The Evolution of MMA Relies on the American Wrestler

Him that is so cool! When did he get his American citizenship?

it’s so young. cross-training along with specific backgrounds while growing up is just starting to become a widespread trend.

Even just 6 years ago when I was in HS wrestling, it was all about wrestling year round. Now my old coach is actually setting guys up to do jiu-jitsu and boxing training in the offseasons.

this shit is gonna be awesome. i actually think the days of the Olympic/NCAA champ wrestler making his way to the top are soon to be over. The wrestler-backgrounds who will make it to the top in coming years will be the guys who are pretty damn good high school wrestlers, but didn’t spent endless hours trying to make the Olympics, instead cross-trained in offseason from the age of 14-15. Guys who will have enough wrestling that the Olympic/NCAA guys will have to think twice about wrestling with them, yet also have some years of training other ways to finish that will make the big-time wrestlers think twice.

Wrestlers just come in two breeds. Those that look for finishes and actually MAKE the effort to punish those on top, and those that, “lay n pray.” I think that people don’t understand the idea that a wrestler’s main attack is to take em down, and cause, “Death From Above” (see: Brock Lesnar v Mir II). Wrestlers like Fitch and Kos though are what gives them a bad name. Yes Kos makes minimal effort to finish, but when was the last time Fitch actually finished a fight?

Also I apologize if this does suck, I had just woken up from a night of alcoholic shenanigans.

is that mma is the representation of which particular “martial” style would dominate in true combat. think of the moves in mma that are banned. spikes and knees to the head on the ground are two moves that come to mind that would benefit good wrestlers greater than it would any other skillset. in real life these moves aren’t illegal- so if good wrestlers are the top tier of competition, this alludes to the fact that in a street fight, or a no holds barred match, a wrestler with the ability to knee to the head on the ground would have the greatest chance at victory.

…I agree with this article. There are still too many elite fighters from BJJ and striking backgrounds to make the case that dominant positional wrestlers are overtaking/harming MMA. Moreover, as you point out, there are a ton of guys with wrestling background who incorporate those skills into a highly effective and entertaining MMA style (Jon Jones leaps to mind).

One can only hope that those type of fighters will rise, while guys like Fitch, Sonnen and Maynard remain mired in the contender-not-champion limbo.

On the other hand, if I wake up one day and those three guys are the WW, MW and LW champions, I’m gonna be calling for some rule changes, along with every other fan who never wore wrestling headgear.

If you could give 10-9 or 10-10 for a round where a guy LnP and then 10-8 for one where there was more asskicking going on the wrestling wouldn’t be such an issue. Also, takedowns that don’t accomplish anything shouldn’t count for any points.

There’s a reason why wrestling matches aren’t scored with 10-9 rounds like boxing matches.

No one minds when people use wrestling to finish a fight, they mind when it’s used to grind out a decision with no intention of finishing.

Why don’t we see more Russian wrestlers in MMA? It’s my understanding that Russia and other former Soviet nations dominate in international wrestling competition. But all the MMA fighters who come out of Russia come from a Sambo background and have a very judo-like approach to take downs. Fedor’s the archetype of this tendency.

I mean – there’s basically a whole slew of Russians who’ve competed at the Lawal/Cormier level of competition. Why don’t we see them – or at least their techniques – in MMA?

Anyone who’s familiar with Russian scholastic athletics and/or MMA want to hazard a guess?

People don’t hate wrestling for ‘frustrating the evolution of the sport’.

People hate wrestling because its effective under a flawed scoring system. If you lay on top for 3 rounds you automatically win… but if you lay on top for an infinite ammount of time you will never ever win. Thats why wrestling needs to be recalibrated.

Wrestlers tend to do well because they actually get themselves well rounded standing up/on the ground. Wrestling isn’t really about finishing or defense standing or on the ground, so they actually work on the whole offensive/defensive game in both areas.

So many of these BJJ guys are terrible on their feet (Maia) because they think “well I can’t stand up, but if I can just get it to the ground!” and so many strikers are worthless on the ground (Kongo) because they think “if I can just keep it standing, who cares about the ground!”. They think they have to win with their strength and don’t evolve the other part of the game. Wrestlers meanwhile basically start with a blank slate as far as on the ground/standing fighting. They won’t end up nearly as good at either ground/standing as a BJJ/striker background, but they can take/keep that guy where he doesn’t want to be.

I think if the other disciplines were more willing to train the shit out of what they are weak in and actually get good there, it’d be a different story…….and it’s not like the guys that really do that haven’t found success: Penn (BJJ→boxing), Anderson (MT/BJJ) Jacare’s standup looking pretty good and Mir just for a few examples.

Being strong in one area and weak in the other is a dead end as far as championship aspirations go.

beat me to it.