He's one dude.
Agree with the BJJ bit. People don't appreciate how physically and mentally exhausting it is when you've got someone stronger than you on top of you trying to either choke you out or snap something in your arms or legs. It's going to be much worse if you've been being hit for it and you've tired your own arms out. MMA has to score very well across the board for all the things PoP mentioned. Plus the fuckton of mental toughness you need to be able to drive through when someone's beating the hell out of you.
Oh, and squash too I don't think has got a mention. I think Forbes put it at #1 on the list of sports to burn calories (ahead of swimming, rock-climbing and cross-country skiing IIRC). Obviously it doesn't require the insane strength of other sports, but try pushing yourself to play a really competitive game of squash. it's not happening unless you're super fit.
It comes down to what we are looking for. I'd agree MMA and AFL are some of the sports that are extrememly physically demanding and where a high level of fitness is ideally needed, I just don't think the sports is yet at a level where top level athletesi are their.
A fair portion of that comes down to the skills and small pool to work from along with MMA being in it's infancy. The best in these sports are generally converts from other sports such as Wrestling, Boxing and BJJ. The pool of talented athletes with a long MMA history is very low and consequently the level of athleticism isn't that high.
Compare that to freestyle wrestling which has been around thousands of years in some form, coaching is well established, it's still popular in USA and Eastern Europe and has guys training in those sports from when they can walk....these guys are simply better athletes and it's why so many of them can come straight over to MMA and quickly dominate.
