You know what's bizzare about these recent couple of posts? Here's what you're basically saying: "Jon Jones and Usman didn't make it to the D1 program due to factors not related to their wrestling ability". However, the fact still stands: they have never proven themselves as successful collegiate wrestlers on the D1 level.
This can be difficult to explain to folks who have not spent substantial time participating in or following amateur wrestling because of the baseline context required. Jones competed against and beat a lot of future NCAA Division I studs at Fargo and was a national JuCO champion.
His roommate Colby Covington was also a JuCo national champion, they won their titles together. He went on to success in Division I and became an All-American, Jon got his girlfriend pregnant and had to earn a living, thus becoming a MMA fighter.
Anyone with appropriate depth of knowledge would say Jones not only was the quality of a Division I wrestler, but was both widely recruited and likely to succeed at the highest level.
Usman had a path that included top level success at NAIA and then the highest success again in NCAA Division II. He was a University World Team member in Freestyle. Despite not starting wrestling until he was already a teenager, he clearly was both a freak athlete and highly skilled.
If you are a two-time national finalist and a national champion in Division II, you are unequivocally a Division I caliber talent.
Now, you have tards like D1 Wanker calling Lentz a bad D1 level wrestler, yet the difference between Lentz and Jones/Marty is that Lentz actually wrestled on the D1 level and has proven himself. Thus, we approach a paradox, where collegiate wrestling fanatics are trying to prove that guys who never made it to D1 program and have never proven themselves on that level were actually better that the guys who have
This is correct.
Lentz is best described as someone who could not cut it in Division I. He has no accolades in Division I and left the team after a single season. Occasionally, good high school wrestlers cannot make it at the next level.
Consider Chad Mendes was also a Division I wrestler in the same time frame. He did go on to have impressive accolades in his collegiate career, and when he fought Lentz, it was like a big brother playing with a 5th grader.
Chad wasn't a little better, he was head-and-shoulders better. It shouldn't be a surprise that the guy who washed out of a program after one year is not of the same quality as those who could compete at the top.