I have a boil and bite Shock Doctor Gel Max from a sports shop, one of these, bout £10 https://www.sportsdirect.com/shock-doctor-gel-max-mouth-guard-760176

The fit after moulding it is phenomenal (did 2-3 remoulds, but the first attempt was already good), no chance of it falling out - I have to actually pull on it to get it off. I never knew a guard could be so comfortable and secure. No problems during grappling or cardio. I had a dentist one for hockey/rugby as a teen, which was way looser and I'd often nearly choke on it when it came loose and went sideways.

However, the front has hard plastic on it, which has a sharp area. It's probably fine for typical Sports Direct customers playing rugby, hockey or cricket, since they'll only get directly on the mouth once in a blue moon, but not for sports like mma/boxing/muay thai where the whole objective is to hit you. I got it a little smoother with scissors, but it's still too sharp and there's only so much material you can take off it.

It hurts way more to get punched with the guard in than without it, since it digs into my lip in one area. It'll protect my teeth, but guaranteed my lip would be bleeding within a round. Not usable for striking, unless they agree to only hit my right-hand side lol.

I'm not going to drop £70 on a custom-fit mouthguard right now. £15-30 would be good, if possible. Which boil and bites don't have this hard part, so I can get hit in the mouth? I was considering Safejawz, Opro or Fairtex.

Flyweights are

Other sports: Start when your a kid, work hard, move up in the leagues, play games, get scouted, go to a D1 college, then play professionally.

MMA: Walk into gym drunk because your girlfriend broke up with you while being twenty-two years old and become a UFC champion.

Obviously, this is a joke.

Went for my first fight last night, incredible experience. Walked him down, beat him up. He couldn’t hurt me. We got into a scramble and i dislocated my shoulder. I got on top and between posting w/my forehead and hitting him w/my good hand i almost had him out the first round. I get off of him and the DR sees my arm and stops it.

I fucking love this sport. But FML i had him. :(

Does anyone know a good strength and conditioning program. I’ve seen don heatrick but it’s muay thai specific and I’m unsure if that would work for mma.

I’m stuck between 2 gyms, Roger Gracie Academy (RGA HQ) and Fight Zone. RGA is about 10 minutes away whilst fight zone is an hour. The problem is I would only be doing no gi/bjj in rga whilst I would be doing MMA/wrestling more in Fight zone. I’m honestly more interested in wrestling but the travel distance is the problem. Would it be worth the travel?.

I have been doing capoiera for most of my life and want to get started in training for mma. I was wondering which martial/fighting art to start in to add to capoeira

I'm bad at this sport and i trained 5 o7 months ago, at the gym i don't have a flexibility, fast cognition at the battle, reflex and the bjj am the worst. Somebody can give me tips for be better? Also, i don't have a base sport. I'm start et this because i wanna figth in the cage.

I practic shadow box, but i duno how practic reflex or bjj for my self.

Hey guys so I want to have an amateur fight in the near future, I was just wandering what weight class you reckon I should fight at. I’ve been training just under 2 years. I’m 5’7 and walk around currently at 92 kilos (down from 110kg) and still have a good amount of fat that I could lose. I would say that I am a muscular guy, I’m very strong in general. I was thinking about lightweight (70 kilos) but was wondering what you guys thought. I know Michael Chandler walks around at 86 kilos so I thought that I might be able to get my walk around to the mid 80’s and just work on from there, I have a similar frame to him.

I do have long arms though, so I guess in that regard I’m similar to Volk lol (my wingspan is 6’1)

If you were to compete, what would you choose as your walk out song? Mine would be starman by David Bowie.

So my coach told me yesterday he’s going to have me debut in 3 months. I’ve had one point Muay Thai fight. I performed well it was a close fight but I lost. He now thinks I’m ready for a mma fight but I myself don’t even know if I’m ready. I know my striking isn’t bad and I’m a natural athlete but realistically I’ve done zero wrestling and I take a ji jitsu class for a PE credit😭 (I’m in college). Ever since he told me this I’ve been nervous all day and I’ve also never expressed to the coaches that I want to compete. So I’m just confused like why me? Am I ready for this etc. I’m only 19 years old so I think my confidence is just low right now and this whole thing caught me off guard as i said. I do have dreams though of winning a fight and testing myself, I think it’s dope. Once I start training though I’m sure I’ll feel better. I just want to know if this is a bad idea to follow through with and if so, where would I go from here?

I'm looking to get into mma in the next few months mainly for self defence, and the love of the sport At most I would maybe compete at amateur level( for now at least ) I'm 25 years old 6’4 240Ibs Reach-83in I currently play basketball and I'm pretty athletic and quick for my size

Even though combat sports are my favourite type of competition, I can't help but feel that combat athletes are, on average, less athletic than other athletes. Like basketball players, gymnasts, hockey players, etc.

Am I wrong, or is there some truth to what I'm thinking?

Who is the best striker in the history of combat sports?

https://preview.redd.it/koptt3kxs4yd1.png?width=1251&format=png&auto=webp&s=09fb1655e7c0542f1dc75c03b5b95c9a923a8aa9

hello everyone I'm f20 yo, would like to start next year any sort of combat sport (all classes are closed for this year where i live), I just wanted to know if you had any advices on what types of workout I could do and if I could have great results with my home gym equipment or not (dumbbells of all sizes, pull up bar, elastics bands) or If I needed to go to the gym. kinda out of shape since I've not done any sports since last summer would you recommend buying a punching bag ? also trying to realign my nutrition so I bought whey protein and lots of vegetables/fruits/meat etc, if you also had advices on that I could take em !

Assuming I'm not just interested in doing an esoteric martial art for purely the "art" of it and want to develop some actual fighting skills...

Should I make sure any striking-based gym I join has some sparring in the curriculum?

It seems weird to pay $100+/mo and not have it lol. But searching locally, sparring seems to be really rare in most modern gyms.

I'm torn between pursuing Boxing or MMA.

I've been cross training in boxing and Muay Thai for quite some time now and have also been fighting in amateur boxing and I realized that my boxing is really mediocre.

I get my ass handed to me more often than I hand it to others. Despite that, I still fought in a few amateur boxing matches because it's the only combat sport competition available here and I wanted to get combat experience. I haven't won a single one of them.

I'm better at kickboxing and even then, there are still others at the gym who's better than me although not as many as in boxing and I could still hold my own against them even if they are better than me plus I just feel more comfortable doing it.

I haven't got the chance to fight in Muay Thai or Kickboxing yet as MT and KB tournaments are held very very far from my place.

I was watching N'gannou vs Gane and Gane outstriked N'gannou but N'gannou managed to win through grappling.

I was thinking maybe I could be someone like N'gannou. He's not the best striker but he's also not the best grappler. He's great at both but not the best.

I also talked to my coach about it and he agreed with me. He told me in Boxing if you get outboxed, there's nothing else you can do. In MMA you can be a jack of all trades, master of none. If you get outboxed, you can try kicking them. If it still doesn't work you can try taking them down and submitting them.

For those reasons, I believe I would have a higher chance in MMA than boxing.

There are also cons that he told me such as MMA being more brutal than Boxing because gloves are smaller, strikes are more painful and dangerous (kicks, elbows, knees) and injuries in MMA are far more gruesome and life changing than injuries in boxing.

Now if I could get to choose which one I would have more aptitude at then I would choose Boxing since it's the first combat sport I've watched and followed but I have to be practical and realistic.

The only reason I don't train MMA is because there isn't any MMA gym here so I basically have zero grappling knowledge yet, at least for now but I'm planning to move soon.

Should I pursue Boxing or MMA? (Kickboxing or Muay Thai is out of the question as there is no professional Kickboxing or Muay Thai in my country and even if there are, I still don't think I would)

You see it all the time. Guys who train for years and just aren't that good not successful. Guys that dedicate themselves yet still just haven't got it. So what is it? I know that's the million dollar question and if it was a straight forward answer, champion wouldn't be so difficult. But still, it's worth an attempt at an answer. What is the reason you have guys that train hard for years and just don't get far with it? Is it not training enough? The quality of training not being sufficient? Mental side? Maybe a mix of any and all. Still, how do you avoid such a thing. Everybody can make progress but how do you tell you're making GOOD progress without waiting to get in the octagon just to fall flat on your face to prove yourself wrong. The idea of putting years into training to still be mediocre at best is borderline failure in itself

What are some things I can do off the mat too improve my jiu jitsu/wrestling.

I was referred to this sub due to my previous question of,So far this year has been horrible, I'm struggling if I even wanna continue going with martial arts I've become 1-3 this year on the amateur mma circuit and I've been working my entire life since I was a kid to being a mma fighter and competing.Coming off this loss is a hard pill to swallow especially since a lot of fighters I look up to in the pros had good amateur careers.Wanna know if anyone has any advice for me, could really use it.

Hey yall, I need advice on how to become a fighter. For context I'm a BJJ Purple Belt and a Ikkyu/First Degree Brown Belt in Judo (Nage-No-Kata is the bane of my existence). I know I have to learn striking but with my schedule it's not exactly possible. I work a full 40 hours as well as go to college full time I barely am able to make it to BJJ. I'm not able to stack a Boxing or Muay Thai session on top of all my other training sessions.

Should I stop training BJJ for a few months so I can get the fundamentals of stand up down? Or is there any gyms in Las Vegas or Henderson that y'all can vouch for with a good MMA program(Not bjj followed by Muay Thai class after)

Thanks to everyone that takes the time to answer my silly questions.

Because of shinsplints I wanted to include some cycling in-between my runs but I was thinking like should I buy a mountain bike or a roadbike cause I'm not sure wich would be better.

I've heard that mountain biking can be hard on your knees but also it would be more of a combination of strengt and endurance if you go on trails