Will American black athletes one day dominate MMA?
 

The finest strongest fastest athletes in the world are no doubt African Americans descended from slaves. As the money grows in MMA will we see blacks dominate the heavyweight divisions?

No, I think there will still be a lot of whites.

Only if it pays better than the NFL, NBA and MLB.

MMA champions nowadays have to master several very complex fighting disciplines. Race and innate strength are only a small part of the equation, so I wouldn't think that you will see any increasing percentage of African-American champions rather than any other ethnicity. If anything, you are more likely to see more international (non-American) fighters contending and winning titles in the UFC, WEC and other organizations as the sport goes global.

that's true - and the reason boxing is pretty much dead in the US. the best black athletes go to the NFL and NBA.

yes, black slaves were very strong, like gorillas.

Fedor will smash all who oppose him!

You mean like the NHL? :winkwink:

Everyone knows the brotha's don't like the cold. :pimp

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh Great sence of humor

Yes! Without a doubt.

time for some new power:2 cents:

No. Fighting has been around a long time, as well as black people.
Fighting is not a black or white thing. You either have it or you dont.

we have a winnner.

I'm with Jim in thinking non-Americans will probably be disproportionately represented if the sport continues to grow internationally, which is anybody's guess. It'll probably look much like it does now. You have guys like Fedor (Russian), Anderson Silva (Brazilian), and George St. Pierre (Canadian) among the top in the sport. I don't think there is a large enough pool to draw from domestically for sustained domination by any particular ethnic group. For one thing, the barrier to entry is unique. Few people are trained in martial arts, even fewer want to actually fight using those skills, especially when there are alternatives to making a living inside and outside of the sports world.

1 word.

Fedor.

Fedor Rock!S!!!!

but as far as middleweight goess.... Its all about silva...

http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2007-07/31162029.jpg

Rashad evans is the LHW champion, the #2 in the division is arguably another black man, Quinton Jackson... Anderson Silva (not american) is #1 in the MW division... 2 out of 5 for black guys right now.

I do think black people are faster, better at boxing but!...
This is mixed martial arts...
I dont think black people are best in bjj,wrestling,ground and pound or submissions...
I dont think they would dominate...

Calzaghe? He's Undefeated, faster than a speeding bullet and destroyed Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones jr.

why is it always some race shit? enjoy it

I don't think so... black athletes are good with fast twitch muscle stuff, white guys are better with endurance and pain and as long as there is a ground game white guys will probably be right at the top.

amen! but it doesnt matter what physical abilities you have, if you dont have any heart. when rich franklin fought that japanese guy, in the 3rd round, he got rich in a wicked arm bar, and where others would have just put there hand up in anticipation of tapping out, rich didnt even consider it, he stuck with it and managed to get out. To me, being able to endure something like that, and fight thru it, is as important as physical abilities.

and also, I think the spider is getting cocky, and will loose soon if he doenst take things seriously again. he was goofing around in that last fight, and it showed.
and I also think that rampage better bring his A game to the fight with jardine, hes so unpredicable you never know who you will be facing.

'Black people are way cool dude" Bling, Bling!

This is why it won't happen:

1) Dana White - He picks the match-ups for UFC and it is obvious he is trying to promote certain fighters that bring in the gate and pay-per-view (i.e., white guys like Brock Lesnar), despite ability (e.g., Liddel). He's the Don King of MMA (with normal hair), and he knows he needs to cater to the young angry white guys who don't want to watch the NBA or Football. As long as you don't have quasi independent fighter representation (like boxing), the "best man" won't always get the fight.

2) Wrestling Influence - The NCAA wrestling programs are a feeder program for MMA. H.S. wrestling occurs during football or basketball season, i.e., sports that african americans predominantly play. Not a big percentage of black wrestlers in college. Thus not a lot of black wrestling talent to migrate to MMA (exceptions of course - Rashad Evans wrestled in college).

Skip ahead to 2:00 minutes

Actually you're wrong, Dana White doesn't pick the match ups. Of course he has some say in it but that isn't his job at Zuffa.


Eh? Most the people I know that are MMA fans are not "young angry white guys". Besides there's been plenty of black guys that's been in MMA. Look at Anderson Silva, he's a great champ and I don't know one person who doesn't like him. Everyone I know always cheers for the guy when he's fighting. Recently there's been two black champs at LHW too.

Sounds like a poor troll attempt or maybe you're one of those boxing fans that's pissed because your fav sport is dying.

Black MMA fighters are great. The pattern they follow when they got knocked the fuck out is priceless. Kind of like sack of potatoes :1orglaugh

you are making an assumption about race and strength


when it comes to the elite, white guys may be stronger than black guys

this is the top finishers in a recent world's strongest man competition:

http://i44.tinypic.com/qy8xl2.jpg

It's a good thing they don't drug test. :thumbsup

Not as long as Brazil is on planet earth

Um, LOL, Dana White has a ton of say on the match-ups (not just "some"). I mean, do you watch the fights? After every fight it seems like someone says, "I hope Dana allows it to happen..." Dana White for the most part determines who fights who. He's the reason a 1-1 Brock Lesnar gets a fucking title fight. Are you shittin' me? 1-1 and you get a title fight rofl? Even Don King couldn't pull that off...


http://www.mma-king.com/2008/07/04/d...-at-once-1033/

Dana White has given his blessing to Anderson "Spider" Silva fighting in both divisions. Not only that, but White has also said that he has no problem with Silva holding both the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight titles - at the same time.This just shows the awesome amount of respect that White has for Silva, the fighter. According to White, Silva sat down in White's office and said that he wasn't fighting enough. The two hatched the idea of Silva "testing the waters" in light heavyweight, while still defending his middleweight title. (that sounds like someone who makes the call on who fights who)



GATE and Pay for View Buys > Race > Ability in MMA. That's why Liddel and certain other fighters get the biggest pay-outs on fight day (UFC publishes pay-outs..check it out).

I love MMA btw..

No way american black athletes will dominate - there's tons of whities there :)

Nope. Black guys will not dominate.

Eastern Europe, Brazil, Thailand and people from the other non major powers will continue to excel in the sport.

Black people overall aren't really fans of the sport so I don't expect that enough black guys are even going to try their hand at it to dominate anyway. In the USA it is really a white male based sport.

Much like hockey, tennis & golf, you may see a few star black guys, but overall not enough are introduced to the sports for them to be dominant.

At least us white people still have the NHL. We've lost golf, tennis[women's] and the presidency.

Imagine if Obama is really good at it. It'll be gone forever.

You could be very right. I think Brazil has one of the largest black population outside of Africa. They seem to be deeper into sports like martial arts considering there is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Even though American blacks are filtered for other sports, this may not be the case elsewhere. Who's to say there isn't a heavyweight version of Anderson Silva somewhere in Brazil or a better skilled European than Cheik Kongo. Recall that in boxing's last decent era the heavyweight title holder was black, but he wasn't American. Lennix Lewis is British.

Americans and American blacks will probably have decent representation in MMA (Rashad and Jackson holding or having held belts is theoretically overrepresentation already considering population sizes), but I think you're seeing sports begin to even out now that non-Americans have greater access to American training, equipment, diet - the science of sports. American black males in particular who aren't chasing other avenues (NFL, NBA, etc), or who aren't incarcerated have also likely made strides on the economic ladder since the 70s. When other groups did this (Jews, Irish, Italians, etc.) their participation and representation in bloodsports (at the time, boxing) declined. So harnessing a string of dominant black American heavyweights out of a 6% of the population [blacks are 12% of America's population, so approx. 50/50 men & women) for MMA is unlikely even if we assume the talent exists.

All things considered, I'd expect a fair amount of Eastern European representation in MMA for some time vying for top spots alongside other European, North America, and South American champs peppered all over. But man's predictions are often worth squat.

You know what that picture proves:

White guys have more money for drugs. :1orglaugh:winkwink:

no chinese guys?

Lots of blacks watch MMA, Problem is in the hood, We cant afford MMA classes, while
baseball and football is free. 10million for football and baseball or Danny white 400 to 10,000 to get knock out

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Dut...imination-3432
http://www.k-1.co.jp/k-1gp/b07_1208_2.htm

I think dutch fighters won 90% of the k1 tournaments
Nuff said ;)