Yahoo Sports’ Ball Don’t Lie blog (via AOL Fanhouse) reports on the NBA center Roy Hibbert’s training program in mixed martial arts. The Indiana Pacers Center is one of the leading candidates for Most Improved Player for this season.
Hibbert attributes his weight loss and newfound conditioning to MMA. You can see a portion of Hibbert’s workout below.
The blog post indicates that Hibbert is the first player in recent memory that has trained in MMA exclusively as a way to keep up his basketball conditioning. It noted that some players in the past have used boxing as a way to keep up their fitness. Perhaps this change is another sign of the changing popularity in combat sports.
Payout Perspective:
Looking at the broader picture of this story, we see that professional athletes in other sports acknowledge the validity of MMA training as a means to excel in their sports. We have seen this with Jay Glazer training Matt Leinhart and Jared Allen in football. Now, Hibbert is using MMA to aid his basketball conditioning. This shows that athletes like Hibbert are taking note of MMA and are fans, or respect the sport. It is also another sign of the growing mainstream MMA appeal.
It would be interesting to see how many other NBA players try MMA as an alternative way to condition for basketball. I am not sure that the Pacers really want Hibbert to kick and punch as much in workouts. Watching Hibbert kick a Fairtex bag makes me think about Corey Hill. Another interesting thing to note in the video is that Hibbert refers to his training as “UFC martial arts” (:28).
I’m surprised you haven’t done anything on Sonnen yet.