BJJ and Muay Thai

[danfaggella]

wrestling is DEFINITELY not the most important aspect of MMA fighting. Wrestlers can takedown, but they dont know anything about striking, about the gaurd or other MMA positions, and thier takedowns leave them wide open for submissions. wresters turned BJJ guys do well because they can adjust thier skills and get used to submissions and grappling positions, and they will learn pinning is essentially useless.

[covaliufan]

That's the thing; it's true you need to be decently well rounded to succeed in mma. You need some knowledge of boxing or kick boxing, some knowledge of wrestling and clinch work, and some knowledge of ground fighting. Wrestlers who fight in mma tend to be at least competent in these other aspects of fighting. Go tell Don Frye, Randy Couture, Kevin Randleman, Joe Stevenson, Tito Ortiz, or Genki Sudo that they don't know anything about striking, or avoiding ground submissions. Take Chuck Liddell, a wrestler famous for winning fights by knock out (and current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion); you dont' see him winning fights by submission, but he has at least a purple belt in bjj. You just don't see your stereotypical "I'll take you down and immediately put myself in a triangle choke" wrestler anymore.

Given a certain basic competence in each of these skill sets, it's not unreasonable to rate wrestling as the most important to excel at. As I said before, it's wrestling skill that allows you to decide what range the fight is going to take place at, giving you the option to keep either bjj'ers or kick boxers out of whatever range they're most comfortable in.