Wrestling: The American Way

A look at the importance of American Wrestling on the sport of MMA

The only other group of fighters to have as large of an impact as the Brazilians on the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the sport of MMA as a whole are the American wrestlers. While the foundation of the UFC was built by Brazilian Royce Gracie, the fighters responsible for leading the UFC from its “dark age” into the limelight are the American wrestlers. It is a widely held belief in the mixed martial arts community that the first season of the Ultimate Fighter and the climatic finale, which showcased the terrific fight between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar live on Spike TV, are responsible for saving the UFC and propelling it into the mainstream. While this may be true, if it were not for American wrestlers such as Ken Shamrock, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, and Matt Hughes, the UFC, and the sport of MMA itself, may have fast become a fad. Since the absence of Royce Gracie from the UFC beginning with UFC 6, American wrestlers have become a staple of the organization and the sport worldwide; Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, and Don Frye. Each are American mixed martial artists with extensive backgrounds in wrestling who carried the torch from Gracie and dominated the UFC in its early years. If it were it not for the sport’s extensive banning in 1996 & 1997, they may have become even bigger stars than Gracie himself at the time.

When the first martial arts boom occurred in the United States post World War II, and the second boom in the 1960s, people all over the country were looking for the best martial art to practice. From Judo to Jeet Kune Do, Americans wanted a martial art that could be both expressive and deadly. Unbeknownst to the Kung-fu crazed Americans, the best martial art form, or at least, the best foundation for a mixed martial artist, didn’t require a Gi, but a singlet, and was in their very own backyard. Wrestling, one of the oldest martial arts in the world, is also one of the best and most effective martial arts in the world. The dominance of wrestling in the sport of MMA is illustrated none better than in UFC 9. In the third bout of the event, 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist in freestyle wrestling, Mark Schultz, took a fight on same-day notice against a young, but still deadly, “Big Daddy” Gary Goodridge, with little preparation and barley any training for an MMA contest. Much to the surprise of the announcers, the audience on hand, and those watching live on PPV, Schultz destroyed the former UFC 8 tournament runner-up, Goodridge, while only using his wrestling technique. It was the only fight Schultz would ever have in the UFC and in the sport of MMA, but it was a fight that left a lasting impression on MMA enthusiasts around the world; Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu wasn’t the only martial art that fighters would need to learn if they wanted to be a world champion.

Today, the UFC, and the sport of mixed martial arts, is dominated as much by the American wrestler as the Brazilian fighter. For every Brazilian one finds in the MMA rankings, one will also come across an American wrestler. In the featherweight division, the #2 and #3 ranked fighters are Americans with a background in wrestling, Mike Brown and Urijah Faber; both of whom were former champions. In the lightweight division, American wrestlers account for 4 of the 10 highest ranked fighters, and in the welterweight division, 3 of the 10 highest ranked fighters, including the #2 fighter, Jon Fitch. There are only 2 American wrestlers in the middleweight division’s top 10, one of which is Dan Henderson, ranked #3 in the division, and the only fighter to hold PRIDE’s Middleweight and Welterweight Titles at the same time. The other wrestler, Chael Sonnen, can be ranked as high as #5 in the division and could move up with a win this Saturday night over Nate Marquardt at UFC 109. In the light heavyweight division, there are 3 American wrestlers in the top 10, 2 of them, Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson, can be ranked as high as #3 and #4 respectively. In the heavyweight division, 4 of the top 10 fighters are American wrestlers, and some list current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar as the #1 heavyweight fighter in the world. This level of domination in the MMA world is not just clear on paper, but also in the Octagon.

Since the early days in UFC, American wrestlers haven’t just impacted MMA and the UFC with their superior ability to takedown an opponent and control them on the mat, but also with their ability to utilize their wrestling to keep the fight on the feet where they use the other, and more popular, western martial art Boxing. While wrestling is a great martial art to master if one wants to be the best MMA fighter in the world, it is not an end in itself. American wrestlers realizing this, have gravitated toward boxing; some, like Quinton Jackson, Rashad Evans, Frankie Edgar, Chuck Liddell, and Josh Koskcheck, have even fallen in love with their hands; it may come as no surprise that once one tastes the sweet glory of knocking an opponent out, they come back for more. The American wrestler in MMA has evolved to utilize their superior grappling ability to keep the fight standing and then deliver the one-two punch, and sometimes kick, to send their opponent to the mat and the crowd into a fury. Fighters like Liddell, Jackson, and Evans have used this strategy to win the UFC Championship, and with rising American wrestling stars like Jon Jones, surely more championships are in the future for American wrestlers who choose to utilize this aspect of their pedigree. Yet, if it wasn’t for American wrestlers who were stars in the past, who brought UFC out of its “dark ages”, fighters like Jon Jones would never have had the opportunity to be the next big thing in MMA.

It is the American wrestler among all other countries and styles of fighters, who resurrected the UFC from its grave and gave it the life it has today. When the UFC was in its “dark ages”, PPV buy-rates were minimal. It wasn’t until Zuffa purchased the company in 2001 that light started to shine for the UFC. But even with Zuffa’s purchase, if it were not for American wrestlers like Ortiz, Liddell, Shamrock, Hughes, and Couture headlining events, the UFC never would have seen better days. The highest PPV buy-rates came from UFC events that featured one or two of these fighters, and were it not for them, the sport of MMA may never have blossomed as it is today. The four highest PPV buy-rates in the UFC history belong to UFC 100, UFC 92, UFC 91, and UFC 66, and all four events contained at least one American wrestler in the main event, while two of the four featured American wrestlers fighting one another as the main draw (Liddell vs. Tito II, Lesnar vs. Couture). It is no coincidence that the American wrestler will be responsible for taking the sport, and the UFC, to heights, and money, never seen before. Brock Lesnar, the UFC Heavyweight Champion and former WWE star, in his main event fight with Frank Mir at UFC 100, shattered the record for UFC PPV buys with 1,720,000, over 500,000 more buys than the previous highest UFC. With his tremendous wrestling ability and “American” attitude, Lesnar is making waves in the MMA world and helping to bring the sport into the mainstream more than ever. With the American wrestler saving the UFC in its “dark ages”, is it hard to doubt that he will also lead the UFC into an age of “enlightenment”.

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It is no surprise that the biggest draws in America are American fighters themselves, but it does come as a surprise to many that wrestling is the most important foundation for a mixed martial artist. From Shamrock to Lesnar, American wrestlers have impacted the UFC and the sport more than any other group of fighters except arguably the Brazilians. Brazilians are responsible for the foundation of MMA but without Royce Gracie and his family tradition of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu demonstrating technique and elegance in the early UFCs, where blood and brutality where common, Brock Lesnar may never have the chance to generate two million plus pay-per-view buys and propel the UFC further into the mainstream. But it is equally likely that were it not for the likes of Ken Shamrock, Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, and Matt Hughes, the world may have forgot Brazil, Royce Gracie, and Jiu-Jitsu altogether.

By Jeffrey Concerto
ProFighting-fans.com MMA Staff Writer