The Evolution of the Wrestler: From Dan Severn to Brock Lesnar

that little promo shot was hilarious.

Nobody compares to mj as far as competiveness and wanting to win in everything he did.

But they never really produce anything devastating.

What is your back ground with wrestling The Darkness?

Freestyle over all is more technical. The takedowns are a lot harder to finish and the attacking wrestler really opens them self up to get scored on in freestyle of they have sloppy technique.

Fokestlye doesn’t have many rules changes year to year but the style of D-1 college is way different than even 5 years ago. The scrambling after a shot can go on over a minute for one take down. Askren was on of the pioneers of the current funky style that we see dominating at nationals.
Askren and Hendricks are some of the best college wrestlers in the history of wrestling. I have been high on them for awhile. Askren style seems to be a natural transition to mma. While Hendricks wrestling style was more of a brawling, never give up, didnt care what it took to win a match. Hendricks was a very hated wrestler in college. Either guy would beat GSP in a pure wrestling match. So for the Russians that you have mentioned they would more than likely be able to win on positioning alone as long as they have decent bjj sub D.

Another guy to talk about would be Phil Davis. Another NCAA champion that is doing well in mma. I have a feeling we are going to see many National champs and AA from college wrestling storming onto the mma scene in the next 5 years. Hopefully people keep doubting them so I can keep making money betting on them.

To be fair, King Mo does say that folkstyle is a better style for some guys, and is more focused on controlling the opponent on the ground.

And isn’t Greco-Roman wrestling has always been second fiddle in the US, but my impression is that isn’t the case elsewhere.

Mo is little above average when it comes to his USA freestyle accomplishments. He choked at the last Olympic team trials which hurts his legacy as far as wrestling goes. He does a good job at break down people and styles as far as wrestling goes.

He is correct in saying that Greco guys are just guys who cant cut it in Freestyle in America. Greco wrestling is like a red headed step child of wrestling in America. Very few people wrestle Greco growing up

Folkstyle wrestling is less technical but I think it does help people transition to BJJ very easily. Most of the positioning and some of the moves are very similar.

I can do a fan post to help break down and give out more wrestling info if people are interested.

Carwin does not have to use it to beat someone in the UFC before including him, but he will have to do more than just show it in training to have a better idea about where exactly he falls on the list.

However, based on his collegiate pedigree and what I have seen and been told of his training, I was somewhat hesitant to include him anyway – I think that Lesnar will out-wrestle him pretty decisively this weekend.

Its true that fighters and styles evolve to counter what is dominant at the time. MMA wrestling, or functional wrestling, has begun to dominate BJJ-based (or similar, such as Sambo) grappling in MMA, and will continue to do so until an effective counter is found.

However, the various forms of striking have never been dominant bases in MMA unless they were coupled with high level grappling of one form or another. There are occasionally anomalies, but those are the exception – where a fighter can force his opponent to stand with him (think Chuck Liddell, who’s wrestling-based elite TDD allowed him to keep fights standing).

BJ Penn, while not a wrestler by training, has elite TDD and near-elite takedown ability, but he uses a mix of balance and various techniques to accomplish this. Of course, even he was steam-rolled by the best functional wrestler in the game (GSP).

Machida also has elite TDD (he has never been taken down with a conventional single- or double-leg takedown in the UFC) and elite takedown ability, but his are primarily sumo and modified judo based, not wrestling based.

Anderson, and Shogun to a lesser degree, have thrived because they haven’t faced elite functional wrestlers so they are able to showcase their striking. There are none at 185, and only Jon Jones on the immediate horizon at 205 in the UFC, but many others with the potential to get there.

A way past his prime Coleman showed Rua’s vulnerability, and a non-elite functional wrestler (but world-class freestyle wrestler) in the person of Sonnen will do the same to Anderson (as did Brilz, a good, but not elite functional wrestler, against Nog Lite; as will Rashad against Rua – also good, but not elite as a functional wrestler).