-days etc. Most PED use is done during training anyways, and then the drugs are cycled off before the fight so that they wont piss hot for the before and after tests. But testing is getting a little more stringent with the random check-ins, and month before fight tests, etc.

This isn't to say that Jones was using coke for training purposes, though. He could very well have a personal partying problem, and that already seems to be what his story will be with entering rehab and all (which gels with his old DUI, etc).

[Crantag]

MMAJunkie: Jones "odd" testosterone readings.

http://mmajunkie.com/2015/01/anti-dopin ... nes-sample

[unbalanced zealot]

Crantag ... do you reckon it's worth starting a boxing thread? I'd post in it, but a lot of the boxing people on this site are no longer here.

[Crantag]

Crantag ... do you reckon it's worth starting a boxing thread? I'd post in it, but a lot of the boxing people on this site are no longer here.

I'd post as well a bit. But I dont know. I say go ahead, it's worth a try.

There are some good fights tomorrow/today. Three really solid televised cards on Fox Sports, ESPN 2, and Showtime.

[Smertios]

I always liked boxing but my views of MMA were pretty low due to its beginnings. I watched some fights in the 80's that looked just like glorified bar room brawls.

Saw some youtube vids recently and it has clearly come a long way!

Yeah, but there are both a good and a bad side about that. On one hand, the new rules that were added as time passed made sure MMA became an actual sport. Now athletes are professional. Their physical safety is protected, etc.

It wasn't exactly a proper sport back when it started, though. It was just a NHB competition, which was pretty brutal. But there was a purpose for that. Back in the 1920s, there was a huge rivalry between BJJ and Luta-Livre in Rio. And people from both styles wanted to prove their style was superior. So they started organizing these early MMA competitions. As they wanted to prove their styles were effective against anything, striking was part of it too, so those competitions attracted fighters from other backgrounds as well (boxing, karate, capoeira, etc).

Even when the UFC was created in the US, the purpose was similar: Rorion Gracie simply wanted to prove that his BJJ was more effective than other martial arts. And well, whatever the truth on the matter is, he managed to convince people that he was right when Royce Gracie won UFC 1, surprising everyone. And then, there was this boom in BJJ.

Nowadays, MMA is less NHB and more mixed, as the name implies. Practitioners choose one or more grappling styles, as well as one or more striking styles and compete professionally.

[The Clockwork Rat]

MMA is now a legitimate sport, as evidenced by the Grauniad employing a hack to write about Conor McGregor once a week.

[Godstud]

Conor MacGregor got whooped!

I can't say I was sad to see that happen.

I just played "catchup" with all the recent UFC fights. Some good fights there!

[pariahsmile]

Man, Dana likes that word

[Oxymoron]

I think Mcnugget did very well against the best boxer on the planet.

Fight I will like to see, Khabib beating the living shit out of the Cookooki or what ever the fuck Fergusons name is.

[skinster]

I've decided to become a jiu-jitsu champion, just by saying so.