Is ring rust real? Depends who you ask, and when

I admit I was little worried about Eddie Alvarez.

That’s because before his fight with Michael Chandler this past weekend at Bellator 106, I asked Alvarez whether he was concerned that ring rust (or, to borrow a term from Mauro Ranallo, “cage corrosion”) might be a factor. He had, after all, been out of action for more than a year. Wasn’t he the least bit concerned that all that time off might dull his skills or his timing just a bit?

“I don’t believe in that,” Alvarez said, “so it won’t work on me.”

Sorry, but I didn’t like the sound of that. If ring rust is indeed a real phenomenon, not believing in it probably won’t help much. Try that with gravity and see how far it gets you.

But at the same time, it sounded familiar. In fact, it sounded like what just about every single fighter says when returning from a long layoff. Just listen to UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz‘s recent comments to “Inside MMA.”

“I feel that cage rust is something that’s brought up to give oddsmakers something to bet on,” Cruz said. “I think you can work it completely out of your system as long as you’re in training camp and training correctly.”

The thing is, someone in Cruz’s situation probably has to believe that. What choice does he have? By the time he returns to take on interim champ Renan Barao in February at UFC 170, he’ll have been out of the cage for well over two years. If he acknowledges that ring rust is no myth and that no amount of gym preparation can adequately prepare him for the real thing on fight night, he’s essentially admitting defeat.

And according to some of the fighters I talked to, that can be the most insidious part about the experience.

Count retired fighter Brian Stann among those who believe that ring rust is definitely real. No matter how hard someone trains in the gym, Stann said, you simply “cannot simulate the emotions, adrenaline, and mental gymnastics of a real fight.”

That’s why, Stann said, when he fought after returning from long deployments as a U.S. Marine, “those fights were like my first fight all over again.”

“After a long layoff, most fighters have increased anxiety and nerves before a fight,” Stann said. “Also, some doubt can creep into your head, which can beat you before you even fight.”

But according to MMAjunkie.com’s own Danny Downes (who also did a little cage fighting in his day), there’s a difference between getting back in the groove and being hopelessly thrown off by a lengthy absence.

“With regards to training, it makes a difference,” Downes wrote in an email. “If you haven’t spent a lot of time on the mat (either through injury or just taking time off), it’ll show when you return. Your timing will be off, and you won’t be able to hit moves with the same efficiency. That usually goes away after a couple weeks and once you get your conditioning back.”

But in a situation like Cruz’s, where he faces what would be a tough fight in any circumstance and does so immediately upon returning, Downes said, “I think [ring rust] is largely made up.”

“Most of the time it just feels like an ex-post-facto justification for losses,” Downes wrote. “It’s a convenient excuse. If [Cruz] loses against Renan Barao, people will say it was because of ring rust. If you’re putting in a full training camp, your timing, conditioning and mindset should be the same no matter what the distance between your previous fights. Even if you avoid injuries and setbacks you’ll be lucky to fight three times a year, so I don’t put much stock in ring rust.”

Neither does Yves Edwards, who fights Yancy Medeiros on Wednesday night’s UFC Fight Night 31 card, and who’s endured several long layoffs in his 16-year career.

“If it is real, that [rust] should get knocked off during your training camp,” Edwards said. “I’ve never experienced it, and I’ve had a year off, 10 months off, and 11 months off in my career. But I’m a weirdo, so that might counter that.”

It certainly didn’t seem to affect Alvarez. Although I had my doubts after hearing him explain his mind-over-matter approach to the problem before the Chandler rematch, he showed up on Saturday night looking like he’d never left as he battled to a split decision victory to reclaim the Bellator lightweight title.

If things hadn’t gone his way? No problem. He could have reversed his position on the whole ring rust thing immediately after the fight. He certainly wouldn’t have been the first.

(Pictured: Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez)