Sambo vs Wrestling

[BowserJr]

Sambo is sort of a mix of catch wrestling and judo.

The best known Sambo fighters in MMA are Fedor, Blagoy, the Nurmagomedov family and Islam Makachev.

The Nurmagomedovs and Islam lean more on the wrestling aspect while Fedor and Blagoy seemed to lean more on judo.

What matchups have happened that involved the highest level wrestlers vs highest level Sambo practitioners and how did the grappling play out?

Fedor dominating Lindland is the highest level match up i can think of.

Any others?

I just remembered Fedor fought Coleman and Randleman. They got takedowns but Fedor submitted them

 

[NoSmilez]

They teach rope grab in Sambo.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Would've been so cool to see Askren vs Khabib if Askren came to the UFC YEARS earlier in his prime. He was already so declined at that point that Khabib would've killed him, but in his prime it would've been the ultimate matchup.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

As far as the thread question, Khabib nor Islam has fought a high level wrestler, interestingly enough they have mostly been at 170 for whatever reason. I'm not even sure if Tibau even had a wrestling background.

 

[Estudante]

Demetrious Johnson vs dagestani master of sports in sambo/freestyle wrestling/grappling Ali Bagautinov (was also hella juiced in that fight). Most of the fight was in the clinch, where Bagautinov kept being knee'd and failing to take Johnson down. He got like a single takedown in the first round and one in the third, which Johnson immediatly got back up and went back to kneeing him in the clinch. Overall, a very dominant showing for the american wrestler against the sambo practitioner i guess.

 

[Dr. Rose]

Lindland vs. Fedor is more like Greco vs. Sambo/Judo, and the weight differential was crazy. Taktarov v. Severn early on, another weight difference and later on Taktarov claimed to be more jujitsu than Sambo and that the UFC wanted something more exotic.

 

[WOLVERINEKILLS]

They teach rope grab in Sambo.

They also teach arm bar in Sambo.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Sambo teaches one how to finish a fight; wrestling teaches one how to exploit the rules and trick judges.

 

[Koya]

The best known Sambo fighters in MMA are Fedor, Blagoy, the Nurmagomedov family and Islam Makachev.

Oleg Taktarov/Andrei Aelovski : am I a joke to you ?

 

[NoSmilez]

They also teach arm bar in Sambo.

The best! The rope grab to arm bar transition is spectacular

 

[Intermission]

The russian judo team beat the russian Sambo team way back when. The conclusion drawn by the sambo team was that the judoka team had superior throws.

 

[theincognito]

Fedor, Blagoy, the Nurmagomedov family and Islam Makachev are all combat sambo.

Combat sambo is MMA to put it simply. Its practitioners can be of any style.

We have not seen many actual sambo grapplers in MMA.

 

[joey gerbils]

Merab is a sambo champ

 

[BowserJr]

Sambo teaches one how to finish a fight; wrestling teaches one how to exploit the rules and trick judges.

I'm with you there.
Probably why Fedor beat Randleman and Coleman

Catch wrestling did have subs once upon a time but they did away with it to get it in the Olympics I believe

 

[BowserJr]

As far as the thread question, Khabib nor Islam has fought a high level wrestler, interestingly enough they have mostly been at 170 for whatever reason. I'm not even sure if Tibau even had a wrestling background.

Pre Khabib LW had many great wrestlers. Sucks none of them fought Khabib

Maynard
Edgar
Bendo
Giblert
Alvarez
Thomson

 

[BowserJr]

Demetrious Johnson vs dagestani master of sports in sambo/freestyle wrestling/grappling Ali Bagautinov (was also hella juiced in that fight). Most of the fight was in the clinch, where Bagautinov kept being knee'd and failing to take Johnson down. He got like a single takedown in the first round and one in the third, which Johnson immediatly got back up and went back to kneeing him in the clinch. Overall, a very dominant showing for the american wrestler against the sambo practitioner i guess.

That's a good one. I have to rewatch it

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Pre Khabib LW had many great wrestlers. Sucks none of them fought Khabib

Maynard
Edgar
Bendo
Giblert
Alvarez
Thomson

Wow yeah it's amazing he never fought any of them. Those guys aren't necessarily the best wrestlers either (I would only put prime Maynard in that high level wrestler category, Frankie as well at 145 but he was too undersized at 155 to be a dominant wrestler), but they can all strike and would be very difficult to keep down for 3-5 rounds.

 

[BowserJr]

Lindland vs. Fedor is more like Greco vs. Sambo/Judo, and the weight differential was crazy. Taktarov v. Severn early on, another weight difference and later on Taktarov claimed to be more jujitsu than Sambo and that the UFC wanted something more exotic.

Yeah I wish Fedor fought Randy... He did fight Coleman and Randleman. I had forgotten about those

 

[BowserJr]

Wow yeah it's amazing he never fought any of them. Those guys aren't necessarily the best wrestlers either (I would only put prime Maynard in that high level wrestler category, Frankie as well at 145 but he was too undersized at 155 to be a dominant wrestler), but they can all strike and would be very difficult to keep down for 3-5 rounds.

Exactly!

Khabib couldve faced Gil, Alvarez or Bendo on the way up but ya he never did... i think he would have looked very average against them even if he ultimately won

 

[Streeter]

Sambo is wrestling just with more stuff added on. So Sambo