Mixed martial arts are a combination of many martial disciplines, all of which offer specific benefits. Due to the relatively new nature of MMA, many fighters were not educated in cross training. This makes MMA, which is still in its infancy, a clash of styles as much as a clash of fighters. For this reason, it is often beneficial to have a strong base style that the fighter has trained in from a young age. There are several popular ones, including wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Karate, and Tae Kwon Do. Wrestling is the most dominant of these for reasons described below.
Wrestling bequeaths certain benefits that other styles do not; Of course, the other styles also provide benefits that wrestling does not, but the ability to quickly adopt techniques in other disciplines is one of wrestling’s strengths. The main advantage that wrestling gives the wrestler is the ability to dictate where the fight goes. Very few fighters are capable of taking down an opponent as easily as a fighter. Since fighters have the best takedown offense and defense in MMA, they can effectively neutralize their opponents’ strengths using their own. An example of this is a wrestler who refuses to knock down or be knocked down by a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. It forces the submission fighter to attack, effectively eliminating his best weapon.
Being able to choose where the fight goes can seem like a useless skill if the fighter has no other skills. If your boxing is terrible, won’t you risk getting hit by the BJJ guy with equally bad boxing? While anything can happen in an MMA fight, fighters are generally better prepared than other fighters. This is due to their fantastic strength and conditioning, a discipline they learn from a young age and practice throughout their amateur wrestling career. Pound for pound, wrestlers are the strongest and best-prepared athletes in the sport. This gives them a significant advantage in learning new techniques and outperforming their opponent. His great conditioning increases his punching power, his ability to take a punch, and his ability to boost submissions. With a good amount of cross training, good fighters can crush even seasoned BJJ fighters on the ground.
In addition to the obvious benefits, wrestling also makes it easy to learn other styles. One of the most important aspects of wrestling is having good balance, which is something that helps wrestlers learn boxing and kick boxing. While strong fighters are not usually the best forwards in their division, the risk of a takedown, their strength and strong chin often allow them to dominate better forwards even in the stand up position.
While wrestling is the best foundation for mixed martial arts, success in the sport still has a lot to do with the individual. Take Georges St. Pierre and Lyoto Machida, for example. Both come from karate, which is one of the least used base styles. While GSP has essentially become a fighter, Lyoto is still holding his own and putting on an impressive performance after an impressive performance. When looking at all the champions in the UFC, you will find that only two are dominated by fighters: welterweight with GSP and heavyweight with Brock Lesnar. With that in mind, there are a disproportionate number of fighters in the top 10 of any division.