What's up with non-Muslim/Caucasian Russians primarily being strikers?

[PlayTheGame]

It's curious if you think about it.

There's a bunch of decent non-Dagestani Russian fighters, who are pretty decorated strikers AND, at best, average grapplers: Yan, Pavlovich, Volkov, Borshchev, Kopylov, and even half-Russians like Fiziev. I guess Nikita Krylov, who is, to my understanding, an ethnic Russian born in Ukraine, is the only one with a somewhat decent ground game. Hell, even outside the UFC accomplished guys like Shlemenko, Koreshkov, Malykhin are all about standing and banging.

Is it a cultural thing? Because there's clearly a pattern. Are Slavic wrestlers simply not interested in MMA? Or are Slavic guys more interested in striking-heavy martial arts in the first place?

 

[Blanqa Blanqua]

Dagastanis wrestle.

 

[Paolo Delutis]

Russia is very big ...


Also majority of martial arts are striking heavy ..


Also who gives a shit...

 

[Neck&Neck]

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

That Ivan Drago money playboi

 

[Xuh]

(freestyle) wrestling kind of died out in the ex-soviet bloc over the last few decades and just became a kavkaz thing (and increasingly, just a dagestani thing). I looked through the records and so far as I can tell only one ethnic Russian has ever won a medal in freestyle competing for Russia (they had good guys back in the Soviet era though). And that was a bronze, in the 1990s. If Dagestan wasn't part of Russia, Russia would be nobodies in wrestling today. And other eastern bloc countries are increasingly just Dagestani mercs wrestling for them at the world level too.

EuroRussians mostly seem to do sambo/judo, and Greco Roman is the most popular wrestling in central/eastern europe, but Greco is kind of a limited and sucky style by itself IMO. Some of those 'strikers' you mentioned to have some greco roots I believe (Pavlovich) but it doesn't seem to translate to being an 'MMA wrestler'. I guess the reason there have been less and less elite grapplers from that area outside Dagestan these days is because it's a damn tough lifestyle and most euro-russians & other slavs would just rather work normal jobs than be about that life (Fedor, the most famous sambo/judo guy, grew up in the impoverished 90s but since that era there don't seem to be many guys like that). 'murican collegate system seems quite unique in its ability to get ppl 'embracing the grind' of wrestling in an otherwise rich country.

 

[DestinedAussie]

It's curious if you think about it.

There's a bunch of decent non-Dagestani Russian fighters, who are pretty decorated strikers AND, at best, average grapplers: Yan, Pavlovich, Volkov, Borshchev, Kopylov, and even half-Russians like Fiziev. I guess Nikita Krylov, who is, to my understanding, an ethnic Russian born in Ukraine, is the only one with a somewhat decent ground game. Hell, even outside the UFC accomplished guys like Shlemenko, Koreshkov, Malykhin are all about standing and banging.

Is it a cultural thing? Because there's clearly a pattern. Are Slavic wrestlers simply not interested in MMA? Or are Slavic guys more interested in striking-heavy martial arts in the first place?

Failed boxers. That demographic boxing is much more attractive too.

 

[Feniamin]

It's curious if you think about it.

There's a bunch of decent non-Dagestani Russian fighters, who are pretty decorated strikers AND, at best, average grapplers: Yan, Pavlovich, Volkov, Borshchev, Kopylov, and even half-Russians like Fiziev. I guess Nikita Krylov, who is, to my understanding, an ethnic Russian born in Ukraine, is the only one with a somewhat decent ground game. Hell, even outside the UFC accomplished guys like Shlemenko, Koreshkov, Malykhin are all about standing and banging.

Is it a cultural thing? Because there's clearly a pattern. Are Slavic wrestlers simply not interested in MMA? Or are Slavic guys more interested in striking-heavy martial arts in the first place?

Malykhin took Bronze in 2013 Russian Freestyle wrestling and took gold in some European submission wrestling championship.
I think Salikhov, Shara and Imadaev are strikers with bad ground game.
The thing is, people remember good Dagestani guys like Nurmagomedov and Makhachev but forget about guys who went 0-2 or 0-3 and was cut.

 

[jko1355]

Malykhin took Bronze in 2013 Russian Freestyle wrestling and took gold in some European submission wrestling championship.
I think Salikhov, Shara and Imadaev are strikers with bad ground game.
The thing is, people remember good Dagestani guys like Nurmagomedov and Makhachev but forget about guys who went 0-2 or 0-3 and was cut.

That is a complete lie. Literally no Dagestan fighter has ever lost ever.


Ever.

 

[Greg House]

Failed boxers. That demographic boxing is much more attractive too.

Can't fail if you never even try. None of the top guys even have an amateur record in boxing. Kickboxing and Muay Thai are very popular there. It's possible to train and get good at kickboxing without having failed or even tried boxing...

 

[BangBang]

It's curious if you think about it.

There's a bunch of decent non-Dagestani Russian fighters, who are pretty decorated strikers AND, at best, average grapplers: Yan, Pavlovich, Volkov, Borshchev, Kopylov, and even half-Russians like Fiziev. I guess Nikita Krylov, who is, to my understanding, an ethnic Russian born in Ukraine, is the only one with a somewhat decent ground game. Hell, even outside the UFC accomplished guys like Shlemenko, Koreshkov, Malykhin are all about standing and banging.

Is it a cultural thing? Because there's clearly a pattern. Are Slavic wrestlers simply not interested in MMA? Or are Slavic guys more interested in striking-heavy martial arts in the first place?

Please can you research snd get back to us…

 

[markantony20]

I’ve always wondered with too because back in the Soviet Union days the a decent majority of wrestlers who medaled at the Olympics or World Championships were Slavs but now it seems the majority of wrestlers coming out of the Russian system are Caucasus peoples.

 

[User9992]

Wrestling is mostly popular in Kavkaz region: Dagestan, Chechnya, Ossetia etc.

Not so popular in Russia proper: Moscow, St. Petersburg etc.

 

[Shabal]

How would you classify Fedor? Pretty sure he was Christian and had elite striking and grappling. Sure it was Sambo and not wrestling but who gives a fuck?

 

[NoSmilez]

It depends. Some of the Dagestanis can't wrestle well.

 

[TheTickG]

It's curious if you think about it.

There's a bunch of decent non-Dagestani Russian fighters, who are pretty decorated strikers AND, at best, average grapplers: Yan, Pavlovich, Volkov, Borshchev, Kopylov, and even half-Russians like Fiziev. I guess Nikita Krylov, who is, to my understanding, an ethnic Russian born in Ukraine, is the only one with a somewhat decent ground game. Hell, even outside the UFC accomplished guys like Shlemenko, Koreshkov, Malykhin are all about standing and banging.

Is it a cultural thing? Because there's clearly a pattern. Are Slavic wrestlers simply not interested in MMA? Or are Slavic guys more interested in striking-heavy martial arts in the first place?

They grew up watching Rocky 4.

 

[PlayTheGame]

How would you classify Fedor? Pretty sure he was Christian and had elite striking and grappling. Sure it was Sambo and not wrestling but who gives a fuck?

Well, Fedor was obviously extremely well-rounded, but even he seemed to abandon his grappling after his PRIDE stint. He was swanging and banging for three rounds with Fabio Maldonado of all people, despite getting knocked down in the 1st. It's kinda hard to see someone like Islam going that route in his late 30s, despite him being a very proficient striker. Might be a HW thing though.

 

[PlayTheGame]

Can't fail if you never even try. None of the top guys even have an amateur record in boxing.

Yan has one, but at a national level; I think his dream was to make a national Olympic team but he switched to MMA after realizing he's not gonna cut it. There are a couple of his amateur boxing matches on YT.

 

[PlayTheGame]

I guess the reason there have been less and less elite grapplers from that area outside Dagestan these days is because it's a damn tough lifestyle and most euro-russians & other slavs would just rather work normal jobs than be about that life

That's an interesting thought. Yeah, freestyle wrestling kinda has that "getting out of the slums" feel to it, being cheap to practice and all. Russian kids from comparatively richer regions probably pick something like hockey instead.

 

[MerAndre DvalishFili]

Albert Tumenov fits this description as well