Toughest Athlete(s)

[Robert Fischer]

Any of those physical sports where you have the repetitive brutal contact and are expected to play hurt.

[Marshall Bennett]

Beach volleyball can be physical.

[proximity]

Originally Posted by ronsmac

Obviously it's either boxing or mma. I'd lean mma because you can be choked ,kicked, punched etc........

as a long-time wrestler i am admittedly biased but the work to rest ratio is higher in wrestling than it is in mma and higher in mma than it is in boxing.

while this certainly influences the length of individual matches in these sports you can wrestle several matches in a single tournament and the practices are just brutal if you're on any kind of decent team.

probably the hardest thing though is managing the weight cutting..... not just once every two years for a conor mcgregor fight.... but on a weekly basis throughout an entire season and often right before a match in high school. (in college we often weighed in on an honor system the day before. idk how they do it now though?)

one good wrestler on my team in high school was also a race car driver and said he thought that was as hard as wrestling. i respected his opinion but he wasn't running several miles a day and going through intense two hour practices in heated rooms under extreme caloric restriction for months at a time for auto racing so i didn't agree with him but this was his experience so maybe it's not totally crazy that nascar is on the list??

[elysiantraveller]

I voted hockey because it's easier than picking between MMA/Boxing/Wrestling.

I would pick "combat sports" over hockey though.

[JustRalph]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

Most people don't equate to having to maintain a high level of extreme mental alertness for an extended period of time as requiring toughness. I am a big Nascar fan and understand it is both physically and mentally challenging, but no one is sitting in the passenger seat hitting them while they are trying to drive.

That I would watch!

[ronsmac]

Originally Posted by Lemon Drop Husker

True.



Once he gets his hands on you, it is all over. A boxer can pepper you with shots, but a wrestler will make you hurt for as long a time till the cops show up.



Old roommate was a 3 time State Champ wrestler. I'd scrap with him quite a bit. I never won.

An Mma guy would give us a choice. A kick To the knee which 99.9% of us would have no defense for. Or maybe an armbar That snaps either our elbow or dislocates our shoulder. if we're fortunate it will be a kick to the head that puts our lights out or just chokes us for about 20 seconds until we're unconscious.

[ronsmac]

Originally Posted by proximity

as a long-time wrestler i am admittedly biased but the work to rest ratio is higher in wrestling than it is in mma and higher in mma than it is in boxing.

while this certainly influences the length of individual matches in these sports you can wrestle several matches in a single tournament and the practices are just brutal if you're on any kind of decent team.

probably the hardest thing though is managing the weight cutting..... not just once every two years for a conor mcgregor fight.... but on a weekly basis throughout an entire season and often right before a match in high school. (in college we often weighed in on an honor system the day before. idk how they do it now though?)

one good wrestler on my team in high school was also a race car driver and said he thought that was as hard as wrestling. i respected his opinion but he wasn't running several miles a day and going through intense two hour practices in heated rooms under extreme caloric restriction for months at a time for auto racing so i didn't agree with him but this was his experience so maybe it's not totally crazy that nascar is on the list??

Wrestling might be 2nd for me the more I think about it. If we had professional wrestling and not just college or olympic wrestling , I'd definitely make it number 2.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by proximity

as a long-time wrestler i am admittedly biased but the work to rest ratio is higher in wrestling than it is in mma and higher in mma than it is in boxing.

while this certainly influences the length of individual matches in these sports you can wrestle several matches in a single tournament and the practices are just brutal if you're on any kind of decent team.

probably the hardest thing though is managing the weight cutting..... not just once every two years for a conor mcgregor fight.... but on a weekly basis throughout an entire season and often right before a match in high school. (in college we often weighed in on an honor system the day before. idk how they do it now though?)

one good wrestler on my team in high school was also a race car driver and said he thought that was as hard as wrestling. i respected his opinion but he wasn't running several miles a day and going through intense two hour practices in heated rooms under extreme caloric restriction for months at a time for auto racing so i didn't agree with him but this was his experience so maybe it's not totally crazy that nascar is on the list??

Now you have refreshed a 40 year old memory of why I kept telling the wrestling coach "not interested" all during High School. I was the strongest kid in the weight room at school when I was a junior and senior that is what got him on my case. I only played football at the school and my weight varied from 210-220.


Of course he wanted me to be the 198 pound guy. Watching guys running laps in rubber suits, using the drinking fountain to rinse and spit, plus the hot and stuffy gym they worked in was enough to convince me that sport wasn't for me.

[BELMONT 6-6-09]

Interesting topic. I was an amateur boxer in my teens and those who have competed know how demanding the sport can be even as an amateur. HOWEVER, a wrestler is on another level simply because if they get you off your feet it is lights out.

In my early 20's i was forced to scrap with a pair of wrestlers who cut me off in my car (looking for trouble), hey a Brooklyn thing!!When I knew i had no choice but to fight i was lucky enough to knock out the first charging opponent, but the second guy basically gave me some beating while on the ground. they are no joke and back in the day i was a street fighter when i had to.

Ah those days!!

[NJ Stinks]

I find the topic most interesting too. My immediate thought was rugby too but many here have made great points about other sports.

I was high school wrestler too and I get what Proximity said. But one can wrestle the toughest dude out there and the pain level is low on the mat. (Practice is another kind of pain.) But getting punched in the nose/face multiple times; or trying to stop a 260 pound guy on a rugby pitch with no pads on; or trying to run fast in the last few miles of a marathon; or trying to steer a 1,000 pound horse over a dozen fences or more without breaking your neck all seem like higher degrees of toughness to me.


MMA not mentioned by me above because I choose not to watch. I probably would have skipped the Roman Colosseum too.

[NJ Stinks]

I should have added something about Aussie Rules Football too. I have not seen a a game in years (ESPN used to televise games - it was a big live event for ESPN when they were starting up) but I haven't seen a game in years....

[proximity]

YouTube

dillashaw is getting at what i'm saying around 31:00.

he also thinks (favored) khabib is too slow and mcgregor will win.

[Inner Dirt]

I have to down grade hockey and I only watch the play-offs Capitol's games, because of the line changes. Hockey players get longer more frequent rest breaks than boxers, wrestlers, and MMA.

[Lemon Drop Husker]

I've always been absolutely confounded by why Hockey players always seem to win these polls.


It is a sport of rather small men compared to other sports, yet get such high regard because they "fight".



People do realize that Boxers and MMA guys actually do.... ahem...., fight, right?



Put ANY hockey player on any other mat, field, pitch, or octagon, and they would get their ass kicked.

[jimmyb]

Originally Posted by Lemon Drop Husker

I've always been absolutely confounded by why Hockey players always seem to win these polls.


It is a sport of rather small men compared to other sports, yet get such high regard because they "fight".



People do realize that Boxers and MMA guys actually do.... ahem...., fight, right?



Put ANY hockey player on any other mat, field, pitch, or octagon, and they would get their ass kicked.

Yup, I watched Dwight Schofield, a hockey goon from the 80's, get knocked cold by the left hook of a club fighter. This was in the ring of a gym I belonged to. I asked the fighter why and he said Dwight is a big strong dude and he was coming at me hard.