ZERO D1 All American Wrasslers are champs... only one American champ left

yookfarb said:
Jon Jones also only wrestled in community college!
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Still the American system and he did very well (national champion).

It is what it is. Wrestling is still a great base and the collegiate system will continue to produce great fighters. It's not just going to magically drop off instantly.
 
Kinda arbitrary to not count anyone below D-1. Lots of great wrestlers in lower levels. Hell, Cain, Bones, and I think Colby all started at Iowa Central (ever heard of it?).

It just looks like you're stretching too hard to make a point. Which means it's probably not a very good point.

The top ranks are still littered with high-level amateur wresters. Overall, there's been a diversification of backgrounds over the past 10-15 years, but wrestling is still the most prolific background in the top ranks.
 
yookfarb said:
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.

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.

or so we thought...

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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.

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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.
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Not all american, but:

Volk
Khabib
Usman
Stipe

Plus a lot of the top 10 in each division
 
AndrewGolota48 said:
Only reason Usman wasn't D1 is he started very late, there is zero doubt from anyone in the sport of wrestling that he had high end D1 wrestling talent.
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plus he’s really stupid so a lot of times dumbasses have to go to lower tier schools.
 
D1 wrestling is just extremely overrated here. It means nothing if you compare to international level wrestling competition. Ask Snyder, Nickal, Downey
 
sampuncher said:
Usman was a division 2 I think.
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TS
Mayonnaiseandjelly said:
Cejud and Mm left the 125 division. Figuerdo loses to both handily. 135 was Cejudo, tj, garbrant, cruz. All wrestlers... dc and Jones at lhw both wrestlers.
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You forgot the WW Div. Since GSP

Usman-Woodley-Robbie-Hendricks

All were Folkstyle wrestlers growing up...

Justin was a D1 All American and he's fighting for the LW title.
 
Still plenty of wrestlers. More nations have good MMA athletes nowadays, which is good.
 
Freestyle wrestling rules baby. The "ride" that folkstyle guys brag about is only good at regional/non ranked level. Top 10 in the UFC ground skills are too high level for it to work, unless they supplement it with really good bjj.

Freestyle always ruled at the higher levels, that's why Khabib and GSP are/were so dominant
 
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Sweater of AV said:
Just a few months ago: Stipe, Jones, Usman, Cejudo x 2.
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You can make an argument that Cejudo is more skilled in freestyle than collegiate. To me it's clear as day, he's a freestyle olympic gold medalist and highly speaks of freestyle wrestling whenever he gets the chance
 
Sweater of AV said:
Just a few months ago: Stipe, Jones, Usman, Cejudo x 2.
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Cejudo was an Olympian, he never wrestled in college. Jones wrestled Junior college, I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t a D1 program. So still Stipe is the only American D1 wrestler.
 
Iron Monger said:
Freestyle wrestling rules baby. The "ide" that folkstyle guys brag about is only good at regional/non ranked level. Top 10 in the UFC ground skills are too high level for it to work, unless they supplement it with really good bjj.

Freestyle always ruled at the higher levels, that's why Khabib and GSP are/were so dominant
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100%. Sherdoggers simply don't understand NCAA is just another university/college wrestling that only US cares. I have never seen the world class wrestling coaches highly touted about NCAA, whereas they praise Caucasus, Iranian, Turkey FS wreslters. Beast from the East!
 
Immigrant mentality from Yugoslavia!
O H!
 
JoshR86 said:
TS


You forgot the WW Div. Since GSP

Usman-Woodley-Robbie-Hendricks

All were Folkstyle wrestlers growing up...

Justin was a D1 All American and he's fighting for the LW title.
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Colby was the interim as well. This thread is trash
 
Iron Monger said:
You can make an argument that Cejudo is more skilled in freestyle than collegiate. To me it's clear as day, he's a freestyle olympic gold medalist and highly speaks of freestyle wrestling whenever he gets the chance
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Yes but he's a product of the US system, which was the main point. There's no denying he's an amazing freestyle wrestler.
 
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