The grappling in the UFC is at an all-time LOW

Luckyme said:
I would argue that with a few notable exceptions like Fedor and Werdum, grappling was never that great in MW, LHW, and HW back in the day. Coleman, Chael, Tito, Rampage, etc. were pretty one dimensional compared to the likes of Aspinall, Almeida, Whittaker, and Jon Jones.
Click to expand...
Couture, Barnett, Nogueira, Ricco Rodriguez, Mir, Arlovski, Overeem, Lesnar, Cain, Cormier, etc were all vastly better and more accomplished grapplers than any fighter you can currently name in the UFC HW division not named Jon Jones... who has been fighting in the UFC for 15 years and is 1 or 2 fights away from retirement.
 
The good thing about MMA is it tends to balance out when there are too many strikers that can't grapple well or vice versa. It becomes obvious what skillset is most likely to win. Jones-Gane and Almeida-Rozenstruik are two examples of this already happening. Heck even Ngannou (now supposedly a pro boxer) went the wrestling route with Gane as it was his most certain path to victory.
 
Power Slap Noob said:
A decade or so ago, the top grapplers were insanely accomplished amateur wrestlers, BJJ artists, or Judo practitioners.

Now the top grappler at LHW is a Polish striker with 1.5 rounds of cardio.
Click to expand...

Do you think this is partly about product? It isn't exactly the type of fighter the UFC likes to promote or ends up being popular.
 
Taric said:
Couture, Barnett, Nogueira, Ricco Rodriguez, Mir, Arlovski, Overeem, Lesnar, Cain, Cormier, etc were all vastly better and more accomplished grapplers than any fighter you can currently name in the UFC HW division not named Jon Jones... who has been fighting in the UFC for 15 years and is 1 or 2 fights away from retirement.
Click to expand...
I pointed out the other day how many good wrestlers entered the sport in the 1990s when it was young and much less established. Severn, Frye, Couture, Tito, Coleman, Kerr, Tom Erickson, Randleman and Hendo were all fighting by '96-97. All those guys would be HWs or LHWs today (well Hendo probably a MW. Come to think of it, Chael Sonnen's first MMA fight was 1997 thought he didn't fight again until 2002.

So even the mid-to-late 90s had a LOT more wrestling talent than we've seen in the last 5 years from MW to HW. I'm not saying they'd all dominate current MMA with their 1996 skillsets, but given modern training most of them would be beasts today.

As others have stated, there are plenty of good grapplers at WW and below and have been for some time.
 
mkt said:
I pointed out the other day how many good wrestlers entered the sport in the 1990s when it was young and much less established. Severn, Frye, Couture, Tito, Coleman, Kerr, Tom Erickson, Randleman and Hendo were all fighting by '96-97. All those guys would be HWs or LHWs today (well Hendo probably a MW. Come to think of it, Chael Sonnen's first MMA fight was 1997 thought he didn't fight again until 2002.

So even the mid-to-late 90s had a LOT more wrestling talent than we've seen in the last 5 years from MW to HW. I'm not saying they'd all dominate current MMA with their 1996 skillsets, but given modern training most of them would be beasts today.

As others have stated, there are plenty of good grapplers at WW and below and have been for some time.
Click to expand...


So we have to watch manlet fights to see good grappling?

Good job UFC.

"Evolution maaaahhhn"
 
Maybe guys arent working as hard at grappling because the ufc rewards striking battles and highlight reels are almost always kos and striking.

Striking is just more exciting than grappling so guys want to knock people out. Gaethje has a wrestling background but he basically just stands and bangs.
 
There are more grapplers in the ufc than Jan.

maybe you are being too quick to judge
 
Bearknuckle said:
Maybe guys arent working as hard at grappling because the ufc rewards striking battles and highlight reels are almost always kos and striking.

Striking is just more exciting than grappling so guys want to knock people out. Gaethje has a wrestling background but he basically just stands and bangs.
Click to expand...


Gaethjes wrestling is good but his grappling sucks and thus Khabib made him look like a white belt.
 
There is Bo, Khamzat, Jailton, Usman, Colby, Islam, Gilbert etc but yeah I do agree that the overall grappling situation isnt great at the moment. I'd like the UFC to actively look to sign more high level grapplers and for there be a better balance between grappling and striking again, this is MMA after all. If I wanna watch pure stand up MMA striking would not be my first (or second) choice.
 
If you're going to specifically call out LHW it needs to be pointed out that the UFC let all its best grapplers in that division go to Bellator.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,265,332
Messages
57,333,480
Members
175,647
Latest member
Vicent Czar

Share this page

Back
Top