Money and fame: professional boxers in mixed martial arts

Features of individual sports

Contact sports have always held a special place in the fans’ hearts. Tense situations in the ring, intense emotions during the fight, and incredible fees attract fans around the world. In individual sports, MMA fighting and boxing occupy a large niche in the gaming line of sports betting enthusiasts.

To increase the probability of winning his bet, the bettor doesn’t need to carefully prepare by analysing the game of each player of the team. Only two athletes fight in martial arts, which means that understanding the field and following the career of two fighters is enough.

In MMA fights and boxing, sensational performances of fighters are quite common. Here, it’s important to consider the human factors: the motivation of each of the opponents, their physical and emotional states, and the results of past fights. For example, if a boxer has an important championship fight soon, he’s unlikely to put too much effort into a friendly fight.

Mixed martial arts have existed since ancient times, but they’ve gained unprecedented popularity only recently. Only in the mid-1990s did professional fighters develop a genuine interest in MMA.

MMA combat is a combination of a huge number of techniques and martial arts that are skilfully used by athletes to demonstrate their superiority. At the dawn of its formation, the so-called fights without rules were distinguished by unmotivated cruelty and bloodshed, which forced the organizers of the fights to revise their regulations.

The largest championships among world-famous participants are held within the UFC and PFC organizations. Tickets for these events sell out in a matter of minutes, and live video broadcasts are available online in any country.

Today, mixed martial arts has become a show with millions of dollars spent on promotions and advertising, fighters signing mind-blowing contracts with big sponsors, and MMA bets in huge numbers. In almost any official bookmaker’s office, the MMA and boxing game line has a striking variety of options.

Bets on the victory of one of the fighters, as well as bets on the total number of rounds are perfect for beginners in the betting field. In this case, the odds will be low, but the probability of losing is much lower. Bookmakers offer more difficult tasks for advanced players, such as various totals and special bets (the outcome of the fight, whether there will be injuries, and whether the fighters will resort to power and fighting techniques).

Despite a noticeable increase in popularity and impressive prize funds, in the past few years, there has been a strong trend toward the transition of MMA fighters to classic boxing. The fees of professional boxers exceed the earnings of MMA fighters at times, which was the main reason for the massive increase of fighters on boxing rings.

On the other hand, the number of boxers interested in trying their hand at MMA is also steadily growing. In this case, it’s not the financial side of the situation that plays the main role, but the desire of athletes for self-development and to reach new heights. We present to your attention the top 5 famous boxers who made their debut in mixed martial arts during their professional career.

From boxers to MMA fights

• Dillian Whyte

At the age of 34, the British heavyweight boxer is one of the most titled athletes. Villain began his career with kickboxing, initially showing excellent results. Having achieved unprecedented success in the professional field with a total score of 20:1, Dillian decided to fight in mixed martial arts. In 2008, a high-profile debut took place with Mark Stroud as an opponent. The fight ended with a knockout of Stroud at 12 seconds into the fight.

Such a sensation brought White even more popularity, and the fans predicted a championship title for their favourite. However, the Villain made an unpredictable choice in favour of boxing, specifically amateur boxing at that time. The athlete’s career was quite successful, but sports observers gossiped for a while about his tremendous success in the only MMA fight he had.

• James Toney

Tony’s professional achievements are impressive to this day: the 12-time world champion in three weight categories was recognized as the winner in the boxer of the year category three times. However, James transitioned to MMA not to gain fame in a new field. Rather because Tony’s boxing career began to decline quickly. Dana White was the president of the UFC at the time. He was the one to offer James to debut in MMA.

Tony even got a personal trainer, Juanito Ibarra to seriously prepare for the fight. James signed a contract for several fights at once hoping for success, with the first one bringing him a profit of $500,000.

In August 2010, James Toney entered the ring against such a serious opponent as Randy Couture. Regrettably for the fans, the fight ended with a chokehold by Randy. Toney couldn’t cope with the onslaught of the opponent and gave up. The fight turned out to be one-sided and predictable from the very beginning: Tony was a typical example of an outsider. After the first fight, representatives of the UFC recognized the cooperation with the former boxer as a mistake and terminated the contract.

• Tyrone Spong

The King of the Ring debuted in kickboxing in 2001 but appeared in MMA only in 2012 when he already had solid experience in professional sports. The fighter had two fights in total in the mixed martial arts league. On November 3, 2012, he debuted in the MMA ring with a fight against Travis Bartlett. Unsurprisingly, at the 3-minute mark, the fight ended with a knockout by Travis. The second fight took place on August 10, 2013, and also ended with Spong’s victory (by a unanimous decision).

• Art Jimmerson

A mid-level boxer Jimmerson decided to compete in the very first UFC championship for a change. The boxer’s opponent was a debutant in professional mixed martial arts, Royce Gracie. Despite having little experience, Gracie had a great fight, winning in his first round. However, Art has decided to stop such experiments and keep using boxing techniques until the end of his sports career in 2002.

• Eric Ash

Butterbean faced a huge amount of ridicule and jokes during his career in big-time sports but found the strength to resist the bullies. Eric spent 89 fights in the boxing ring and won 77 of them. In addition, 59 opponents were knocked out. And in MMA, the statistics are impressive: out of 26 fights, 17 ended in his favour.