How Good Is Gus' Wrestling?

[Ashi Barai]

For him to completely cancel out the wrestling of an accomplished wrestler like jones
was amazing, especially for a striker. he displayed great tdd and scrambling ability.

for him to pick it up so fast i think he can be a great mma wrestler. i think at the
very least he will be able to stuff everyone's td's in the division with the exception of DC.

 

[Shogo101]

He's been training with Olympic wrestler Jimmy Lindberg since the Shogun fight.

 

[Raul24]

its pretty good

 

[Sh0gun]

His MMA wrestling is solid. Having said that, he hasn't really faced a guy who can get inside on him and dump him on his head. (Until now atleast )

 

[M3X1CA1N]

Its looking pretty good, I mean he took JJ down, and some can argue he wasn't expecting It, well this is MMA, so if DC lands a spinning heel kick and ko's JJ it some how doesn't count bcuz JJ dididnt expect it, no this is mma he has to expect everything. From game plans and different techniques he has to be ready, cause someone's gonna find how to counter them poking fingers from JJ

 

[Nigol]

He took Jones down.

 

[Post Crisis]

Best in the sport.

 

[Gaelmonfils]

His defensive MMA wrestling is solid jus watch the Phil Davis fight

 

[PEB]

Very solid pretty much on the level of Anderson Silva in wrestling ability? He has very good TDD and matches well with high level wrestlers in the clinch. He is not easily bullied like others who have not be raised on wrestling. I say a very good 7 or 8 out of 10 and I am a tough judge. DC is on another level Gus should avoid clinching with DC because he will be

 

[Got GOAT]

His wrestling is damn good. He has excellent TDD and some really slick takedowns up his sleeve. The takedowns he hit against Shogun were great & the one against Manuwa was bad ass. He hit a nice trip/inside reap against Thiago Silva too back a couple years ago. He can also scramble well, mix up and transition from his striking and/or feinting with his takedowns quite effectively.

During the UFC Fan Q&A with Jones, DC, McGreGOAT & Poirier, Jones said that he found that it was "really hard to take him [Gus] down" and that his hips were a lot better/stronger than Jon predicted they would be going into the fight. Brendan Schaub said right after the Jones-Gus fight that the only way to get Gus down is to chain-wrestle him (chain one takedown attempt to the next). Jimmy Lidberg, a Swedish Olympic bronze medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling said that Gus was hard to take down too. That's saying something about how good his hips are, how good his sprawl is (not that there's a sprawl in Greco, there isn't), his balance & how solid his base is, and how fast his feet and reflexes are.

 

[SCTrojans04**]

the GOAT bro, just look at his credentials...

 

[Macalpinerules]

It's functional within MMA. In a pure context he would likely get demolished by most of the guys at LHW who have a wrestling base ie Jones, Cormier, Davis, Glover, Rashad, Johnson, Bader etc. all those guys would beat him handily I'm straight up wrestling. But yeah Gus has functional wrestling within a fighting context and that's all that matters.

 

[IsoManatee]

Looked amazing in the Jones fight.. I definitely did not expect that but figures he put in some serious work after the Mr Wonderful fight

 

[ilfirin]

He took Jones down.

Bam!

 

[pick999]

offense wrestling:78
defense wrestling:82

 

[Bob Gray]

Solid, but I think a lot of the success of his takedown defense is his superb use of distance and footwork. So overall his MMA defensive wrestling is very good even if I don't think he'd fare well in a straight wrestling match with any of the divisions notable wrestlers.

 

[EmeliankoFan1]

You mean his defensive wrestling, he is like chuck, they have good take down defense.

In terms of wrestling/grappling with jones on the ground, we dont know, since he was reluctant to do so with Jones.

 

[EmeliankoFan1]

His offensive wrestling ad overall grappling is great too, he shows it in almost all of his fights.

He has good BJJ which we saw in a few of his fights, like the Te-hunna fight and he is a purp belt I think.

But he has not really grappled/wrestled with someone of Jones caliber on the ground offensively or Rashad so we dont know. He was reluctant to do so in the Jones fight and for good reason.

I think Gus is a better defensive wrestler but he has good BJJ.

 

[MCS]

he won't grind out Bader, but can take down and finish non-wrestlers.

Underhook double leg defense is great, but him being long makes it hard to sprawl, he doesn't have Cro Cop's strength for that. Shrugs off single leg attempts by pushing the head down and pulling his leg away as fast as possible, like JDS does.

but that also makes him pull his punches standing. when he strikes more freely, Shogun took him down, Te Huna too. Hopefully his added confidence because of how he did against Jones helps him in their rematch, and against DC. It should.

 

[Dirtey]

Gus is pretty much the opposit of a wrestler that uses his threat of takedowns to tag superior strikers standing.

Gus uses his Striking and movement to greatly increase his TDD ability and to set up "easy" takedowns when the opponent are out of position.

So many of you guys are stuck in the mindset of separating each martial art. Magnus Cedenblad even said that a lot of gyms still train a lot of pure wrestling with no respect what so ever for the the elements that changes in MMA. MMA wrestling are very different from pure wrestling, especially for a guy like Gus for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

But his takedown and TDD resume against Jones speaks for itself if we look how good MMA wrestler Gus is.