Looking at who would win in a fight between an MMA Fighter Vs Football player

When it comes to sports, there are very few around that require more athleticism than playing football. For reference, we mean American football too, not soccer as it’s also known. However, as powerful and athletic as football players are, they’re not invincible in fights, neither are they skilled in combat like MMA fighters.

Having said this, there is an interesting relationship between the two. For instance, ex-UFC champion Brock Lensar originally made his name in wrestling and football. Elsewhere, Jon Jones’s brothers Chandler and Arthur are both also football players. With this said, there’s possibly a link between the two which shows that football players would be tough in a street fight.

This brings us on to our question which is who would win between a trained MMA fighter and a football player. Here, the rules are that this is a street fight with fewer rules than inside an MMA cage. For the sake of argument, we’ll pick an average-sized football player against an average-sized MMA fighter. Here we’ll see who wins and investigate why.

A trained MMA fighter would beat a football player most of the time

When it comes to fights, there’s always an element of randomness and weird things can and do happen. There’s also the idea of always having a puncher’s chance, which means even the underdog can land a shock knockout blow if they get lucky. Having said that, 9 times out of 10, the MMA fighter would win if it was a fight to the death.

Here’s why. Although football players are naturally strong and athletic, so are MMA fighters. In some ways, both sets of professions are almost superhuman in terms of physicality. This quality can’t be stated enough; if ever you’ve trained with an MMA fighter or football player, you’ll quickly understand their freak, physical capabilities.

With all physical attributes equal, the technician will always win

So, the MMA fighter’s strength and athleticism would diminish the physical edge of the football player. Sure, the football player is strong and athletic, but so is the MMA fighter. This is where the MMA fighter’s technical combat advantage would come into play. Skills such as wrestling and striking would be too much for the football player and would soon win the fight.

Attributes such as timing, combinations, submissions, and feints would all be too much for the football player who would be completely unaware in comparison. Because of this, combined with no physical advantage, the MMA fighter would win the bulk of the time. As said though, there’s always a freak chance of victory. This is to be expected too, in the same way a football player would be more technical when playing football – compared to an MMA fighter.

How would the MMA fighter win?

Perhaps the best route to victory would be to pick off the football player. There’s a chance they may try a mad rush during the first minute or so and come out swinging. Here, the MMA fighter would have to stay calm and patient. After this, their efficient movements should start to pay off and so the football players cardio should drop quicker than the fighter.

At this point, the fighter could begin slowly picking off the football player, whilst remaining cautious. This would involve stuff like calf kicks to wear down the legs and slow the movement of their opponent. They could also continuously jab their opponent with the priority of avoiding getting hit themselves.

Then, if the football player tried a football-tackle-style takedown such as a double leg, the MMA fighter would be in a good position to use defensive wrestling to avoid and counter any takedowns. Soon enough, this would lead to victory. If the MMA fighter could also secure a takedown, then it would probably be over even quicker due to their elite BJJ skills which may result in a victory by choking out the football player.

Examples of this happening in real life

Back in 2021, the example of an MMA fighter vs a football player happened in real life. During a bathroom altercation, an Oklahoma football player was taken down by a fighter named Walker Brown. It ended up being incredibly one sided in the way of the fighter, with the football player requiring 4 hours of emergency surgery to save his eyesight.

Apparently, Brown had trained in MMA for 10 years, so it’s fair to call him an expert in this field. In terms of size and age, these two look fairly well matched, but remember, playing football isn’t fighting. It may be physical and tough, but it isn’t meant as a fight so it’s not surprising that the MMA fighter won easily.

When a football player could beat an MMA fighter

At the beginning of this article, we mentioned how the supposed fight would have equal physical attributes between the fighters. However, let’s now imagine the football player being over 120KG, against a 65KG opponent. In MMA, these smaller weight categories exist and for a large football player, this weight is a realistic possibility. Now, let’s imagine the MMA fighter was a skilled amateur without being a professional, whilst the football player was a pro.

Here, the emphasis would be on the football player to win. Even though the MMA fighter would be far more skilled, it’s still too much to ask in terms of strength and size. As we’ve discussed in the MMA fighter vs chimp article, there comes a point where strength becomes too overpowering, despite technique. This would be one of those cases where one punch from the football player could easily knock out their opponent, and taking down someone double your body weight would be incredibly tough.

This isn’t to say the MMA fighter would never win either. If they quickly got on the football players back then there’s a chance they could choke them, or if they managed to heel hook the football player then they may also win. Still, the chances of doing these would be tough and sometimes you have to concede that size does actually matter.

Conclusion

Even though most football players could easily beat up the majority of the population in a fight, they would still lose the majority of the time to an MMA fighter. Imagine vaguely knowing how to swim and going up against someone who has trained in swimming consistently for years. You wouldn’t expect to beat the swimmer. This is a very similar case that sees the trained fighter win most of the time.

As ever with fights, weird stuff can and does happen. This means that you should never count anyone out, but still, the odds are stacked against the football player. Still, you’d be a fool to underestimate a football player in a fight against a regular person, where their strength and conditioning would see them as a very dangerous opponent who should not be messed with.