Two best wrestlers in MMA history have no wrestling background

[I WILL CUT YOU]

The best wrestler in MMA is Ben Askren and he has an amazing background in wrestling.

Luis Santos ragdolles him.


Jon Jones and GSP are the best wreslers along with Khabib.

 

[BabaluLusegoose]

Didn’t Karelin have one MMA fight?

Yes

 

[Andreh]

The best wrestler in MMA is Ben Askren and he has an amazing background in wrestling.

Fought asian chickens and nobodies, wtf is Askren? Let's be real about this, he is sucks, never signed with UFC demanding higher salaries with boring game, lost to Luis Sapo - and was ragdolled, let's remember - and got a NC with an eyepoke... Askren and nothing on the same phrase mix perfectly.

 

[Bluntforce420]

Cejudo is the best wrestler in MMA history

 

[Johnsonville]

Khabib doesn't have a wrestling background? That's news to me

~DaViD~

 

[Flex Plexico]

Askren, Cormier and Jones have the best wrestling in terms of fighters with that background. GSP is the best without a background. Everything Khabib does is Sambo oriented so it's hard to say he is the the best wrestler because that is a different discipline under grappling.

this

 

[Hoof Hearted]

Romero is arguably top 2 and his wrestling background is amazing.

 

[mkt]

The best wrestler in MMA is Ben Askren and he has an amazing background in wrestling.

He's not the best MMA wrestler. You have to prove that in a cage. The best MMA wrestler Askren faced was Jay Hieron (not Div. 1) and he barely won the fight. By contrast, GSP faced at least 4 NCAA Div. 1 wrestlers who were in their prime and top MMA fighters as well.

 

[mkt]

When GSP fought a young wrestling Ace in Hendricks he got rightfully thrashed and went into retirement, just like Khabib would get shut down if he fought Kevin or Gaethje.

That was post-ACL injury GSP who had already beaten wrestling aces like Koscheck (twice), Fitch and Hughes, all of whom had strong college backgrounds.

 

[Portland8242]

This is subjective. They seem to be too shelf in MMA wrestling but people like Yoel are obviously much more accomplished. Yoel just chooses to not play that game. I’d imagine Yoel could take down and blanket any fucker in the ufc if he so felt like it.

When he got fed up if teh Chris wrestling him he started chucking weidman aroud like a flea

I can't believe it took this long for Romero to be brought up.

DC even said himself that he'd be no match for Romero on that mat.

 

[campbecc]

GSP is a freak of nature for picking up wrestling so fast. Khabib has been training wrestling basically his whole life if that's who you mean. There are better wrestlers than Khabib, he is successful because he is also very good at grappling on the ground which is not wrestling.

 

[Juan Bombadil]

Just shows the goatness of georges

 

[chamcham]

The real question is what is the best style of wrestling to train if you want to be a MMA fighter.
The answer is folkstyle.

Maybe catch wrestling and folkstyle are tied.

 

[Bloodhound]

It's interesting that the 2 best wrestlers in MMA history have no wrestling background. No amateur wrestling records for either guy. What do you speculate the reasons are?

I speculate that pure wrestling gives you bad habits for MMA somehow. They started learning wrestling for combat instead of just for pure wrestling competition from the very start of their training. I don't think that's a coincidence.

Khabib's father has trained Olympic wrestlers.

He may have no actual background in the sport, but he has been coached by one of the best Wrestling coaches in the world since he was 3.

 

[blaseblah]

I assume you mean Khabib but he has yet to face any high level wrestlers. I wouldn't put him over DC for instance.

 

[ewww21]

That was post-ACL injury GSP who had already beaten wrestling aces like Koscheck (twice), Fitch and Hughes, all of whom had strong college backgrounds.

Koscheck is a complete bum. Fitch is overrated and Hughes lost to Penn.

Not the same caliber of fighter as Hendricks at all.

 

[mkt]

Koscheck is a complete bum. Fitch is overrated and Hughes lost to Penn.

Not the same caliber of fighter as Hendricks at all.

I guess you started watching MMA three years ago or something? Prime Koscheck was a very good wrestler and fighter. In fact, an older Koscheck arguably beat prime Hendricks. But nice try at using insults instead of dealing with real arguments.

 

[mkt]

Going back to the 90s, Kevin Jackson and Mark Schultz were both highly-decorated Olympians. If you're just going by credentials, both of them beat Askren.

 

[dirtroller]

It's interesting that the 2 best wrestlers in MMA history have no wrestling background. No amateur wrestling records for either guy. What do you speculate the reasons are?

I speculate that pure wrestling gives you bad habits for MMA somehow. They started learning wrestling for combat instead of just for pure wrestling competition from the very start of their training. I don't think that's a coincidence.

Khabib started out in pure Freestlye wrestling and transitioned to Judo and Sambo as a teenager.

 

[ewww21]

I guess you started watching MMA three years ago or something? Prime Koscheck was a very good wrestler and fighter. In fact, an older Koscheck arguably beat prime Hendricks. But nice try at using insults instead of dealing with real arguments.

"Prime Koscheck"