Good MMA wrestlers with a non-wrestling background

GSP comes to mind right away
 
Cathal Pendred.

But seriously, despite starting the sport from a young age, but with no big accomplishments, Khabib, Rustam, Islam, Rashid etc, but they all train with each other.

Jacare and Demian Maia's wrestling has come a long way.
 
europe1 said:
Tatsuya Kawajiri

Started training Combat Sports at 19 and is now primarily a wrestler when he fights. Before that he trained baseball. Amazing considering how late he started.
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Nice mention. Kawajiri was an excellent wrestler for not having the background.
 
Rory Mac has great wrestling for a guy who started out purely training mma
 
Yeah, GSP and Kawajiri are the 2 examples that come to mind for me first.
 
GSP is the only acceptable answer, dude was a Karataka/garbage man before mma.
 
Rvd Slmr said:
Khabib wrestled as a child but he rapidly turned to sambo and judo, and he is with GSP among the absolute most effective wrestlers in MMA.
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So he wrestled, and then he wrestled some more?
Dude has been wrestling his whole life.
 
I thought that was a common thing GSP was known for... Ts proves otherwise...
 
Pierced7681 said:
Rory Mac has great wrestling for a guy who started out purely training mma
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Good call.

I think Tim Kennedy started out as a BJJ guy if I recall correctly, but he's managed to blanket most of his opponents.

Overeem's wrestling at HW is also impressive IMO. He was able to shrug off Brock's TD spams and finish in the clinch albeit being on teh horsemeat. Also took down guys like Mir and Bigfoot, though they themselves aren't known for wrestling.

I think RDA counts. His hiccup against Khabib is cause Khabib is just a monster at wrestling (DC said he's the only guy who can take him and Cain down).

BJ Penn also had an underrated wrestling game. Should've won (bullshit 10-8) against Fitch, where he outwrestled him for 2 rds.

Lawler wrestled a bit in HS, but that honestly doesn't account for much. Now he's able to shrug off the grappling of Rory and Hendricks.
 
Saku was a catch wrestler, does that count? If not, he is an answer no one has mentioned as catch wrestling is mainly submission-based and doesn't incorporate as much traditional wrestling as freestyle/folkstyle wrestling.


Crusher and GSP stick out, as both became dominant MMA wrestlers without the wrestling background of a guy like DC, Jon Jones, Ben Askren or Chris Weidman.
 
There was that one Canadian guy that defended his belt once or twice
 
I WILL CUT YOU said:
GSP and Aldo.



Lol how did my comment get moved above TS's?
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What are you basing this off? TD ability? TDD?
What kind of wrestling are you talking about?
Do you know anything at all about the various sports of wrestling?

GSP has good TD's in an MMA fight against guys who are "just about to" punch him.
Aldo has good TDD against wrestlers who are scared of getting kicked or punched.

Without strikes, Mendes would easily pin Aldo in a wrestling match.
Without strikes, Josh Koscheck would pin GSP in a wrestling match.
 
Eddie whatshisname at BW. Don't think I've ever seen him get taken down and most of the time he shuts the TD down with relative ease. He's hit a few TDs but his hands are heavy so he does that mostly.
 
Th3Sav4ge said:
maia
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This. I'm pretty sure Maia didn't start training wrestling untill he lost to Marquardt. He himself has stated that he's only been training wrestling for a few years now. It's clearly paid off; his success at 170lbs is largely attributed to his improved game.
 
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