Some questions about wrestlers in MMA...

3 types of wrestling in the US
Greco - upper body only
Freestyle - leg attacks are allowed
Folkstyle - essentially a modified version of Freestyle that is used in schools in the US, the other two are considered the "international" styles.

You win a wrestling match by scoring more points, which you get for takedowns, reversals, and escapes, or by pin, no submissions.

Lindland won a Silver medal in Greco A few have won national titles in folkstyle. The olympics are the highest level in Greco and Freestyle, the NCAA championships are considered the highest level in folkstyle.

Yes.

 

a PROFESSIONAL wrestler is a athlete that is a ACTOR for entertainment. they usually have some REAL wrestling skill before they become PRO but itz NOT REQUIRED. to be successful one needz to be BIG , STRONG, willing to gobble steroidz, take chairz off your head a few timez per week and above all be a ACTOR that entertainz screaming moronz that dont care they are watching a SHOW. so NO there are no professional wrestlers that then become good wrestlers or good MMA wrestlers AFTER they have become "only" GREAT PRO WRESTLERs. mainly because to become a great pro wrestler your training on SET PREARRANGED movez that dont relate to REAL fighting. so you have alot of GREAT real world class amatuer wrestlerz that become PRO WRESTLERz but NOT the OTHER way around. brockz success and now bobby lashleyz success comez from being great wrestlerz BEFORE they became PRO FAKERz and then just switching back to MMA at a early enough age.

as far as GSP and that rogan comment itz pretty true but the reason he is such a great wrestler is for yearz now he has trained with great wrestlerz on a world class level and thatz been so much of his training he probably has close to as much wrestling training as most wrestlerz would get wrestling alone ESPECAILLY on the MAIN aspectz like the SHOOT, CLINCH and GROUND throw witch relate so well to getting good position on your opponent in a real or MMA fight.

as far as the NCAA division 1 and 2 champion that only meanz the wrestler on the UNIVERSITY level for america was rated a champ. all these atheltes are amatuerz as there is no PRO level. a successful NCAA champ could then go onto qualify for the olympic team if they had the desire and success. that said itz important to note that america isnt the only producer of top notched wrestling talent as cuba and many countriez globally produce quite a few wrestlerz that are competitive or better than their american NCAA equaliventz especially them dang russian countriez.

SO in closing is there such thing as a PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER ?

well YES there is BUT NO there isnt because they are NOT wrestlerz in TRUTH as they are in TRUTH greatly skilled entertainerz that are willing to RISK their bodiez etc each week flying off the turn bucklez expertly trained to make it look like they just killed themselvez or their opponent without hopefully really killing their opponent. am i KNOCKING these DUDEz ? NOPE alot of them take MORE punishment in many wayz then MMA fighterz. all im saying is that all PRO WRESTLERz are not actually in truth FIGHTING when they wrestle as they are ACTING while fighting. picture brad pittz moviez being better because he insisted on getting punched in the face for real during the fight scenez. the punch to the face would be real but it would simply be a PLANNED. thatz a PRO WRESTLER in a NUTSHELL.

could any of these PRO WRESTLERz become great MMA fighterz without any real MMA backgroundz first ???

yes im sure there would be a few that would do OK or better BUT that would be more to do with their SIZE, strength and their insane amount of steriodz and they would have to be able to take a guy out within the first few minutez or they would gas and become useless thereafter.

most DECORATED mma wrestlerz ??

yep beebs mentioned matt lindlandz silver medal, rulon gardener also comez to mind ? i think that waz his last name, he won a GOLD at the olympics and had at least one fight in mma and dont know what happened to him. winning a GOLD at the olympics (or the world championshipz in OFF OLYMPIC yearz) is the HIGHEST level that a wrestler can achieve. itz either ROMAN GRECO or FREESTYLE wrestling with the MAIN difference being roman greco you lock a guyz upper body up and throw him to the mat whereas freestyle you shoot for the legz to topple them to the mat. coleman waz good enough to make the american olympic team as a alternate eventhough he never got to compete so he waz a legitamate top level wrestler before he started with mma.

 

Well I promise I am forgetting some, probably some of the best, and I am probably being American centric.

Lindland, Couture, Coleman, Henderson, Trigg (did decently in medium level international tournaments, Joe Warren, Lesnar, Hughes, Koscheck.

All of those guys have good to great credentials in pure wrestling.

GSP, BJ Penn, Arona and plenty others are all very good at wrestling in MMA without having great if any pure wrestling background.

Run fighters names through here to see what they have accomplished in wrestling.
http://www.wrestlinghalloffame.org/

 

A 2008 Dave Meltzer piece about wrestlers in MMA.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-wrestling012908

 

Good thread popkins cleared a bit up for me. We have nothing for wrestling over here although i caught the NCAA finals on ESPN america very early one morning, didn't understand how points were scored but my brother picked it up somehow

 

The basics are pretty easy to understand; you get points for takedowns, and less points for getting up.

So if one guy takes the other down, the other gets up, the one with the takedown earned more points.

Overly simplified, but that should be enough to make it more entertaining.

 

We don't have wrestling in the UK but hopefully with the introduction of MMA for people will embrace Judo and BJJ, which we do have and both are obviously very effective.

 

Yes.

People in the UK always say "oh we don't have wrestling" but your judo infrastructure is probably better than ours; good high level judo can equalize or even surpass wrestling if used right.

One irreplaceable part of wrestling, though, is the huge amount of conditioning work and mental toughness it builds since it is a competitive sport based solely on winning.

 

Yeah, wrestling creates incredibly strong fighters who are well conditioned and mentally tough. They are used to incredibly tough competition and are very experienced in cutting weight.

Purely from a skill perspective though Judo is awesome for stand up grappling, throws and trips while BJJ is great for obvious reasons. Roger Gracie has his BJJ Academy in London and he's an awesome jits guy.

 

Thank you.

I agree about Kos, something about his speed, form, and drive.

He has a nearly perfect double leg, its quick, and he doesn't stop until its finished.