I wouldn't go this far; and I think I have a fairly impartial perspective, since I've dabbled in them all! Just two quick points for now though: 1. Wrestling does not dominate MMA; and certainly unadulterated wrestling does not dominate MMA. In the least, wrestlers have had to learn some strike defense (as well as some striking of their own); they've also had to learn submissions defense as well. 2. MMA results do not perfectly mimic real-life streets. MMA is still encased in a variety of rules - most of which disfavor strikers and to a lesser extent "takedown"-oriented arts such as judo (and wrestling). So I would not take MMA outcomes as perfect predictors of street outcome. I could write a book about this topic, but for now I don't want to get too embroiled in this muck again
I cannot stress this enough. It's actually very difficult to land a knee or a kick against a wrestler who dives at your legs, if the latter has some familiarity with defending against kicks. Your window to connect with a knee or a kick is very small (I'd say most kicks other than the front kick may not even be applicable); and you have one chance to land the "perfect" shot a la Masvidal v. Askren. A personal background and confession here. I come from a pure traditional striking background originally, as a TKD competitor. As such, I had a very low opinion of boxing and grappling initially. The latter is ironic doubly because I was a fairly accomplished high school wrestler (in fact, I may have made all-state eventually but for an arm injury that made me quit). But I thought wrestling was a pure "sport" with no real-life combat application. Even if that was not the case, I thought it would be easy to strike a wrestler down on the way in. UFC, especially Mark Coleman's early success, opened my eyes and changed my views on grappling and wrestling. After watching it, I had my wrestling friends shoot my legs as a practice and see whether I could strike counter it in a controlled setting. It was not so easy, and traditional TKD kicks wouldn't work at all due to the reaction time issues or bad angles issues. Overall, I think UFC and the growth of MMA have now distorted the real balance among the martial arts or the true state of their efficacy by elevating the grappling arts over the striking arts in an inaccurate manner. Most MMA rules and "norms," unbeknownst to the casual observer, greatly benefit grappling and disadvantage striking. Still, perhaps original elevation of grappling was necessary, because grappling was too devalued before the MMA era.
