The Wrestling Era

Every now and then the UFC undergoes a passing of the torch from fighting style to fighting style. It all started with Royce Gracie at UFC 1 and from then on Gracie's jiu jitsu skills were king. Afterwards fighters like Dan Severn and Mark Coleman made wrestling the top style with dominant ground and pound the victories piled up easily. Then along came Chuck Liddell and the UFC entered a proverbial golden age as strikers dominated the sport and racked up highlight reel ko's on almost every fight card.

However the torch has been passed once again,this time however it has been passed back to the wrestlers. Love it or hate it the fact remains the wrestlers are always going to be around and are always going to be a threat. Nowadays it seems that almost every champion or top contender in each weight class is a wrestler and this is mostly true.

Lightweight:Frankie Edgar(champion),Gray Maynard(number one contender),Sean Sherk,Tyson Griffin

Welterweight:Georges St Pierre(champion),Josh Koscheck(number one contender),Jon Fitch,Jake Shields

Middleweight:Chael Sonnen(number one contender),Yushin Okami,Nate Marquardt

Light Heavyweight:Rashad Evans(number one contender),Ryan Bader,Jon Jones,Phil Davis,Randy Couture,Tito Ortiz

Heavyweight:Brock Lesnar(champion),Cain Velasquez(number one contender),Shane Carwin

Now some of these divisions have alot more top wrestlers then others but the trend is obvious the top of each division will always have wrestlers there.

Now with wrestlers dominating the divisions theres bound to be some issues and lo and behold there is...lay and pray. Now not all wrestlers are guilty of this fighters like Jon Jones and Lesnar are far from fighters like Jon Fitch or Rashad Evans. Lesnar is probably the best example of how to wrestler in MMA, take your opponent down and then pound them out until the fight is over or the ref stops the fight. Now not to say Fitch isn't a good wrestler but he fights like its a wrestling match gets a takedown and then makes little to no attempt to finish a fight unlike Lesnar who goes into a fight looking to hurt his opponent(something he usually succeeds in).

Many fighters are becoming fed up with this trend,recently after his teammate was wall and stalled for three rounds(fight was andre winner vs nik lentz) Dan Hardy made several comments on wanting to change the rules so they don't favor wrestlers as much. Call it sour grapes after a loss but to some extent Hardy is correct. Now I don't propose that the rules are altered drastically, but I believe they should institute the card system that was used in Pride FC. The chance that their winnings may be reduced will light a fire under more fighters to finish their fights.

So which style will take the torch from the wrestlers? I honestly believe the torch won't be passed so much as shared between wrestlers and jiu jitsu practitioners. The issue most BJJ guys have in the sport is securing a takedown(Charles Oliveria and Demain Maia anyone?)if an already good jiu jitsu guy can improve his wrestling game you have a very dangerous combination of someone who can take you down and submit you as well.

And it's a bit of a stretch to say wrestlers are ruining the sport, when in reality fighters should thanking them. The threat of being taken down is so great in each fight it forces fighters to evolve their gameplan and improve their skills. That doesn't sound like such a bad thing the more well rounded fighters are the better the chances that us the fans get more exciting fights.