Does Size Matter? Small Vs Big Fighters 

I fought amateur MMA at 135lbs, and I walked around between 150-155. But I was the smallest guy at the gym I trained out of. My smallest training partner was still 20lbs heavier than me. Size does matter! That being said, skill also matters as does mindset. A honey badger weighs between 20-35lbs and is absolutely ferocious. They will regularly square off with lions and jaguars and survive. Size absolutely matters, but it’s only one of the factors that decides the outcome of a fight.

Of course size matters. Skill makes a difference too. But between 2 equally skilled fighters, the bigger fighter is going to have an advantage.

Size matters. When you have someone big laying into you from the top position, you are in a world of hurt.

Cowboy had been asking for weigh-ins on the day of the fight for years

When skill is comparable size matters. With that said a lot of untrained big guys don’t do as well against smaller skilled guys.

I like Paul Felder more on the 🎙️ then I did as a fighter, and he was one of my favorite fighters. I'm glad he was given an opportunity to commentate after he wrapped up his career. He's very good at offering insight and experience but also keeps the attention and focus on the fighters, instead of making it about himself.

I will forever advocate for weigh-ins the day of the fight. It's crazy that some dudes cut 30+ pounds and then re-hydrate.

Size matters relative to skill set and skill level. Bigger your opponent is, the more tailored your skillset as well as the skill difference needs to be.

Charles’ fight with Max was probably the closes anyone’s been to dying in the cage

super underrated fighter. possibly the most underrated fighter of all time. 1 loss unanimous. all other fights wins or bloody split decision wars. great commentator also

Size always matter. Height, weight, wingspan… the advantage almost always plays a part in the fights. It’s a reason why Khabib was killing himself to cut to 155, he knew his advantage was being the bigger guy. Even with Volk, he’s not the tallest guy but has one of the longest reaches and used to weigh a brick house. It shows in his fights.

Great video as always! Why don't we simply weight fighters the same day as the fight? And change weight limits of each division accordingly? Weight cut is an insane process with no benefit for anyone. And yes, size matters. For strikers, "dynamic reach" is also important (Mc Gregor being a good example).

Size matters only when the natural weight distribution and skill set are both massively apart, however if you’re a pretty big guy though and someone’s bigger it doesn’t matter at that point. A prime Jon Jones so let’s say him back in 2015, he’s 6’4 and he probably walks around at 220. He would easily dismantle a 330 pound behemoth who does strongman or something. However if it’s Demetrius Johnson vs that 330 pound strongman then it comes a big problem.

The extent of the difference is what matters. I'm pretty sure a well trained 170er could easily beat up a non trained but strong 205er. However there can be such a difference which you just cannot overcome with skills/experience. I think a good example is the light "sparring" video of Conor vs the Mountain. You can see moments there which gives away that if the Mountain would decide to really beat Conor with bad intent - he would not get a say in that...

Weight and skill are what matters most in a fight, if you’re one of guys that think the can fight because they are 6’5 you’re in for a shock one day when you wake up up face down in the concrete - probably at the hands of a guy that’s 5’5 and 120kg wet

I think what gets missed about the long lean body type is that those fighters have larger organs and bones for their body weight, so they have way better stamina and tend to have larger jaws, sharper knuckles, elbows, and knees compared with their opponents.

Size matters in regards to stamina and speed as well. There are always trade offs.

I'd take a short light weight fighter over some big guy who's never trained. It's like putting in a tiger against a cow.

Then again ufc handicaps smaller guys by limiting certain kicks. Soccer kicks could be utilized as a fantastic equalizer against someone larger that would be harder for a bigger guy to adequately pull off

Izzy was 200.5 not 194. Joe’s dropping the ball a bit saying that and saying Masvidal is better than GSP.

I feel it's kind of unfair when i see these two giants Izzy and Alex fighting at middleweight. What if everybody fought at their true natural weight, without cutting water? That would be interesting.

In my experience, the level of skill is most indicative of the outcome of a fight. However, when the skill level is the same or close, the bigger fighter can use that to their advantage. Training is the key. If you know your opponent and you train harder than they do, it makes a huge difference. I competed in Taekwondo and I witnessed this first hand. This is merely my humble opinion.

Size does matter. A larger stronger opponent can make mistakes that the smaller man can not make. Size and strength forgives a lot of sins. It is not everything but to say that it does not matter is disingenuous.

The small fighter has great personality 🥹

It's like this. Clone Mighty Mouse, but make him 6'6 and 285 lbs. Have that Mighty Mouse fight regular sized Mighty Mouse. Who wins? Becomes common sense at that point.

Lmao Connor gets a pass for fighting most of his career guys 4" smaller and 30 pounds lighter, Now Joe takes every chance to bring up Alex's size

In striking, size doesn’t really matter that much. It can add a little bit of sting to the punches but you pay for that in cardio. In grappling it makes a world of difference. A heavy guy laying on you is WAY more dangerous than a lighter guy simply because you’re carrying more weight

Izzy weighed like 217 when he stepped in the octagon against Yan at LHW

Here answers the question, how many giys move upweights and win titles fighting bigger guys, hundreds. Evrytime sombody goes down a weight gets destroyed

The funniest people say weight doesn't matter in Jiu-Jitsu. But even small local tournaments have like ten weight classes and if you can cut 10% without losing much strength you're going to do Waay better 😂

Anybody who says "size doesn't matter" doesn't know what they are talking about. Size matters a lot!!! I would say size isn't everything but to say size doesn't matter is insane.

Yes,size matters, simple. If little guy is skilled & big guy is not then little guy can win. If both guy's have equal skill but one is 100 lbs heavier & stronger of course he has a huge advantage and wins 8 out of 10 times. It's the reason sports have weight classes, in the interest of fairness.

No isn’t wasn’t joe. He weighed 201 on weigh in day.

Joe literally has 6 talking points and just rotates them depending on who he’s speaking to

Size matters but it doesn't mean strength. And if you have a small fighter who knows how to fight big people then he's got the advantage

The only fight where Khabib look beatable was against a guy that was bigger than him. Khabib, Usman, even Jones are one of the greats because they are also the biggest guys in the division

too many factors to consider. size, skill, strength, cardio, speed, fight IQ, timing, mental toughness, agility, flexibility, recovery ability, fight style, ruleset, luck..... when you start mixing and matching.... you can always find a way to beat the bigger or smaller opponent.

Joe was actually right Roy Jones weighed 199 pounds the day of the fight. At the weigh-in a few days before he was 193 (really 189-190. He wore a bunch of clothes).

You can look into this, izzy on fight day was not 194 he had to cut to get there, sure he’s not Alex or Jan’s size but he’s technically a LHW

As a flyweight I know how to fight man, But it would be so hard even against a Welterweight who doesn’t know how to fight their size and length alone, Again a 145-160 would be easy without skill. With? Gonna be a harddd fight (for me) 😊

When they said that Jon Jones is in the conversation about who the goat is, Firas Zahabi felt a disturbance in the Force.

Size matters when all things are equal. Reach, height, strength, etc. However skill is the great equalizer. That's why Volk is so impressive. Almost always outsized but skillwise is simply better.

Yeah tearing in an esophagus was probably more dirt cutting getting worse gerd probably getting ulcers that tore

Weight cuts are a huge thing and always have been. DC used to cut tons to make LH. Usman used to cut over 50lbs to make Welterweight. Paulo Costa cuts huge amount to make middleweight. Most fighters in the UFC do this.

Size for sure matters when it comes to combat sports, I am 110 and my training patner is 160... Sparring hurts a lot😂

I wouldn't exactly call felder short and stumpy... he's actually listed taller than Oliviera. Although his reach is several inches shorter. But still not short by any means, Oliviera just has a super long wingspan

Size matters, but only up until a certain degree. For instance, if you picked a welterweight like Manny Pacquiao up against a heavyweight like Mike Tyson, Tyson will MURDER Pacquiao in seconds. The mass difference is too huge. However, if both of them are heavyweights, being taller and have a longer reach do give you an advantage, but it isn't the be all and end all factor. Take Deontay Wilder and put him up against Mike Tyson in the 80s. I guarantee you, Tyson would eat Wilder up for breakfast in the first round. PS: you'll notice that when I meant size, I meant the difference in mass, not the height. If you still don't understand by now, let me put this simply, "When two men of equal skill come together, the bigger one would win. However , if two men of equal size come together, the one who's more skilled would win. If both men are of equal size and equal skill, then it depends on who has more heart to win"

Not necessarily. There’s a reason weight classes exist in COMBAT SPORTS. However a trained fighter will beat a guy in a street fight 9/10x. 180-200lbs is not that far in a street fight however 180-200 in a pro combat sport is a lot.

With two untrained fighters, it's a huge deal! With two trained fighters, it's a huge deal! If the smaller guy is highly trained, and the big guy isn't, not so much!

I think language needs to be cleared up on whats being talked about here. Size doesnt matter, but weight does. Its simple physics. If a lught and heavy fighter throw a punch at the same speed, with the same technique, the heavier fighter is gonna generate more force. Mike Tyson was fairly small compared to other heavyweight fighters during his time, that didnt matter. And Gracie vs Shamrock always ended the same way too. Technique, weight and conditioning matter way more than simple "weight" A guy whobis 190 and muscular, and another guy who is 190 and chunky looking arent going to perform the same.

Two people that are not experienced fighters would you say that the advantage would go to the bigger stronger person or to the smaller quicker person?

the reason why there's weight bracket is for monetary gain. size doesnt matter.

I was gonna keep watching but then I read the second sentence of the title and got disinterested

Size definitely matters and skill is also a factor, it depends on who’s better at fighting the opposite fighter. Some big guys are almost just as fast as smaller guys which is really hard to deal with. But some big guys just swinging wide and are really slow because they ONLY fight other big guys- those big guys are generally pretty to easy to fight if you’re cautious.

big or small they all crumbled under my heavy judo strikes/kicks+ i had stellar karate ground game.

Yes, it does. But when it comes to street fights, if the smaller fighter has skills and the large guy doesn't they'll be some crazy upsets. I'm 5'10 155 pounds and beat the fuck out of this 6'4 220+ pound fat ass. (The story if you're interested) He was trying to bully a 15 year old boy, so I called him out. He started talking shit trying to punk me, so I roasted him so badly that his girlfriend laughed! Big Bro was so mad he took his shirt off and started pulling up his pants. He throws a wild left hook, I sidestep and throw a straight against his teeth (scraping my fingers). He stumbled back a little and glared at me with hate in his eyes. He charged again, but this time with a flurry of punches like he just watched an anime. He landed a few good shots to my ribs at first, but i discovered his range. I used footwork to stay out of his range and sniped with body shots every time he over extended until i landed a CLEAN uppercut that knocked the wind out of him.

It's pretty simple who would win, 200 pound Brock Lesnar or 260 pound Brock Lesnar?

Size matters, but level of training is more important

Felder is a good guest!

I believe you want to be well balanced. If ur too big you can only throw so many of those before you get tired or someone has more speed then you. But you don’t want to be this weak fighter with no power either. But above all it’s skill

It's the performance that matters

Use your best/unique features to max potential and mentally plus physically stay focus and determined.... Any given day the one who wants it more wins no matter the size. Everyone has an off day especially when the other even if small its who wants it more

Another GOAT in Joe's mind.😮😮

No matter how big you are one day you will face an obstacle much bigger than you and if you are convinced size matters then you already lost that battle

If size doesn't matter, take away the weight classes. It's not even a debate. That, or ask someone's wife

Yes it matters alot especially in street

I always known size matters but i wanted to know when does it matter or better yet when does it play a significant role in a fight? Because the way i think about it if someone is only 10 pounds heavier than you it shouldn't matter that much, but if a person is 20 or more now there's a problem lol.

I watched the fight again this morning and every time Pereira hit Izzy it hurt him whereas when Izzy hit pereira with a decent shot it didn’t faze him… can’t believe Izzy’s the favorite but he could definitely win.

It's simple, you fight the big man game you'll lose to a big guy. If you fight the small man game you'll lose to a small guy. There is a reason why lions use stealth to catch there prey instead of using speed and endurance.

Love Paul Felder. Period.

Size does play a part but not so much as skill. You can't do shit without skill weather big or small. I'm 180lbs I look like I weigh 150lbs, I'm super lean someone who's 180lbs and wants to tango I say let's roll, my skill set gives me the confidence to push forward. If I happen to lose, eh whatever recover learn apply practice. My vote is on skill more so than size.

They speak of Izzy being at a disadvantage as if he hasn't enjoyed the Jon Jones effect of having nearly a foot in reach advantage over almost every opponent. And before people bring up Stefan Struve, he's the exception: the rule is that a reach that big is the equivalent of having like an extra whole second of reaction time, and for a striker? It's an ungodly advantage. And like Jones, Izzy struggles when he doesn't have it, end of

Height and length is extremely valuable in fighting.

Never ask a 5ft 5 guy with a size completion, he will defo say yes

all sizes matters theirs advantages and disadvantages to every fight. It's about efficiency

Izzy weighed in at 204.5 in his fight against Jan. Same point still stands, he didn't gain any size

An 84 kg 5'7 chubby guy like me will get knocked out on seconds by gervonta davis. But if our skill is equal or atleast at par, he will never win against me

The biggest misconception about weight cutting is it will give you an edge in terms of size. Sure, you're bigger than your opponent by 25 pounds. You've also severely dehydrated your body and 24 hours is not enough to recover from that. Your strength is compromised. Your cardio is compromised. And the biggest one of all, when your brain is severely dehydrated, you get knocked the fuck out a lot easier than usual.

Size matters so much in combat sports that they have to make weight divisions. If it didn’t matter guys wouldn’t nearly starve themselves to death to “make weight”.

1000 years from now someone will still ask this question.

Well, in most sports the longer, taller, bigger athlete wins. There’s advantages of being big that skill could never teach.

Varelans vs. Vovchanchyn . Size and brute power against agility, technique, precision, timing, and power.

If skill sets are equal, size is a HUGE factor

There are weight classes for a reason. Size only does not matter in a vacuum.

UFC loves severe weight cuts because it makes the fighters more fragile and liable to getting knocked out. It's horrible.

we should have open weight division and see what happens. I'm curious if smaller fighters would adapt to fighting large opponents as the years ago by. Legendary Muay Thai fighter Saenchan destroyed fighters 20-40lbs heavier than him.

Bigger guys generally stronger and harder hitting but no stamina ,speed or coordination with basic tactics. Smaller guys literally better at everything . Tell Jack Dempsey size mattered or Mike Tyson or Fedor Emelianenko . Heavyweights have huge weight gaps between competitors And many smaller heavyweights beat much larger heavyweights . Nokweed Davy 74 kg fought Jerome Le Banner 107 kg and it went to decision , Le banner won but it should have been a draw. It makes no sense that heavyweights can be 10-40 lbs weight difference but every other weight class has strict limits.

Guy did even Dwarf Jan at LH

Its always small guys (-200 pound guys) who say size dont matter 😂

Yes.

Here for the professional fight comments

Boycott weight bullies

How dare Joe question Jamie's search accuracy?

Size doesn't matter when one guy has an insane skill set and the other doesn't. When they both have the same skills it's completely unfair and that's why there are weight classes

Billy Cohn had Joe Louis on the ropes in their bout in an epic 1941 fight. Louis did KO Cohn when it became a slugfest.

If size doesn't matter, if strength doesn't matter, Rogan, then why do you even bother with the elk meat diet, the anabolics and the kettlebell training ...

Skill > Size Fedor beat niggas who were more hunk than him.

Joes been sounding like a broken record when he talks about mma

Did joe get his face cut??

I never heard anything about size just to get it over with at least that's what she said.