Nobody ever said there was a minimum number of fights to be had, just that few world class wrestlers had entered MMA in the last 20 years.
Thereās guys who wrestled in college and got into MMA I wouldnāt consider elite wrestlers. Rashad Evans, despite the fact he handed Greg Jones one of his 3 losses ever. Never was an All American. Frankie Edgar, great wrestler, not elite. Gray Maynard, one time AA and that was it. Matt Hughes, very good wrestler but was not an elite wrestler. Jon Jones, great wrestler who beat Max Askren once. Didnāt wrestle past junior college so who knows if he would have been.
To me elite means becoming an NCAA champion, being a multiple time All American, and or competing at the US Open and internationally and not doing badly.
RUTHLESS !!!
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many great wrestlers have done mma Very very few have when they were currently in top 20 or even top 50 Besides BO Pico and Stevenson id say no other would be current top 50
edger was close to aa never did .,.,didnt win hs states either but very good even elite But he enetered MMA AFTER his wrestling career over same with Evens and Maynard None were top 100/Larkin was very good he used to wrestle Jantzen a lot
maynard evans edger never qualified for US open
I think it started with guys who needed something to do after not making the 96 team. A lot of guys out of that group were big names in wrestling but at the tail end of their career, so I think that set a trend. Coleman, Kerr, Alger, Jackson, all had varying degrees of success. Also Henderson came into MMA while he was still near the top. He made the 96 team and was fighting a year later and barely lost to Quincy Clark in 2000. Same with Couture who lost to I think either Gleasman or Lowney in 2000. Lindland was still at the top, having fought several times and winning an Olympic and world silver afterwards, then resuming MMA after that.
coleman kerr alger etc came in with 0 mma training.Todays wrestlers have a good amount of mma training..There was a few wrestlers near top of their game who were elite but the majority after the wrestling was well over.Lindland is only one i can think of that wrestled and did mma at same time..
Donāt forget about Woogie Matt Lindland
he posted him
Henderson, Couture both went through the 2000 quad. Also if you count Dennis Hall and his brief foray into MMA, then there was also Lindsey Durlacher who had a brief run.
hall i wont count he had like 1 or 2 fights ..there have been very few like henderson lindland
Only backwards hat losers would get excited about this
-the resident douchebag
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I havenāt commented on this thread in a while well thatās cuz Iām kinda perplexed. But I mean RAFās been doing a good job, right? I mean Iāve been highly impressed with everything. But I understand the dichotomy between the wrestling purists and the ones that like to see the MMA wrestlers in it. Hopefully we can find common ground.
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I think RAF is doing great as they are expanding and thereās a strong fanbase there .. that said, even I dislike some of the mma matchups - I mean Why is Belal out there? Rockhold? Robbie Lawler?
The match making needs to be tweaked and it needs structure - put out rankings or have tournaments
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Only backward hat losers get excited about the 2nd tier retired MMA guys wrestling.
It is sad the skilled wrestlers do not bring the crowds and viewers !
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