Why Wrestlers are Dominating in MMA
We can all agree that wrestling is very important in the chaotic world of mixed martial arts. Some experts and analysts go even further believing it is a perfect base for MMA, but, this stays open for debate. One thing is sure, you can’t compete in modern MMA without at least defensive wrestling skills.
In the late 90s, the likes of Dan Severn and Mark Coleman showed the world the power of wrestling in MMA. At the time, the mix of wrestling and ground and pound techniques was a winning formula against BJJ fighters who were dominating the competition back then.
Like BJJ, wrestling has only evolved through the years and as we’re about to see below, fighters with a wrestling base are dominating in modern MMA.
Numbers don’t lie
Let’s take UFC as an example and its top 15 rankings of each division. Most of the title holders and best fighters have an elite wrestling base. Henry Cejudo, Kamaru Usman, Jon Jones are just some of the biggest names.
The thing is, wrestling comes up with more UFC champions than any other martial arts. According to Sebastian Rivera and his study, 40% of the all-time UFC champions had been fighters with a wrestling base.
The American fighters mostly have experience competing in NCAA or NCWA wrestling. Some of them are even Olympic medalists like Henry Cejudo. And in recent years, we can see the rise of Russian fighters and their relentless wrestling style is a puzzle yet to be solved. It’s fair to say that both Russia and the US are synonymous with great wrestling.
In fact, wrestling is one of the most popular sports in both of these countries. In the US for instance, it has become a mainstream sport and you can watch the events live on TV. They’re coming up with amazing talents, and the quality of competition is just insane. This the key reason why the best wrestlers are either from the US or Russia.
MMA scoring system is perfect for wrestling
MMA scoring system is not perfect by any means and many fans have a lot to say when it comes to how judges score fights. The judge’s criteria may look equal for every combat style on paper. But no one can deny that the MMA rules suit only one style, wrestling.
The MMA rules are quite simple as the judges are scoring the fight based on effective grappling or striking, aggression, and cage control. How this favors wrestlers you may ask?
Wrestling is all about controlling the rival from the top position or in the clinch. High caliber wrestler could stay on top of the opponent for the entire round. At times, even the entire fight. Thus, a wrestler could win a fight/round by simply laying on top without doing any real damage.
Further, wrestlers get a lot of points for every takedown they score. In fact, some MMA judges are scoring takedowns with the same value as knockdowns. Thus, this often leads to many bizarre decisions we are all well aware of.
For instance, we can often see an MMA fighter dominating the fight on the feet for the entire round. But then his opponent scores a takedown in the last 20s of the round which turns the table around in the eyes of the judges. So just like that, a fighter who dominated the entire round ends up losing on the judge's score cards.
Wrestlers are used to competing
Wrestlers start training at a very young age. They were all wrestling as kids, through high school, and college. So when they shift to MMA, many wrestlers already have hundreds of matches on their records.
Further, wrestling competition is intense and it teaches you how to deal with pressure. So when wrestlers come to MMA, they already know how to deal with all the anxiety and deliver under the big lights.
There’s no such thing as feeling anxious fighting in front of the cameras or audience. They’ve already done it in NCAA and Pan American tournaments. Not to mention the fighters who competed at the Olympics. Fighting in the cage is just another day at the office for most of them.
I hope nobody takes offense to this, but I think (wrestling is.) a lot tougher than MMA” — UFC Champion and Olympic gold medalist, Henry Cejudo
Fighters from other styles like BJJ or Muay Thai can also join MMA with a lot of combat experience. Yet, the quality of wrestling competition is on another level compared to the other fighting styles.
Wrestling dictates where the fight goes
If a wrestler doesn’t feel confident standing, they can always advance to the mat. Scoring a single or double leg takedown instantly cancels any threat on the feet. And wrestling techniques are effective against any other style.
The thing is, it’s very hard for every standup fighter to stop a takedown by using their striking skills and footwork. Even if a striker or BJJ fighter has a decent defense, most of the elite wrestlers would walk right through them. The same stands for clinch fighting that wrestlers use to tire their rivals and score takedowns.
Of course, wrestlers know all this and they will use any chance to put the rival down and make them work. It’s much easier for a wrestler to get one more takedown than for a striker to find the way back to their feet. Getting up is exhausting and doing it a couple of times could quickly empty your gas tank.
A wrestler will always find a way
Wrestlers are mainly known for amazing mental toughness and never give up mentality. The sport itself is so hard that the athletes must have a strong mindset to simply deal with it.
To score a takedown, wrestlers always need to adapt to various situations. Every position is different, and they need to think about three steps in advance. It’s almost like a human chess match. This way of putting various sequences together is also known as “chain wrestling”.
Chain wrestling transfers well into MMA. If a fighter can’t get a takedown for some reason, they will start mixing things up and work their way to the ground. You’re rarely going to see elite wrestlers executing the same move or using the same approach twice.
Instead of panicking, wrestlers are always looking for solutions by trying different things. For instance, we saw many strikers defending a takedown and then get taken down just 10s after with a totally different move.
Wrestlers have insane cardio levels
Pushing yourself every day and giving it all in training is the only way to succeed in wrestling. All training methods consist of grueling exercises and exhausting sparring sessions. If you think MMA training is the hardest, go to the wrestling class to see what pure hell looks like.
Most of the regular people would collapse or vomit after a single class. But the competition is so intense that working your butt off is the only way to go. So, it’s not a surprise that all wrestlers in MMA are cardio machines and can go five rounds easily.
As we know, having a deep gas tank can make a ton of difference in the MMA fight. That’s why wrestlers are focusing on exhausting their rivals at the start of a match by scoring an early takedown. And they don’t have a problem with digging deep and overwhelming the rivals with their great cardio in the later rounds.
Wrestling allows you to quickly learn BJJ
BJJ and wrestling share many similarities and they perfectly go together in MMA. Since both are grappling styles, wrestlers can quickly pick up dangerous BJJ submissions.
The thing is, BJJ and wrestling don’t go one without the other in modern MMA. Every wrestler has to know how to defend and attack the ground. Just controlling the rival on the bottom simply doesn’t work anymore.
In fact, the first thing every wrestler learns is how to apply chokes and joint locks. It’s like their second nature and many wrestlers like Khabib also have an insane BJJ game. We dare to say that a mix of wrestling and BJJ skills is the scariest combo in MMA.
Do you agree that wrestling dominates MMA? Let us know in the comments below.
