genuine question... seeings that i live in the UK, im not really up to speed on how the college wrestling system works, but i hear them going on about LeVesseur's Division 3 wrestling record. What is Division 3 wrestling? I imagine Division 1 wrestling is a higher pedigree than Division 3 (i remember this being highlighted in the Lesnar-Carwin build up, Lesnar was Div. 1, Carwin Div. 2), and if his record was so good at Division 3 why didn't he ever wrestle at Division 2? Fill me in?
Division 1 are the big schools Division 2 are the next tier down....that later split and Division 3 was formed. The difference is Div 3 schools don't offer scholarships to student athletes. There are other rule differences.
I wrestle DIII in college. Basically, it's tiers of larger schools. DI is your huge schools, DII is your medium schools (10,000-5,000), and DIII are your smaller schools (5,000 belowish). A lot of DIII wrestlers claim that DIII is harder than DII, but I like to think of them as equal. LaVesseur (sp?) is definitely a very, very good wrestler. He beat Ben Askren 13-4, which is an ass whooping. Anyone who goes undefeated in college is extremely good, as they have won 4 NCAA titles or NWCA titles. Only thing is, he is 30 years old now so he probably hasn't competed in amateur wrestling for eight or nine years, so his skills are probably a little rusty.
Due to his performance/record he could've transferred to a D-2 or even smaller D-1 school. But for a sport like wrestling and at the D-3 level most guys are more focused on graduating, getting their degree and finding a good job after school is done.
Cheers, I never knew this because I'm also from the UK I always assumed that the best DIII would go to DII at the end of the season and so on
I was surprised to see someone with his wrestling credentials to get largely nullified by someone with much more inferior wrestling (Abel Trujillo). Edit: What I mean is.. Marcus had plenty of chances to take Abel down and GNP him out and just couldn't do it. 30 Take downs attempted in that fight and Marcus could only nail down 4. 26 failed take downs, dude. That is a LOT. http://hosteddb.fightmetric.com/fights/index/4128
and also keep in mind having the best wrestling credentials dosent always mean they are going to be a great fighter, have a look at Jake Rosholt extremely talented wrestler (He beat Phil Davis in wrestling) but cant put together a few wins in mma.
Yeah it is like soccer leagues in your country and elsewhere but it's also very different. We don't have promotion/relegation. And remember all these divisions are full of colleges/university sports clubs/teams. They aren't strictly sports teams/clubs. Guys represent the school they attend. And you commit to a school for the full term of your schooling which is usually 4 yrs. So a guy graduates high school at 18. If he's good at a particular sport they will be recruited by colleges and wil pick a school to attend to both get degree and advance athletic aspirations. They go to college from 18-22. Some guys do move on or go elsewhere but most stay at their school for the required 4 years to both get a degree and play for the sports team. Yeah the most surprising and impressive thing to me is that Abel strictly trained for Tim Means, a striker. Heck he didn't even know he would be facing a good one dimensional wrestler until the day before the fight.
Not to be a buzzkill, but where on the fightmetric does it say 30 takedown attempts? It clearly says LeVesseur landed 2 takedowns with 10 attempts.
DOH! I mis-read it! Yeah, I added the fight total to the 2 rounds total haha. My bad, didn't get a good night of sleep
His wrestling hasn't seemed to transfer to MMA as well as you'd hope, given his record though. As said, Abel was training for a fighter like Tim Means, complete different match up stylistically, yet completely nullified his takedowns. It was similar for the Prater fight, too. Held him against the cage, but struggled to get a takedown and only really got them when Prater committed to his guillotines, then did nothing when on top in guard, I thought he lost that fight, and I bet on him. Maybe in pure wrestling he's top notch, but in his short UFC stint so far he's sadly shown poor takedowns and a top game that's lacking. Is he getting another shot with him stepping in late notice or has he been released?
He coulda wrestled anywhere he wanted...dude was a legit wrestler...he chose d3 to play football too...not likely something he could've done elsewhere
Havent been impressed with his wrestling at all, in the UFC. Same goes for Mark Munoz - you'd never think he was a fantastic wrestler. He flops around on a knee most of the time, Leben bodyslammed him.
Mark Munoz doesn't have best shots or TDD, but he definitely shows fantastic wrestling in scrambles, getting up to his feet, reversing positions etc. Fight with Simpson and Maia are great examples.
he went to THE best D3 school for wrestling anyone could go to. Augsburg beats alot of D2 schools in the region and would give alot of D1 schools a run for their money. I am from the area and know that a few of the Augsburg wrestlers are are only one tier down from being on some the nations best D1 wrestling teams
Marcus was a top notch talent. He went to the U of Minnesota for a redshirt year. Things just didn't work out for him there. He transferred down the road to Augsburg and wrestled and played QB. Augsburg routinely beats top D2 (even Nat champ) teams. They have even beaten top 25 D1 teams. He was a top recruit. Went to a top school.
He has a blackbelt in burying is face in his opponents groin while defending hammerfists with his ear.
