In terms of fitness, ability, strength, speed etc...

I personally think it is Australian Rules Football(AFL). Some of the players are just ridiculous. You need to be seriously fit, seriously strong, incredibly quick, able to jump high, big and the amount of skill these guys have in unbelievable. I you don't believe me, type in "AFL" into youtube. It is a bloody tough game.

Swimming uses the most muscles in the body, but I'll go for boxing. 12 weeks (typically, although dependent on the individual) hard, intense training to get down to an optimum fighting weight, and this often includes dehydration, lack of food, lots of gym work, road work etc.. then depending on the style of the fighter, the fights are obviously extremely intense.

Anyone just watch Gatti-Ward can see how fit you have to be to do that.

how about tennis?? your on court for 3 hours in any weather and by yourself. you need have muscular strength and endurance plus aerobic endurance and great mental strength

Hard Hits

Goals of the year 2006

Australia vs Ireland Fight

Hawthorn vs Essendon Fight

Nathan Brown Leg Break

AFL

Stuff

Highlights 2007

Marks and Goals

This happens week in week out. Incredibly fit men.

I'd really have to agree with Dean. When I used to box(few years ago), although I was young, the training was still hard work. I'm not sure if there's any other sport in the world that puts so much emphasis on training and pre-match work. And then when you step in the ring, you're dehydrated, you're hungry, and your muscles are sore, but then you go 6-12 rounds with all this building up.

Boxing not only requires power, but also: speed, strength, agility, vision, quick reactions, tolerance, and extreme amounts of willpower.

In terms of fitness, quite possible basketball, very under-rated sport.

uhhhhhhh what?? maybe i'm unique but i've never seen a tennis match in rain or in snow...only in dome, when it's sunny and on a clear nice night

I would like to put in a nomination for UFC Cage Fighting. The idea of entering a cage with a relentelss Cardio machine like Tito Ortiz, or entering one with an unbelievable JiuJitsu specialist like Royce Gracie (even at, what 48? he submitted a Sumo wrestler ) or a Muay Thai fighter like Anderson Silva or a shear ground and pound horse like Randy Couture doesnt sound like fun to me. You gotta have serious physical ability all round, not just in the arms and torso like boxing, but on your feet and legs as well to cope with wrestler based Martial artists, you also need a degree of flexibility and agility in order to wriggle free of submission specialists and stamina to go 25 minutes if you feel like you are good enough to take a title fight all the way to a judges decision.

Tough muthafuckers the lot of them!

id like to chuck cycling into the fray, theres this event called the Tour de France if anyones heard about it. you really have to respect every competitor except thsoe who choose the easy way out and opt for roids.

I'm not sure if I have. Is that the one where they ride around England?

Nah, I think it might be Belgium. Good guess though, just across the channel.

Cycling is pretty tough, but most of those guys don't have an amazing amount overall strength, just in their legs. There was controversy about Lance taking steroids, I chose not to believe it though.

Its gotta be Boxing. Not only is the training ridiculously strenuous, but the actual fight could leave you in hospital with brain damage. Boxing requires every single attribute in every single sport and extreme determination to match.

Hmm, maybe F1 can be counted as one of most demanding sports, drivers will lose 2kgs after each race! With have to endure 4Gs force every lap for whole 1:15-40 hr.... Not mentioning if they crashed at 300kmh..

I hate boxing, lol. I don't like it at all, I don't consider it a great sport. There's a lot that goes into it, for sure, but as much as I love dangerous/thrilling sports, to me boxing is just boring... but yes it does take a lot, same with the AFL. I see how fit they are. Swimming also takes a lot of fitness... and tennis takes a lot of it too.

But my vote goes to capoeira. It's a martial art, but I think that can be considered a sport. For those of you who aren't familiar, it's a Brasilian martial art, and it takes a lot of fitness. I used to do it, and I was in top shape, it's crazy hard and it takes you to a level of fitness that would be otherwise unachievable.

Here's the wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capoeira

This is a really simple video demonstrating the skills needed as this video just shows the singles:



But just from that you can see it takes body control, strength, speed... just about everything in the book. You can easily break your back doing capoeira, being able to do it puts you at the top level of achievable fitness. So, capoeira is the most demanding in my eyes. It's also harder then it looks, trust me. I used to be able to do blackflips, splits...etc, even a cartwheel in the air, but that's all gone. But once you committ, you can achieve it. It takes a lot of hard work, but once you get to that level it feels almost easy, but then stop for a while and you'll notice how subtle the changes in your body were, how your body was able to do such things with what seemed like such little effort. It also makes you quite fit for life, even after stopping it. I havent done it in 4 years or so, and I am still fit even without working out. I think it takes a toll on your body, but in the best way. It's amazing.

Hmm, add break dance too...

darts

^ lol what about chess?

seriously though, hockey is pretty demanding

If you think boxing is all about the arms and torso you could not be more wrong my friend.


2KG is nothing for weight loss during a sporting event, besides thats all sweat fluid and once they have a drink afterwards and a protein shake or something they're back to normal in the same evening.

you're right, hockey ain't no joke either. i sweat my balls off just trying not to fall on the ice skates and you got big dudes fighting on them?? no thanks

Noone mentioned cricket?

yeah i have to say hockey is pretty intense.
cricket? ive researched that and it doesnt look very tough to me. i stick by what i said, capoeira.

nono try playing cricket for 10 minutes in the open sun. with all the gear of course.
the professionals play for hours...

I've played cricket in all the gear, 20 overs a side. Demanding, yes.. but mainly due to the need for total concentration. It's not even in the same ballpark of intensity and demand on the body as boxing.

Cricket is very mentally demanding, which puts weight onto the physical demand.
But boxing is definitely the most physical...

Mentally theres nothing more demanding then sitting on the main table of a WPT event at Caesar's Palace Las Vegas after you've just said 2 words....

ALL-IN


Also the only thing demanding about Cricket is asking yourself time and time again WTF are you doing out here..

=_

Have you ever tried playing cricket? It wears you down.

Ahahaha, that's quite true. I don't understand the sport at all, but when I tried to watch a match, I just couldn't. Boring, confusing, and hardly looks like a sport. If you dress up in all white attire; white polo, white dress pants, and a baseball cap, I wouldn't qualify that as a sport, unless it is a martial art.

Boxing is the most demanding, I think, for reasons stated above.

every single sport does that to you, so i dont understand what your reasoning is. there are way harder/more intensive sports out there.

LMAO!

Hmm, maybe, but you have to endure like 4Gs(meaning 4 times of your weight) of force in almost each cornering, braking...

Yeah, I do believe that wrestling(if they do it for real and not acting) or thai boxing are a LOT more demanding than boxing..

Cricket (i think) is the longest sport in the world. Its boring but its loooooooonnnnnnnnngggggg. Thats my argument

I've played Fight Night Round 3.......hell yeah it's demanding!

individual = boxing

team = AFL

ahh,.. i should have been more specific, i was talking about temperature, sun and wind factors. and most tennis matches are played outdoors not in a dome unless you're one of the best players in a grand slam,

I think it was in the Cricket World Cup that the Australian captain Ricky Ponting put on one of those things that measure how far you run in a certain period of time. In the Australians bowling innings, so this didn't even include when he was batting, Ponting ran 17 km, 10 of which was at a running speed. Add this to the concentration, heat, mental fatigue, it is a very demanding sport. Also, have you ever seen a ball move so fast that it broke someone's arm? I have.

Playing Playstation is mentally enduring???

You may consider it demanding, but that game was a World Cup match, where standards are raised. The numbers would probably compare to most sports that involve running. Concentration, heat, and mental fatigue are demanding, yes, but are they as demanding as boxing? I mean, these guys train harder than most athletes work in a match. And then when they step in the ring, they're exhausted, hungry, dehydrated; talk about concentration, these guys have to be on their toes every single second trying to dodge a fist coming from an extremely muscular man (depending on the weight class). Not to mention they go 6-12 rounds, their face is sore, their legs are tired, you got a trainer in the corner of the ring screaming out orders, meanwhile, the muscular guy is still trying to swat the crap out of you. Add this into the sweat and possible blood dripping down your face. Not to mention theres a possibility of getting knocked out more than once in a match and that it's the 8th most dangerous sport in the world. And yes I have seen someone's arm being broken by a ball, in a slow moving sport called baseball. Have you seen someone's ear get bitten off? I have.

I didn't say cricket was the most demanding sport, I was just backing up someone else who was after you said it wasn't demanding. Also, for the Australian team in the World Cup, it was a stroll in the park. They didn't get beaten once and they bowled out every team before 50 overs meaning they didn't even finish the innings. Plus, how many fights would a boxer be in a year? I assume it wouldn't be that many.

P.S. I think AFL is the most demanding sport.

Well, it depends on the individual. I'd say average nowadays is 2, maybe 3 (sometimes you get boxers with upwards and sometimes boxers fight just once) but you have to remember. Ok, lets say 3 fights per year. Thats Jan-March (Training, then the fight after the third month). A month to recover from injuries then another 3-4 months training then fight, and then again, so we're talking about not much time out of the gym tbh..

Most demanding sport.....football soccer imo. You have national title, domestic, continental, intercontinental, world cup, exhibitions etc....If you are a hi profile coach or player and you are on a 2 game run of not winning or scoring the whole world turns on ya. Some teams play 50-80 games year.
Then to keep training and still go the 90 mins once or twice a week to play games in hot, bitter cold, where air is thin, and still travel for home and away games.

Boxing for me
I think Dean covered pretty much all of it but also in a lot of other sports boxing is used as a way to train these players for the physical strength and endurance needed so a professional boxer who just constantly does this training would probably be a lot fitter and stronger than these guys who occasionally do it in training. Eg Afl, Rugby etc

Air Racing.

Squash, Tennis and Rugby

Well its obviously not all about that as you gotta be lively on your feet which requires fairly supple musclature and good neck muscles to keep the head bobbing around, but it still doesnt change the fact that it is only one form of combat and therefore less areas of your body need to be honed, while in whatever form of MMA, look at PRIDE or UFC or whatever, you gotta deal with wrestlers, Jiu Jitso, Boxing, there is more skills involved which require a far more rounded physique. Guys like BJ Penn, George St Pierre, Anderson Silva, Brandon Vera, Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture...theese guys are unbelievable cardio machines as well as phenomenal physical athletes.

I just dont see how one form of a combat sport can be more demanding than a Multiple Martial Art sport

strange nobody mentioned kung fu, thats the most demading sport ever

i have played football, handball, volleyball , squash and basketball

but kung fu is a really demanding sport

other than the huge amount of physical fitness, stamina , agility , endurance and will. u also need to be paitent to become a good kung fu player

since when is kung fu a sport? kung fu is about whoopin' ass...

carl, the art of kung fu is deeper and more spiritual then whoopin' ass my friend.

kung fu is tough, tae kwon do is tough, karat-eh is tough but i think capoeira is the hardest. ive done tae kwon do and capoeira and id say the latter is harder... and twd is the same thing as karate lol.

Capoeira:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mf_PTB8juc

Boxing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6UU23oisTk

thats not real capoeira. i love how you chose the pansiest video of it and then posted a "GREAT BOXING VIDEO"

real capoeira takes more fitness then boxing.





and heres something else that takes more then boxing

lol, im not dissing capoeira, those women were very sexy.