Why do some mma and boxers get tired so early in a fight when they do all that cardio?

Question

are they overtraining?

Answer 1

I would say nerves as the same happens to me - but some good answers already here, so that my experience

Answer 2

I have also done armature boxing. if you had ever done any yourself you would know that its extremely fatiguing. quite frankly its amazing when you see fighters lasting in 5 minute rounds like in MMA. according to the police the average person can only fight for 1 minute and they are totally done. A champion MMA fighter can fight for 5 five minute rounds 25 minutes total!! they are truly amazing athletes.

Answer 3

adrenaline and overtraning adrenaline can drane yue and overtranig will to

Answer 4

There are a lot of factors likie adrenaline, nerves and all thatwhen in an actual competition, when I did two figths in amateur boxing 1-1-0 . I was completely drained before I even set foot in the ring. The adrenaline just pumps and pumps awat as you wait to fight and when your in the ring you are jacked. The crowd is screaming and the ligths are dim and tha anouncer is talking and this guy is across the ring staring you down and the nerves get you. Besides that they may be doing their conditioning wrong.

Answer 5

doing all the cardio and facing a real combat is entirely different thing. some fighters appeared to be mean and gutsy but weakened upon seeing much mess and blood but don't show it.

Answer 6

It could be any number of things.

The trend these days is cutting weight. Fighters decide to fight at a weight class lower, sometimes much lower, than their natural body weight. There are guys out there cutting as much as 25 pounds. When you cut weight you're literally dehydrating yourself. So if a fighter cuts too much weight, goes about wrong, doesn't have enough time to recover, that can affect his cardio.

A lot of people out there ARE over training. They're seeking the physical edge, ignoring technique and just working themselves into the ground. This ties into the weight cutting issue. I think it comes from self doubt. A fighter isn't confident enough in their skills so they feel they need some edge, sometimes it's going to a lower weight class, sometimes it's just training yourself to exhaustion and not giving your body enough time to recover. Recovery is just as important as the training.

Mental toughness has a lot to do with it. You've got to be able to handle the pressures that come along with fighting. In mixed martial arts especially. My first fight was in a cage, with a live audience, and it was broadcast on pay per view. The pressure was intense, but mentally that kind of thing doesn't bother me. I just zone it out. The cameras, the lights, the crowds. But a lot of guys see that, and the adrenaline dumps on them and physically they're a wreck. I think it's worse in MMA as you're literally locked inside of a cage with another man who not only wants to hurt you, but is able, and probably pretty good at it. That's an insane amount of stress on your mind that can rob you of your cardio quick.

Lastly I think some of the problem is how these guys are cardio training. A lot of people still believe the only way to develop your cardio is distance runs and that's simply not true. You don't need a slow sustained cardio. Especially in MMA, fights are not slow and drawn out. Everything happens quickly. You might run four miles a day, every day. You'll have excellent cardio... for running. For fighting? Not so much. The second you have to explode and defend a take down, or throw a flurry after a scramble you'll be gassed. Because your body isn't used to that sudden, explosive, exhaustive effort. The most effective cardio training is interval training, brief periods of intense effort followed by short periods of rest, sustained over an extended period of time. My advice on cardio training is always the same. Train the way you fight. Structure everthing to emulate a fight.

So there's a lot of reasons out there for a fighter fatiguing before you'd expect. Hope that helps.

Answer 7

over training could be a huge problem. this will kill your cardio. how ever there are many other problems that could arise. did the fighter get damaged from an attack that happened, that takes a lot of cardio to recover. then how much Adrenalin, if you do not control your emotions and breathing your Adrenalin will push your muscles to the max very quickly. the other aspect that is over looked in my opinion is this. the athleticism. some people are great fighters and have amazing technique but do not have the ability to take the extreme demands that fighting requires. Dennis Holman is a perfect example. they say if you fight his fight in the first two minutes of the fight he will tap you out, after that your odds get better and better. He tapped out Matt Hughes twice. His cardio just flat lines after that heart, technique, and determination are all there but the athleticism are not.