How would Wladimir Klitschko do....

[Dostoevsky]

In MMA with a good sprawl?

[AJAX]

even with a good sprawl he would be taken down at some point or another he's too tall, at 6'7 a guy can get a clinch then a takedown. Sure would be interesting because he's a strong athletic guy for his size and has some of the best punching power in the business. But it's hard to land his straight right if a guy's coming in at his knees.

[Donut62]

Impossible to say. Like AJAX said though, anyone that long is always going to have difficulty on the ground with submissions because of the space they have to create to move. Unless someone wanted to die I doubt they would be dumb enough to stand with him.

[Dostoevsky]

He's Russian/Ukrainian though, he must have had at least some sort of minimal experience with wrestling/sambo over there, I know they're very popular in eastern europe.
Also in USA MMA, he wouldn't have to worry too much about being armbarred from the bottom due to the allowance of elbows meaning he wouldn't have to posture up and expose his lanky arms.

[Tko4]

The sprawl is the key here. Without it, he would be utterly doomed. If he developed a Pride era Cro Cop style sprawl, he might be fairly tough. He's got excellent hands and excellent size. His brother was also a kickboxer, so it's possible he can at least throw a leg kick.

The keys here would be the clinch and protecting his own legs. They're quite skinny, and I could see a good kicker breaking them down. I also don't think he would fair that well in a clinch.

So with a sprawl, he would be a mediocre but capable HW. Without a sprawl, he'd get arm barred faster than Choi.

[Polymath]

If Tim Sylvia can do it...

[Dostoevsky]

If Tim Sylvia can do it...
Exactly! Wlad is 20x the athlete Sylvia is, he's not as heavy but I bet he's far stronger than Timmeh, if Wlad adopted a great sprawl and got it to his feet standing he would crush everyone, people say "oh he'll be too old to learn new disciplines" I honestly think thats nonsense, you're never too old to learn something new so long as your dedicated and physically fit, given the fact that Wlad is a natural athlete, he would learn alot of techniques faster than a normal person.

Too bad he doesn't like MMA :?
I'd love to see someone as athletic as him in HW MMA.

[Polymath]

Plus, if Wlad competed in MMA I'd expect him to lift some weights and come in at about 260- 270, more muscle bound like he was pre-Manny - his body can handle that easily. When you're that size you only really need basic skills. Sylvia just uses his 270 to lean on guys and wear them out. Look how Fedor struggled with taking down HMC who has no skills, size and weight is hard to overcome in mma.

[Dostoevsky]

I think 265 would be the best weight (That is the UFC's upper HW limit) He could keep his speed and strength.

If Wlad had started doing, say, freetyle wrestling when he was young along with boxing imagine what he would do in MMA now, mix that in with a bit of Sambo/BJJ for submission defence and hey presto! :scaredas:
He would be the GSP of the HW's and nigh-on unstoppable.

[Polymath]

Wlad is too tall to wrestle well. But i think he may have done some combat sambo in the military.

[Dostoevsky]

Yeah, he is probably too tall.....the highest most wrestlers get are 6'2-6'4 and then they weigh 290lbs.

I never knew he was in the military though, he probably did do some combat sambo as I think thats mandatory. Maybe his kids will get into it.

[achillesthegreat]

We are talking about a guy who must be pretty damn good at striking. He has the talent too. He boxes very well and he has done kick boxing so his striking should be first class.

Give him some grappling ability and it would be interesting.

[boxingcar]

In MMA with a good sprawl? with a good sprawl maybe he'd have an average ranking...(just maybe)
or maybe he'd still be reduced as a can...

but with a serious training in bjj , wrestling , muay thai and maybe even judo...i think he would do great. He already has the perfect boxing technic. and he's athletic too...so why not ?

but again , mma is just so different. The nature of this sport gives little to almost no chance to become ultra dominant or a "legend".

When you look at all the big names...
Such as GSP...even this guy for example , who's way WAY more versatile and talented than Serra , still ended up losing against that guy..

BJ Penn , another impressive talent...but here again , too many losses...

Quinton Jackson...now LHW champ , but even that guy had his record tarnished back when he was in japan....and he's not even "past" his prime yet..

same goes for the now seemingly invincible and incredible Anderson Silva.
(had a couple of defeats in japan too ).

There's a few exceptions of course...But they're very rare.
It's a sport where even the "cans" become a potential threat...anything can happen.

[achillesthegreat]

i think its really funny that most people think that boxers wont do shit in mma and vica versa.

these guys are physical talents who want a fight. they dont give a shit about what type it is, they just happen to be in different types of fight. hatton, klits did kickboxing, cintron did wrestling etc thats a few example of guys not giving a shit.

generally due to training, experience etc boxers won't fair well in mma against a mma and vica versa. however i think there are boxers who could be good mma and mma who could be good boxers.

good mma who could become good in boxing if they chose - GSP, Jackson, Liddell, Couture, Cro etc

similarly guys like Cintron, Hatton etc could do well in mma.

[BewareofDawg]

He can break dance. I'm sure he would have a good sprawl and given a couple of years to train he would be able to develop some submission defense.

[Donut62]

He can break dance.


:rofl :rofl :rofl

[Shpion]

I am not sure how Wladimir would do but Vitaly would have been quite succesfull, considering he was 6 times world champion in kick-boxing and his superior reflexes.

[BewareofDawg]

:rofl :rofl :rofl
:lol:

[radianttwilight]

I don't think he'd do all THAT well. He could definately be a top-notch striker, perhaps the best in the MMA HW scene, but his body is just not built right to be a top-notch wrestler and/or submission artist. He'd be very weak to certain types of attacks.

He could be a bigger version of Cro Cop, though.

I don't exactly agree that all boxers could necessarily be successful if they trained for MMA instead, and vice versa. There's a big difference between a wrestler and a boxer/striker at the lowest level. Granted, most of these guys are athletic enough that they could definately be contenders if they had gone into a different sport, but comparing boxing to MMA is like comparing American football's halfbacks to its cornerbacks.

There are shared talents, and athleticism always helps, but they are different sports. MMA's a lot more forgiving when it comes to styles than boxing is, but alot of these cross-over type athletes could just end up as 1-dimensional guys.

[sugarngold]

Vitali would probably do better than Wlad provided he makes it through training. Vitali already has the world class kickboxing experience - so all he needs to add is some wrestling and submission defense.

[sugarngold]

I am not sure how Wladimir would do but Vitaly would have been quite succesfull, considering he was 6 times world champion in kick-boxing and his superior reflexes.

What he said.

[RUSKULL]

Wladimir also had some kickboxing experience although not nearly as much as Vitali.

[Sundance]

Wlad would murder Sylvia.

[Donut62]

I am not sure how Wladimir would do but Vitaly would have been quite succesfull, considering he was 6 times world champion in kick-boxing and his superior reflexes.

Vitali also got KTFO by Pelee in kickboxing, so he wasn't really all that. He would still have superb MMA potential though.