are the days of the dominant wrestler almost over?

Striking is harder to be exceptional at. Most good athletes (strikers) can learn serviceable tdd and grappling. Some people may never have serviceable striking (ronda)

Which is why strikers are starting to take over and its only just begun.
 
If most of the current champions are coming from a striking background, that's probably just a coincidence. It could look very different again by the end of the year. There are plenty of fighters with a wrestling background who could potenitally fight for a title soon or who are already booked for a title shot: Miocic, Weidman/Romero, Woodley, Khabib, Frankie Edgar, Henry Cejudo....
 
it comes in cycles. A lot of the strikers are good wrestlers too. (Jones, RDA, Cruz etc.)
 
Stand up guys can learn much faster how to stuff a takedown than a wrestler can learn a well timed counter or combo
 
ajwbjj87 said:
Not to take anything away from Wonderboy but Hendricks had his stunt double in the cage for him last night. I can't stand Hendricks and if I expressed what I think of him I'd be banned but come on he looked smaller then normal slower then normal and just not the same, watch any of his previous fights and it leaves you thinking wtf happened.
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USADA testing is what happened. Please don't act like it hasn't been witnessed every card since the implementation
 
superpunch said:
It's the rules. Wrestling is still as effective in a real 1v1 fight as it ever was.

Guys get stood up after like 5 seconds nowadays. Hence why Mendes was forced to do stupid stuff against Conor like go for submissions.

Imagine no stand-ups, knees to the head on the ground, and headbutts.

Wrestlers would be getting first round KOs via headbutts in the first round via lay and pray.
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You realize that knees to the head, soccer kicks and stomps can also hurt wrestlers/grapplers and be used against them right? Imagine all the time a grappler fails his takedown and could get soccerk icked, stomped, or kneed to the head. Or all the times a grapplers shoots in and could get knee to head. Or all the times someone stops the takedown and has sprawled and has the grappler under their body? They could use knees or stand up and soccer kick them.

Look back at a lot of Shogun, Wanderlei, Cro Cop, fights or old Vale Tudo fights to see what I am talking about. Even Fedor used them and it can benefit wrestlers see Mark coleman, randleman and rampage using them.
 
Dominick has a wrestling base

John Jones is probably the best fighter in the World has a wrestling base

Cormier and rumble

Robbie knows wrestling
 
superpunch said:
It's the rules. Wrestling is still as effective in a real 1v1 fight as it ever was.

Guys get stood up after like 5 seconds nowadays. Hence why Mendes was forced to do stupid stuff against Conor like go for submissions.

Imagine no stand-ups, knees to the head on the ground, and headbutts.

Wrestlers would be getting first round KOs via headbutts in the first round via lay and pray.
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no they dont
 
Wrestlers with solid and creative striking aren't going anywhere though. Jon Jones, Luke Rockhold and Dominic Cruz are a nightmare for anyone
 
CJohnny said:
Fighters like Conor, Wonderboy and Dominick are hard to beat for any style because of they footwork and angles. But there are not many fighters like them out there. Still think Hendricks would easily beat others fighters with just his wrestling.
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Cruz has a wrestling base.
 
The days of the dominant wrestler are replaced by the days of the dominant Mixed martial artist. You ca still be dominant with wrestling, like Nurmagomedov, but people are getting better at that TDD every year and just having a great GG isnt gonna cut it anymore if you are not pretty good at striking as well.
 
The issue last night wasn't that Wonderboy has unlocked a secret cheat code for "negating" great wrestlers. It's that the range at which he's effective and the way he stays poised to throw good counters made it very difficult for Hendricks to set up a proper shot. Every time he started thinking about wading in to set up a takedown with strikes he got lit up with a straight left, or a kick, and then a couple follow up shots while he stood there hesitating.

The same way the threat of the takedown can improve the effectiveness of someone's striking, striking improves the effectiveness of someone's takedowns. Take away one of them and the other becomes more difficult to employ. Wonderboy took Hendricks' striking away, and kept him guessing where the next punch or kick was coming from.

Wrestling isn't going anywhere.
 
No one can win with a single martial art* but wrestling and boxing are the best bases for fighting. That will never change.

*except maybe something like Combat Sambo which is a mixed martial art to start with
 
I blame GSP. He was such a dominant wrestler it forced everyone to learn to how to deal with it. Now people know exactly what to when you're pressed against the cage. Know how to handle distance better. Now most take downs come from those with excellent timing, or are on the tail end of a combination. The lay and prey era was a truly terrible era and I actually stopped following the sport for awhile. But it did force people to accept that they needed high class defense. Just as they needed high class jujitsu defense. Conor is the start of a new Era of exiting fights that truly mix every aspect of the game together.
 
Also to not be dismissed is the fact that wrestlers dominated because of their work ethic. As Rogan has mentioned many times, and of which I can attest to, amatuer and collegiate wrestling is a grind which used to have no equal. TMA's simply did not have this on a whole, as a basic fundamental building block. Of course there will always be exceptions. Now, as mma progresses as a sport unto itself, you see guys with TMA backgrounds embracing that grind and getting better because of it.
 
I think the main difference is the striking style that is emerging right now in MMA. A more dynamic striking style creates obstacles to the traditional wrestlers. Non wrestlers had to learn to neutralize wrestling. It's evolution baby. :)
 
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