Dos Anjos is more of a MT/BJJ guy.
Non-American wrestle-boxers
- Thread starter 10000 Days
- Start date
Dos Anjos is more of a MT/BJJ guy.
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2013
- Messages
- 4,537
- Reaction score
- 1,107
Gomi, Mizugaki, Okami, basically most of the Japanese who have success
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2010
- Messages
- 20,558
- Reaction score
- 2,902
Glover is an excellent example.
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2014
- Messages
- 7,875
- Reaction score
- 0
There are some but not that many. It is because of freestyle wrestling rules.
Freestyle lacks some techniques because the person initiating the move would be scoring on themselves.
Freestyle stands people up very fast. It is fast enough that the guy on bottom usually just stalls out. The guy on top often tries no control at all.
Non-American wrestlers have to learn a ground games.
The Americans are not doing anything original. They are doing what Europe and Asia quit doing a very long time ago.
There are some non American grappling but the participation is not as high as wrestling.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2011
- Messages
- 5,022
- Reaction score
- 2
A few years ago sure. Now he's MT/Wrestling.
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2014
- Messages
- 1,763
- Reaction score
- 0
It depends on what you mean by "wrestler-boxer". Whether you mean a person who came from a wrestling background who developed a striking style based primarily on boxing (with some ancillary kicks, of course) with typical wrestler's top-control grappling, or came from one and made their style almost exclusively boxing-oriented with auxiliary wrestling, or are a complete grinder but their striking game is that of a very basic boxer, or even all that but they came from a boxing background and developed a good wrestling game, or their background is a non-issue and they simply have a wrestler-boxer style similar to the above-- all these things can have completely different answers.
Internationally speaking:
Tibau would probably be the initial definition (though he also did Brazilian jiu-jitsu as he was wrestling.)
Philippou would be included, since he was a pro boxer before he started training for this sport, and he developed a pretty good wrestling game.
Koji Oishi would be in here since he came from a very solid wrestling background but he later began to rely almost exclusively on his boxing with his wrestling in the background. Gomi would also be included in this category, and maybe Shalorus (it's hard to say, since he started to use his wrestling in conjunction with his striking much more towards the end of his UFC career and during his ONE career than he did during his time in the WEC and at his start in the UFC.)
Glover Teixeira would be, as well, since his style's completely boxing and wrestling (though his top-game's about submitting his opponents) but he came from a purely jiu-jitsu background.
Takeya Mizugaki, Yushin Okami and Yoshihiro Akiyama all have boxing-wrestling styles (however each of them in very different styles), but none of them came from a boxing or wrestling background (Yushin and Akiyama both started out in Judo, and Mizugaki did Kendo and baseball before he learned the Shooto system.)
There aren't quite as many as there are Americans just due to cultural differences. A lot of countries don't have a well-structured wrestling program (like the U.K.), and with a lot of the ones that do, you can end up doing more by focusing on your wrestling than you can by transitioning to a different sport (like in China or Russia.) Which's unlike it is in America. It's like Judo in Japan (or France); Judo is a great base for shootfighting, and a lot of great guys do go into it, but there's more money to be made by the high-level Japanese Judokas from focusing on Judo, getting sponsorships and using that to open up some successful businesses (or even getting a good job offer) than there is in transitioning to a different sport.
A lot of the ones who do, though, end up learning more about kickboxing than they do about boxing. Vitaly Minakov and Shamil Zavurov are both several-time Combat Sambo world champions and use their grappling very frequently, but they both also utilize kicks as a very effective part of their striking style. A lot of Japanese fighters fall into this same category.
Also, dos Anjos uses a lot of kicks and knees, and his grappling, while he has good takedowns, is very much that of a top-game Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner rather than a wrestler. Unless people only watched his fight with Pettis, he wouldn't be a wrestler-boxer-- and even in that fight, he didn't need to use his full arsenal (since it would've been stylistically counter-productive for Pettis) and he still threw a good amount of kicks.
Khabib would also not qualify as a wrestler-boxer-- do those people even know what boxing is, and, if they do, have they watched a Khabib fight?
Gomi did not come from a collegiate wrestling background, nor did Kawajiri. It frustrates me when people spread this kind of clear misinformation about fighters. Gomi didn't even graduate from high school, and even during high school he only played baseball. He was a combat wrestling champion during his late-teens and early-20's. Combat wrestling's a sport that was created in Japan [but has since gone international] that's like a combination of catch wrestling and collegiate wrestling scoring, and, beyond it having a high number of collegiate wrestlers who compete in it (like Masakatsu Ueda and Mitsuhiro Ishida), it has no connection to college. Kawajiri didn't even start to wrestle until he started to train; he did kickboxing for years before that and was even trying to get into K-1 before he took up this sport. Even Kawajiri wouldn't fall into this category since his striking style was- and has always been kickboxing. Roundhouse kicks off his lead leg have always been one of his go-to striking moves, and in his last fight he threw a whole bunch of front-kicks and spinning strikes.
Internationally speaking:
Tibau would probably be the initial definition (though he also did Brazilian jiu-jitsu as he was wrestling.)
Philippou would be included, since he was a pro boxer before he started training for this sport, and he developed a pretty good wrestling game.
Koji Oishi would be in here since he came from a very solid wrestling background but he later began to rely almost exclusively on his boxing with his wrestling in the background. Gomi would also be included in this category, and maybe Shalorus (it's hard to say, since he started to use his wrestling in conjunction with his striking much more towards the end of his UFC career and during his ONE career than he did during his time in the WEC and at his start in the UFC.)
Glover Teixeira would be, as well, since his style's completely boxing and wrestling (though his top-game's about submitting his opponents) but he came from a purely jiu-jitsu background.
Takeya Mizugaki, Yushin Okami and Yoshihiro Akiyama all have boxing-wrestling styles (however each of them in very different styles), but none of them came from a boxing or wrestling background (Yushin and Akiyama both started out in Judo, and Mizugaki did Kendo and baseball before he learned the Shooto system.)
There aren't quite as many as there are Americans just due to cultural differences. A lot of countries don't have a well-structured wrestling program (like the U.K.), and with a lot of the ones that do, you can end up doing more by focusing on your wrestling than you can by transitioning to a different sport (like in China or Russia.) Which's unlike it is in America. It's like Judo in Japan (or France); Judo is a great base for shootfighting, and a lot of great guys do go into it, but there's more money to be made by the high-level Japanese Judokas from focusing on Judo, getting sponsorships and using that to open up some successful businesses (or even getting a good job offer) than there is in transitioning to a different sport.
A lot of the ones who do, though, end up learning more about kickboxing than they do about boxing. Vitaly Minakov and Shamil Zavurov are both several-time Combat Sambo world champions and use their grappling very frequently, but they both also utilize kicks as a very effective part of their striking style. A lot of Japanese fighters fall into this same category.
Also, dos Anjos uses a lot of kicks and knees, and his grappling, while he has good takedowns, is very much that of a top-game Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner rather than a wrestler. Unless people only watched his fight with Pettis, he wouldn't be a wrestler-boxer-- and even in that fight, he didn't need to use his full arsenal (since it would've been stylistically counter-productive for Pettis) and he still threw a good amount of kicks.
Khabib would also not qualify as a wrestler-boxer-- do those people even know what boxing is, and, if they do, have they watched a Khabib fight?
Gomi did not come from a collegiate wrestling background, nor did Kawajiri. It frustrates me when people spread this kind of clear misinformation about fighters. Gomi didn't even graduate from high school, and even during high school he only played baseball. He was a combat wrestling champion during his late-teens and early-20's. Combat wrestling's a sport that was created in Japan [but has since gone international] that's like a combination of catch wrestling and collegiate wrestling scoring, and, beyond it having a high number of collegiate wrestlers who compete in it (like Masakatsu Ueda and Mitsuhiro Ishida), it has no connection to college. Kawajiri didn't even start to wrestle until he started to train; he did kickboxing for years before that and was even trying to get into K-1 before he took up this sport. Even Kawajiri wouldn't fall into this category since his striking style was- and has always been kickboxing. Roundhouse kicks off his lead leg have always been one of his go-to striking moves, and in his last fight he threw a whole bunch of front-kicks and spinning strikes.
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2017
- Messages
- 2,550
- Reaction score
- 30
I don't know if those guys tick the wrestle-boxer box
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2017
- Messages
- 2,550
- Reaction score
- 30
Lol yes
