Why are different weightclass dominated by particular styles?

[BowserJr]

HW is primarily stikers the few decent wrestlers do well. Use to be dominated by grapplers until the best grapplers all aged out (around the time Stipe beat werdum)

LHW dominated by strikers. Interestingly it was dominated by wrestlers before Pride fighters came over

MW dominated by strikers and it always had been

WW dominated by wrestlers and always has been

LW dominated by grapplers and always has been

FW dominated by strikers and always has been

BW is the only one that's never been dominated by one or another

125.... who fights there again?

Why is there never elite wrestlers at MW?

Why is there no elite sprawl and brawl at WW?

Does anyone find this interesting?

 

[Doctor Grudge]

There have been elite wrestlers at MW. Romero, Weidman, Sonnen, Lindland, Henderson, Okami. If you want to say some of those guys like Romero are wrestlers but chose to strike, then you could say Whittaker is a striker who now chooses to wrestle.



LHW had another run where most of the best LHWs were wrestlers (DC, King Mo, Jones, Bader, Davis, Rumble <--- yes, I know he is a striker but with a wrestling base).

During the periods where LHW was "dominated" by strikers, there were still at guys like Randy Courture, Tito Ortiz, Ricardo Arona, and Rashad Evans at various periods.

California Kid, Volk, and Pittbull are well rounded fighters, I'm not sure if I'd stylize them as strikers per say (perhaps Pittbull). 145 was not "always" dominated by strikers, it's just that the best and 3rd best FW of all time were strikers. That is pretty different.


It seems like your premise it's more influenced by optics than facts. Why are different divisions dominated by different styles? Because they have different people.







It's kind of like a few years ago some basketball fans were saying how come there are no good centers, and it's like....because the best players happen to just not be centers. Now in the NBA, there are like 4 or 5 top tier players who are centers or whatever.

That's just how it is. I think at open weight though, striking is probably a bit better than at lower weights since it's easier to land hits and hits do more damage, but other than that, it's just relatively random.

 

[PrideNverDies]

HW is primarily stikers the few decent wrestlers do well. Use to be dominated by grapplers until the best grapplers all aged out (around the time Stipe beat werdum)

LHW dominated by strikers. Interestingly it was dominated by wrestlers before Pride fighters came over

MW dominated by strikers and it always had been

WW dominated by wrestlers and always has been

LW dominated by grapplers and always has been

FW dominated by strikers and always has been

BW is the only one that's never been dominated by one or another

125.... who fights there again?

Why is there never elite wrestlers at MW?

Why is there no elite sprawl and brawl at WW?

Does anyone find this interesting?

You don't even know who fights at 125? And I love how you don't mention WMMA. What exactly is an elite sprawl and brawl? And MW always had elite wrestlers, Dan Henderson, Yoel Romero, guys like Jacare, Maia, and Brunson style wise.

The truth is MMA is full of well rounded fighters, strikers, and grapplers. And they're constantly keeping each other in check.

 

[Cooliox]

They were all dominated by wrestlers really… outside of MW where Anderson Silva somehow managed to reign supreme.

But then Dana cut almost all the wrestlers… he hates them with a passion.

Belal is still there because he’s got Khabib backing him

 

[Doctor Grudge]

They were all dominated by wrestlers really… outside of MW where Anderson Silva somehow managed to reign supreme.

But then Dana cut almost all the wrestlers… he hates them with a passion.

Belal is still there because he’s got Khabib backing him

You could easily argue it's the opposite. The reason why the UFC was dominated by wrestlers is because Dana filled it up with a bunch of NCAA guys to give the sport legitimacy.

Pride wasn't dominated by wrestlers.

 

[Cooliox]

You could easily argue it's the opposite. The reason why the UFC was dominated by wrestlers is because Dana filled it up with a bunch of NCAA guys to give the sport legitimacy.

Pride wasn't dominated by wrestlers.

I think this has been argued to death.

The ring favors strikers, while the cage favors wrestlers.

Pride rules and scoring also favored strikers, and hence the best strikers were in Japan.

Try shooting with one hand on the ground or but scooting in Japan and you will get soccer kicked into bolivian

 

[Harlekin]

My guess is top heavy strikers, because LHW and HW have way more one punch ko power. A lot of LHW are 230+ and cut to 205

125: I would've guesser strikers, because it's hard to keep a 5'4 guy down and they mostly are well rounded.
But DJ, Cejudo, Pantoja are wrestlers

 

[Flower2dPeople]

Grappling demands good cardio base and athleticism. The lower you go, the more dynamic they get. Flyweights are small enough that they don't rely on top pressure as it's easy scramble all the time

 

[BowserJr]

You don't even know who fights at 125? And I love how you don't mention WMMA. What exactly is an elite sprawl and brawl? And MW always had elite wrestlers, Dan Henderson, Yoel Romero, guys like Jacare, Maia, and Brunson style wise.

The truth is MMA is full of well rounded fighters, strikers, and grapplers. And they're constantly keeping each other in check.

Yoel Romeros mma wrestling was not very good at all

Henderson had some decent mma wrestling I guess but the division has always been filled with striking first fighters. Jacare and Maia are not wrestlers. They're bjj guys (same for Bustamante) Brunson is not elite either

 

[PrideNverDies]

Yoel Romeros mma wrestling was not very good at all

Henderson had some decent mma wrestling I guess but the division has always been filled with striking first fighters. Jacare and Maia are not wrestlers. They're bjj guys (same for Bustamante) Brunson is not elite either

They still aren't strikers so doesn't line up with what you say. If strikers dominated MW then Darren Till would have been champ

 

[blaseblase]

LHW dominated by strikers. Interestingly it was dominated by wrestlers before Pride fighters came over

It was dominated by wrestlers during the second half of Jones title reign. Jones, DC, Rumble, Bader, Davis. Time passes, fighters age out of the sport, and the new talent emerges.

Khamzat and Bo Nickal are at middleweight now and the champion is a grappler. Things happen in cycles.

 

[blaseblase]

Yoel Romeros mma wrestling was not very good at all

Henderson had some decent mma wrestling I guess but the division has always been filled with striking first fighters. Jacare and Maia are not wrestlers. They're bjj guys (same for Bustamante) Brunson is not elite either

Derek Brunson was definitely an elite wrestler. Maybe not an elite fighter but he was top 10 for a long time.

 

[Nobru]

considering the MMA history I know (since UFC 1), I cant see this pattern

there have been great rasslers and great strikers dominating from time to time. I see it as random as in most sports.

 

[GrantB13]

Ebbs and flows. There's no higher reasoning behind these things.

 

[PrideNverDies]

Derek Brunson was definitely an elite wrestler. Maybe not an elite fighter but he was top 10 for a long time.

And Weidman and Rockhold who are very much wrestlers

 

[BowserJr]

They still aren't strikers so doesn't line up with what you say. If strikers dominated MW then Darren Till would have been champ

The point is MW has been historically weak in terms of wrestlers. There has only been a few good ones who used wrestling. Pretty much just weidman and chael. Then you look at lw or ww and it's always stacked with wrestlers who use wrestling to win and they dominate the top 10 always.

Of course there are exceptions like there is 1,2 maybe 3 good strikers that are up there too but it's mostly wrestlers. It's the inverse at mw

 

[blaseblase]

The point is MW has been historically weak in terms of wrestlers. There has only been a few good ones who used wrestling. Pretty much just weidman and chael. Then you look at lw or ww and it's always stacked with wrestlers who use wrestling to win and they dominate the top 10 always.

Of course there are exceptions like there is 1,2 maybe 3 good strikers that are up there too but it's mostly wrestlers. It's the inverse at mw

Weidman, Chael, Rockhold, Okami, Brunson, Whittaker, DDP, Brendan Allen, Chimaev, Bo Nickal, Aliskerov, etc.

 

[BowserJr]

Weidman, Chael, Rockhold, Okami, Brunson, Whittaker, DDP, Brendan Allen, Chimaev, Bo Nickal, Aliskerov, etc.

That's all of them spread across like 5 eras and Whittaker, Rockhold and DDP don't use wrestling first approaches either.

Calling these guys wrestlers is like calling Chuck lidell or tank abbott wrestlers lol