Grapplers that want to box

Why top grapplers like Jose Aldo wich have black belt in both BJJ and Luta Livre Esportiva, or Chad Mendes, a NCAA Division 1 All American.. or Justin Gaethje and the list could continue (Diaz, Hector, Romero), why fighters that have accomplishments in grappling sports, not in striking, prefer to make boxing in their fights? I understand when a qualified boxer like Gus prefer to box with opponents, cause that is his background, his body (tall, long reach), is make for striking, but why a wrestler, or a judoka, or a BJJ etc. prefer to make boxing in their fights? That doesn't make any sense. If I want to see boxing at highest level, I watch Boxing at Olympic Games. Why is in MMA that trend for make so much boxing in fights?

If you are a wrestler, just wrestle like Khabib. In the past was more mixed martial arts, not boxing and a little bit of kicking and grappling. In the past, wrestlers dominate their opponents with wrestling (GSP, Lesnar, Randleman), and most of fighters use their best skills. I understand the fact that the crowd would consider boring your style, but if you are in a title fight, who the hell cares about what they are think? You want that title, use all of your best skills to take that belt.

Another exemple from last weekend. Augusto Sakai is a BJJ brown belt, Reem is a BJJ blue belt. Ok, in a striking fight, Reem is one of the best strikers ever, he is a former K1 GP champion, a elite world class kickboxer. But when we talk about submission skills, I (Sakai) have a superior belt in BJJ. And that means the fact that probably I have more chances on the mat, no?. Why do not try to use that advantage? Why do not use a skill where you have accomplishments, where you are a qualified wrestler or something. When you are a qualified boxer, with years of training and won competiition I understand the reason to prefer box with your opponents, but in that case? What is the reason?

* Edited at 09.07.2020, 11:14 PM ET *

@sotherino

There are too many fighters in the UFC that would rather be exciting and entertaining to the casual fans, than fight the way they should to get a win.

First off, Aldo started with Capoeira before transitioning to BJJ and his strenght has always been in the striking realm. In part because of his athleticism and also the unbridled aggression that he showed for a good chunk of his early MMA career and WEC tenure. In a division that had many strong grapplers, Faber and Gamburyan to name a few, he exploited the biggest advantage he had over them, Muay Thai. Hell, even in his WEC debut he got paired against a grappler in Pequeño Nogueira.

Second, belt ranks are not the end all be all in grappling. Overeem has been one of the most versatile fighters in the higher weight classes since he hit the scene, he tapped Vitor back when it meant something! Sakai is absolutely not on his level just because he's got a brown belt to Overeem's blue belt. Another great example of belt rank not mattering is blue belt Kevin Burns tapping BJJ black belt Roan Carneiro, or Pettis submitting both Benson and Melendez (BBs) while being a brown belt himself.

As far as Gaethje and Mendes go, the former has stated many times that he loves to entertain the fans -- it's why his nickname is "The Highlight" and put defense in the backburner for so long -- and also said that wrestling would be too taxing on his gas tank, the latter used relied on his wrestling a whole lot in the lead-up to the first Aldo fight, then honed his striking under Duane Ludwig and found that he possessed quite heavy hands to boot. And like with Jose, it boiled down to matchups - why did he strike with Aldo in the rematch? He fought one of the best defensive wrestlers ever. Why did he kill Lamas? He used the blue print his teammate Danny Castillo laid out years before and just bonked him hard, same as Emmett would do later on. He wrestled against Conor, the Frankie fight was over before it began, same as the Jury fight (only that that one went in his favor) and he got dragged into a firefight against another very versatile guy in Volkanovski.

Bottom line is: it ain't that simple. Liddell was also a wrestler, do you think he'd have achieved the same success if he just stuck to rassling. Do you think Hendricks would have gotten past Fitch if he just tried to fight fire with fire? 

@thesnake101

I lay the vast majority of the blame on Dana White for emphasising entertainment and downplaying fighters like Georges St. Pierre, because they're "boring".

Khab also has stellar game planning and pretty high fight iq most the time.
You can't just be a grappler in mma thats silly it barely worked in the early 90s with blatant cheating.
Watch a Royce Gracie fight close, head butts, eye pokes and gouges, groin strikes hello.
Sub underground is or was there plenty of pure grappling for pure graps.
Sometimes the perfect mix of mma grappling happens like prime diaz/sanchez that was a thing of beauty and not at all boring.

@tepid even tho I **** on him just to troll fan boys, Khabib fight are entertaining and he goes for finish instead of stalling for a boring ass decision like GSP and Usman, 

* Edited at 09.08.2020, 3:53 PM ET *

And also what I learn from the about 5 years I watch MMA , experience and what ever doesn’t mean **** in MMA because many time I see pro kickboxing Knock out , wrestler taken down and Jiu jitsu black belts submented by people with far less skill then them, And also belts don’t mean **** because Jones is also a blue belt in BJJ, And many other greats won’t even own a belt while they so many Black belt who got it from a cerialbox

* Edited at 09.08.2020, 5:24 PM ET *