Joe Rogan: "Wrestling is the most important skill in MMA"

That much is obvious since striking has so many facets that it is hard to master one aspect of it.
 
trident said:
It's a good base for MMA it's a good base for life.

A decent high school wrestling program can turn a bum into a promising young man. Or woman. They're doing it now too. Wasn't happening when I was coming up, but it's good for them too.

If I had a daughter I'd encourage it as well.

Rogan is obvious here but he's right. You can't strike if the other guy can put you on your back with a shot you dont know how to defend
Click to expand...

Pay attention, this man shared a secret of life's here in that first sentence
 
Realistically if you dont have an elite wrestling background, couldnt you just train nothing but takedown defence? Im sure you need to be wrestling since you're 12 years old or younger to get to Division 1 NCAA level wrestling caliber. But thats training all aspects of wrestling (a lot of which wont be as applicable in MMA) If instead you grew up boxing and were very high level...couldnt you also get fairly high level takedown defence within a few years if you focused on that in your training?
 
I kind of agree, but a guy that is really good at just one thing can be a UFC champ if it is striking, bjj or wrestling, so not always... (Werdum, Jacare, Maia and Khabib are just terrible in all diciplines except grappling. Conor, JDS have little to no groundgame).
 
loisestrad said:
A pure striker loses vs a wrestler any day. A wrestler who's got no knowledge of submissions loses to a BJJ guy all day. A striker with good enough takedown defense beats a pure wrestler or a BJJ guy all day.

And so on and so forth.
Click to expand...
I think the point is that a wrestler beats a pure striker all day.
A wrestler keeps it standing against a pure BJJ guy all day. TDD is wrestling.
A striker with good TDD has wrestling (Defensive)
A pure wrestler with submission defense (Not a pure Wrestler) wins vs a BJJ buy.

Wrestling is the most important base skill.
 
Unfortunately, true.I choose this wording cause at end of day this is a fist fight- multi disciplined MMA that takes place in a cage with 4 ounce gloves.
 
Deff Agree.
We have seen dominate wrestlers become champions and hold onto their belt better than anyone.
DC - GSP - Tyron - Stipe (Wrestling Background ) - TJ - Dom - Cain

And just other fighters who are dominate too:
Khabib - Yoel - Weidman - Rockhold - Cody

List can go on
 
It only matters so much because of the rules and judging. Back when we had soccer kicks, knees on the ground, guys could grab and hold the cage, etc wrestling didn't matter nearly as much. Once guys saw they could lay n pray for 15 minutes and 3 guys will give them a "win" that became much more important. When the judging (like in Pride) was based on damage and trying to finish, wrestling wasn't nearly as dominant. It's a good skill (or a judo base), but it's just that, 1 of 3 skills you need.

I've seen tons of fights over the years where one guy got boxed up for 3 minutes, got a takedown and rode out the round and was given the win. He didn't do any damage at all, took more damage, but was somehow still the "winner" according to the judges. It's dumb.
 
I've seen a lot of wrestlers struggle in MMA.
 
DOMMA said:
I would agree wrestling is the best base for MMA, but a great striker, ie A. Silva, McGregor, Liddell have slept many great wrestlers.

Liddel beat Couture

Chuck wrestled in high school and college too if i'm not mistaken...he had some background in wrestling so really wasn't "just a striker" beating wrestlers. and i agree wrasslin is the best base
Click to expand...
 
The rules of UFC/Bellator help with that....so, yes!
 
Yes, that's been the case since 1996 or so but there have been plenty exceptions to the rule.
 
DOMMA said:
I would agree wrestling is the best base for MMA, but a great striker, ie A. Silva, McGregor, Liddell have slept many great wrestlers.

Liddel beat Couture
McGregor beat Mendes
Silva beat Henderson

Khabib seems like an anomaly as his wrestling is so advanced. Other than Khabib, no UFC champion relies on wrestling to win.
Click to expand...
Theres always exceptions. Best MMA wrestler in the game never once conpeted or trained wrestling in youth
 
Dr John Smith said:
Joe talks about it during the Suarez/Esparza fight:

"All the skills are important, but when you have someone who has a dominant advantage in wrestling, they choose where the fight takes place."

Agree or disagree?
Click to expand...
Its not really wrestling wrestling, but more MMA wrestling that is the key and distinct difference here. GSP is a great example of this, he tailored all his wrestling around an mma aspect; and came with a background of no wrestling. Just imho
 
Zodd said:
Its not really wrestling wrestling, but more MMA wrestling that is the key and distinct difference here. GSP is a great example of this, he tailored all his wrestling around an mma aspect; and came with a background of no wrestling. Just imho
Click to expand...

The best MMA wrestlers are able to set up the takedown with striking or clinch work.
 
Chuck Liddell was a wrestler. Anderson Silva hit a switch on Marquardt and out wrestled Sonnen in the second fight.

If you can't wrestle you can't fight. You can't box off your back. In 20 years of organized cage fighting we've seen two fights won that way maybe. How many fights were won because some one was taken down and could do nothing.

Sure aesthetics are lacking in a wrestler keeping someone on the mat. The converse of that is the guy on the bottom sucks. The real laying in lay in pray is the guy on the bottom.
 
loisestrad said:
A pure striker loses vs a wrestler any day. A wrestler who's got no knowledge of submissions loses to a BJJ guy all day. A striker with good enough takedown defense beats a pure wrestler or a BJJ guy all day.

And so on and so forth.
Click to expand...

yes but it's easy for a wrestler to learn bjj defense which is why wrestling is the better than all the others, they can avoid striking with takedowns and bjj defense comes easy with the grappling base. It's difficult for strikers to learn grappling and for bjj to learn striking or good takedowns and top control.

To further clarify american folkstyle wrestling is by far the best style when compared to the international freestyle/greco styles as it focuses more on takedowns and subsequent control
 
Yep. Overall, there have been a lot more successful wrestlers (with poor-to-mediocre skills in all other areas) than pure BJJ guys, pure strikers, etc., in MMA. From Coleman to Askren to Lesnar and many others.

You can find exceptions, but the raw numbers favor wrestlers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,109
Messages
55,468,020
Members
174,786
Latest member
plasterby

Share this page

Back
Top