The sports of basketball and mixed martial arts couldn’t be more different.
One’s a team sport where you beat your opponents with skill and speed, the other you just have to beat your opponent full stop…with fists, knees, elbows or anything else that can inflict damage.
So it was interesting to see NBA star Blake Griffin make the crossover to training MMA with UFC lightweight Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.
For a man of 6ft 10in, The LA Clippers power forward was surprisingly good as Cerrone (who at 6ft was dwarfed by the five-time NBA All Star) put him through his paces.
https://instagram.com/p/6YfN-SoCJr/?taken-by=blakegriffin32
Griffin was using the unorthodox session to help him become a faster, stronger athlete, and to find new ways of holding his ground around the basket.
Cerrone focussed on pad work, kicking drills and grappling that crossed over with MMA and basketball and movements that would help Griffin’s strength and balance.
He looks pretty handy for a basketball player – and at 114kg, you probably wouldn’t mess.
Clip via Red Bull
