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Wrestling in MMA: an attribute or a fundamental?
As many of you already know, the purpose of the early ufc’s was to find out which martial art would reign supreme among all the others. It wasn’t long before the legendary Royce Gracie proved without question that gjj or bjj was the single most dominant style of all. With time, other styles like boxing, kickboxing, and later wrestling, also proved effective and were incorporated to form the modern hybrid mma style. Although the striking arts were the first to be embraced for their effectiveness by traditional martial artists, there was a doubt towards viewing wrestling as an effective martial art. The irony lied in the belief that it lacked overall finishing skills. It wasn’t until a mediocre wrestler by the name of Dan Severn came around, that demonstrated what wrestling has now proven to be, THE fundamental of mma fighting. In the end it’s not going to be about striking or submission skills, it’s going to come down to how well you can wrestle and control your opponent. The fighters that are going to have the greatest potential be successful are going to be the ones with the best wrestling background.
We have already begun to see this, and it’s only going to get more common. Here’s why? This type of combat is tailor made for wrestlers for 2 main reasons. A clinch in a fight is inevitable, and controlling your opponent is the basis towards providing the most efficient use of a fighter’s strikes and submissions. Sooner or later both fighters will find themselves in a clinch, and when they do the fighter who can control the other will usually have the upper hand. Submissions and striking skills will be secondary. Ken Shamrock might know many more submission techniques than Randy Couture, but if they fought, who do you think would end up executing the finishing moves? This is the main reason why Couture and Matt Hughes have been, and are going to be so difficult to beat. They have taken out the best strikers and submission artists out there because they posses the most dominant fighting style in mma.
It comes down to 3 principles that work in order: 1.Control, 2.Position, 3.Execution. Nobody does this better than the guys I mentioned. If you look at almost every Randy Couture fight, you’ll notice that he follows these steps religiously. Some fighters don’t follow this, while others jump from one principle to another too soon, or even disregard one at all. It’s like this; you’ll only get the most out of your execution if you first establish a strong position. Furthermore, you’ll only get the most out of your position when you have soundly controlled your opponent. So then the question remains, what is the best way to control your opponent in a mma setting? That’s right, wrestling. Part of this is why Tito lost. Although Tito is a great striker and good with submissions, his bread and butter is, and will always be his wrestling background. It has been the “backbone” to his great striking and submission skills. I believe that is the way it out to be, it’s just that Tito lost the control battle. He tried to out-wrestle a superior wrestler and never managed to sustain a dominant position to execute. He would have stood a better chance using his wrestling ability to remain upright and strike.
Strikes and submissions obviously work, but the key lies in getting the most out of them to be successful. They are great, butcanuwrestle?
We have already begun to see this, and it’s only going to get more common. Here’s why? This type of combat is tailor made for wrestlers for 2 main reasons. A clinch in a fight is inevitable, and controlling your opponent is the basis towards providing the most efficient use of a fighter’s strikes and submissions. Sooner or later both fighters will find themselves in a clinch, and when they do the fighter who can control the other will usually have the upper hand. Submissions and striking skills will be secondary. Ken Shamrock might know many more submission techniques than Randy Couture, but if they fought, who do you think would end up executing the finishing moves? This is the main reason why Couture and Matt Hughes have been, and are going to be so difficult to beat. They have taken out the best strikers and submission artists out there because they posses the most dominant fighting style in mma.
It comes down to 3 principles that work in order: 1.Control, 2.Position, 3.Execution. Nobody does this better than the guys I mentioned. If you look at almost every Randy Couture fight, you’ll notice that he follows these steps religiously. Some fighters don’t follow this, while others jump from one principle to another too soon, or even disregard one at all. It’s like this; you’ll only get the most out of your execution if you first establish a strong position. Furthermore, you’ll only get the most out of your position when you have soundly controlled your opponent. So then the question remains, what is the best way to control your opponent in a mma setting? That’s right, wrestling. Part of this is why Tito lost. Although Tito is a great striker and good with submissions, his bread and butter is, and will always be his wrestling background. It has been the “backbone” to his great striking and submission skills. I believe that is the way it out to be, it’s just that Tito lost the control battle. He tried to out-wrestle a superior wrestler and never managed to sustain a dominant position to execute. He would have stood a better chance using his wrestling ability to remain upright and strike.
Strikes and submissions obviously work, but the key lies in getting the most out of them to be successful. They are great, butcanuwrestle?
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