I think you can guess from the title of this manual what we'll be focused on this time out, but I still want to clarify a few things all the same. First of all, this manual is all about Boxing for MMA and not Boxing plus MMA. What do I mean by that?

Often (not always) the distinct and disparate elements of MMA are instructed and/or trained as if they were separate sports in a cross-training fashion that the fighter/athlete is expected to meld spontaneously in the face of fire. Have a look at some MMA class schedules and they often go something along these lines:

Monday: Jiu-Jitsu/Wrestling

Wednesday: Clinch-Work/Boxing

Friday: Muay Thai/Free-Rolling

Yes, the preceding broad categories of combat sports are all important elements of MMA but this separation of training while, yes, allowing an athlete to hone a particular facet of the game, ignores that first "M" in MMA which as we all know stands for Mix. Just where exactly is the mix in this sort of separation represented by the above schedule?

We don't see this sort of specific distinctions made in training for other contact sports. Football practice is not comprised of drills for pressure-free (tackle-less) passing one day, zero-passing and zero ball contact the next but all tackles, and a third day for huddling. We would see the folly of any team that pursued this training plan.

Yes, there is wisdom in emphasizing certain targets of focus within any game, but making them too far removed from other aspects of the game may not allow the burgeoning athlete/fighter to meld them as speedily or intelligently as we hope for. At the very least, we should blend as many different aspects of the game as we can manage into a single session so that we hone to the specificity principle of conditioning/training which dictates that the more closely we adhere to what the sport/game conditions actually are the greater success we will have in manifesting our hard-worked skills under pressure.

There is a Special Forces Maxim that states this beautifully:

"Let your training be reflective of battlefield conditions."

I have witnessed good athletes who are subjected to "separate but equal" training schedules box well on boxing night, and shoot well on takedown night, and roll well on roll night, but when it came to MMA scrimmage night, well, you can sometimes see the visible shift between sports with little stutters and shudders as if the fighter's combat transmission needs a visit to the mechanic.

Now this transmission slipping problem will in all likelihood disappear as more time and experience are garnered, but...but would we not be doing the fighter a greater service by taking good care of that transmission from the get-go. This sort of transmission preventative maintenance is exactly what we have in mind with this manual. Here we strive to take one (and only one) important aspect of the game and address how to train it to blend, to mix seamlessly with the rest of your MMA game.

No balky transmissions for this crew.