Lack of Kickboxing success in MMA

[emax13]

It seems that right now, out of all the different kinds of fighters who transition to MMA, from boxers to wrestlers to judoka to BJJ specialists to K-1/Muay Thai kickboxers, that the Muay Thai kickboxers are doing the worst in MMA so far.

Golden Glory strikers like Marloes Coenen, Overeem, Mousasi and Bahadurzada are of course in MMA, but it seems unclear how well they will do in the future. It seems most fans (including Sherdoggers) feel Overeem's record is padded and he will never be able to win against, or even provide a major challenge to, Dos Santos, Velasquez and Daniel Cormier.

I am not sure Mousasi and Bahadurzada will have a lot of success in the future either. And as for Coenen, I am not sure about either, the consensus seems to be that she has little to no chance at all of beating WMMA stars like Rousey or Cyborg.


Do you think this is true or not ? And what do you think is keeping K-1 strikers from entering MMA in large numbers ? I ask because at the moment it seems like K-1 doesnt provide a superior future, relative to MMA, for pro fighters like pro boxing does. K-1 has such serious problems with corruption and not being able to pay fighters that it seems entering UFC, Strikeforce or even Bellator would be far more valuable. So that is why many fans argue that pro boxers dont enter MMA because it isnt lucrative enough but that K-1 fighters just arent good enough fighters and good enough athletes to ever compete with the likes or Dos Santos, Daniel Cormier, Cain Velasquez, Jon Jones, Chael Sonnen or Anderson Silva. I am certainly not saying I agree with this at all but was wondering what your views are.

And when it comes to Kickboxers and Muay Thai women specialists from the US, Europe or Asia, it seems none of them will be able to rise to the top in MMA because women judoka medalists like Ronda Rousey and possibly Kayla Harrison and maybe even Marti Malloy in the future could be looking to get into MMA too and apparently when it comes to women's international combat sports, judo is lightyears ahead of wrestling, boxing, Muay Thai/kickboxing and BJJ in terms of intensity of training and level of competition. And that in international competition for women in combat sports, women's kickboxing and Muay Thai is something of a joke compared to women's judo at the Worlds and Olympic level. And that even for European and East Asian women who are also elite World level judoka and have trained kickboxing too, that they wouldnt be able to succeed in MMA since they just arent as strong, powerful and tough as the American women judoka medalists we've had recently.

This is only impression I have gotten personalyl so far. Is this impression correct or am I way off base here and missing some key points ?

[gregaquaman]

In Australia it is mostly because the thai guys just dont want to make the transition. They want to be strikers.

That culture is slowly changing but I think by the time it does and we get the recognisable thai guys fighting. MMa will be so big that the guys who want to do MMA will have started and finished as MMAers.

[erezb]

It's hard to say where most MMA guys come from today, for the most part they never really excelled in one particular MA before they started MMA. It's usually the gifted in all espects of MA that were drawn to it (GSP) or people that just like to fight (Forrest).