A man's fighting ability is written in his face(bps-research-digest.blogspot.com) |
A man's fighting ability is written in his face(bps-research-digest.blogspot.com) |
As an MMA coach, I think a more likely explanation is the wider faces correlate to high testosterone, including steroid use, which in turn correlates with more wins in the Octagon due to strength and stamina, not necessarily "fighting ability".
If you want to look at raw fighting ability, take a look at any member of the Gracie family, the best family of martial artists this last century and you will find they generally have skinnier faces.
http://www.bjjee.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/rener-ryron....
As soon as people caught up to BJJ they became irrelevant in MMA. Also when they faced somebody with ground game they had tons of issues (IE: Sakuraba "Gracie Killer")
Matter of fact recent performances by Gracies in MMA were embarrassing.
>http://www.mmamania.com/2010/2/10/1304038/cousin-renzo-rolle...
Etc.
It's directly related to testosterone level, but that's an artifact of training hard. Let's not claim it's all steroid use.
Pretty much, the article bears this out even.
'The researchers speculated that one causal mechanism may be higher testosterone levels - certainly past research has shown men with higher basal testosterone have wider faces, as well as greater strength and aggression.'
Though it's surely often misapplied, the terms 'gh/steroid/juice jaw' didn't develop out of thin air.
I suspected that might be part of it. It's always amazed me that some people can take incredible punishment (in the form of punches) and not be knocked out. Maurício "Shogun" Rua to name one.
1: http://www.cracked.com/blog/worst-life-ever-the-story-of-kaz...
In addition, if their fantasy explanation for this correlation is another silly "evolved for punches" theory, why would you pick UFC fighters - who are in a sport where brutal matches can be won and lost with very few punches exchanged? If you still chose to use them, why wouldn't you use the records of their fights to discover how many punches they actually took in the fights that they won or lost?
[1] http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/10500652/therapeutic-...
I've trained grappling sports for a long time, and my jaw and neck are one size larger for my weight. This is true of other people who have trained for a long time as well, even small people with skinny faces.
There are other markers as well, some sport specific, but that's another topic.
I have honestly never heard this said or suggested and I'm no newcomer to the sport. A thick yoke, sure - the contour of a jaw used to clenching, OK - the very obvious effects on ears, noses, shins and even toes - asbsolutely.
I have never seen a wide jaw picked out as something to be 'earned'.
Now let's not get started on the idiots who purposely rough themselves up and get cauliflower ear just to look tough.
Btw what sport do you train?
Do you have a source for this?
You don't have to read the book. Observe people around you. Healthier people have wider faces. First borns tend to have wider faces. People born into wealthier families.
More importantly, having a wider face is not a direct advantage. It's an indication of a disposition. This is dissimilar to height of players in basketball where you can in fact be too short to be effective. Because of this I'd argue that while looking at it as an average the findings could be very much valid, looking at an individual fighter will yield very different results. You could find that a thin faced fighter might actually be superior to a wide faced fighter precisely because he is thin faced.
Yeah, you had to expect a lot more of that sort of thing when the sport went mainstream 10 years ago. On the bright side, the level of foolisness has definitely leveled off in recent years.
>'Btw what sport do you train?'
I started with boxing and got into Muay Thai about 13 years ago, BJJ shortly after.
Eventually, work and later starting a family kill off my training. I can't complain, my career has gone well and I love my son more than life itself, but I miss training more than I thought I would.
Right now I'm just lifting and kicking around the idea of training for grip / strongman. Though, I had someone invite me to check out their fencing club the other day - that seemed interesting and really different.
