- Joined
- Aug 30, 2013
- Messages
- 8,500
- Reaction score
- 833
For years, wrestlers dominated the UFC... not just any kind of wrestlers... All-Americans! America's unique style of wrestling taught in schools put more emphasis on control making it the best base for MMA.
or so we thought...
Stipe is the only UFC champion left that represents America. He's technically a D1 wrestler but he did the sport as a side hobby to stay in shape for baseball and never won a match in the national tournament. His boxing is much more relevant to his UFC championship run.
Besides Stipe, Usman is the only American wrestler that's a champ. While he is definitely a great wrestler, he competed in a lower level of college competition(Division 2) and chooses to represent his native Nigeria. IMO, his enormous size and physicality has more to do with his UFC dominance than his actual skill as a wrestler. To this day, his twitter handle is USMAN84KG(185lbs in Freedom units)
There are actually more Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belts as UFC champions than wrestlers... What gives?
Has wrestling been exposed?
Everyone says the Russian connection to MMA is through sambo and to a much lesser extent judo, yet they dominate in international wrestling. You're of of the mind American folkstyle is clearly better suited given the nature of MMA, for MMA, than the more common international freestyle.
I certainly would. The international freestyle or even the International Greco-Roman, it's very very limited on what would transfer over. And again if you can't get up off the bottom, you're in really big trouble unless you're some kind of Roger Gracie style where you don't mind being there. And the other thing is, it's lot of energy to use a takedown if you go out and you fight hard for a takedown and the opponent pops back up, well now your batteries run down, and here you are back in battle. In wrestling you'd usually have some time to work. You're just trained to have that breather. It's a really big deal for foreign wrestlers, and we see it a lot. Tom Watson just beat a very good foreign wrestler, he beat him to death, but it's the same deal, I can't think of his name I think you know who I'm talking about. Thiago Silva tapped him out, and Tom Watson just beat him up.
I certainly would. The international freestyle or even the International Greco-Roman, it's very very limited on what would transfer over. And again if you can't get up off the bottom, you're in really big trouble unless you're some kind of Roger Gracie style where you don't mind being there. And the other thing is, it's lot of energy to use a takedown if you go out and you fight hard for a takedown and the opponent pops back up, well now your batteries run down, and here you are back in battle. In wrestling you'd usually have some time to work. You're just trained to have that breather. It's a really big deal for foreign wrestlers, and we see it a lot. Tom Watson just beat a very good foreign wrestler, he beat him to death, but it's the same deal, I can't think of his name I think you know who I'm talking about. Thiago Silva tapped him out, and Tom Watson just beat him up.
or so we thought...
Stipe is the only UFC champion left that represents America. He's technically a D1 wrestler but he did the sport as a side hobby to stay in shape for baseball and never won a match in the national tournament. His boxing is much more relevant to his UFC championship run.
Besides Stipe, Usman is the only American wrestler that's a champ. While he is definitely a great wrestler, he competed in a lower level of college competition(Division 2) and chooses to represent his native Nigeria. IMO, his enormous size and physicality has more to do with his UFC dominance than his actual skill as a wrestler. To this day, his twitter handle is USMAN84KG(185lbs in Freedom units)
There are actually more Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belts as UFC champions than wrestlers... What gives?
Has wrestling been exposed?
So there's only a couple of things in wrestling that really work. Wrestlers tend to do good in MMA because they tend to be just some tough guys, it's not a karate situation where they grew up their whole life punching the air; in a wrestling situation you grab a hold of another human being every day. They get in good shape and they're rough, they're used to going a long time and going in there when they're hurt and tired and all that good stuff. Wrestlers don't do well because wrestling technique is superior to another discipline's technique.
