Have Wrestlers Taken Over MMA For Good?

There was once a time not all that long ago when it seemed like Brazilian fighters had a stranglehold on the UFC title picture in most divisions.

Just over two years have passed since Renan Barao had won the interim bantamweight belt, Jose Aldo dominated the featherweight title scene, Anderson Silva was the top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and Junior dos Santos still had the heavyweight belt wrapped around his waist.

Now, however, it has been a rather quick and shocking fall from grace for the Brazilian contingent, as only Aldo still sits atop his throne. Barao, of course, lost his title to T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 173, “The Spider” was infamously dethroned by Chris Weidman, and dos Santos was ground into the canvas not once, but twice, by current champ Cain Velasquez.

That trend brings to light a glaring changing of the guard in MMA, that of the shift from Brazilian jiu-jitsu-based fighters making way for the now-dominant wrestlers.

Looking at the current champions, most of their skillsets are rooted in and/or heavily dependent on wrestling. Demetrious Johnson is a smothering wrestler who slams his flyweight foes to the mat with ease. Dillashaw’s nonstop work ethic was fostered in his lifelong wrestling career.

Welterweight champion Robbie Lawler, although known for his knockout power, has a wrestling base fostered during his time spent training at Bettendorf, Iowa’s Miletich Fighting Systems. The two men that preceded him, Georges St. Pierre and Johny Hendricks, were both elite wrestlers.

Middleweight champion Chris Weidman was an All-American at Hofstra University, and started his MMA career coaching wrestling at Team Serra-Longo. His mat acumen is undoubtedly a big part of why he rose to prominence so quickly in the UFC.

Light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is a highly well-rounded competitor, but many forget that he won an NJCAA Junior Collegiate Championship at Iowa Central. He’s used his wrestling to reap massive benefits in the UFC, but he may be facing the best wrestler in the UFC when he battles former Olympian Daniel Cormier at UFC 182 on January 3.

Other non-champion wrestlers like Yoel Romero and Henry Cejudo are also set to make waves in 2015, further building upon wrestlers’ prominence.

To top it all off, Velasquez was an All-American wrestler at Arizona State University who uses the grinding gameplan he established on the mat to set the tone for his relentless pace inside the cage.

So has this shift become an institution that’s here to stay in MMA? I’d have to say yes. The style may not be the most exciting, but the champions who dominate with wrestling as their base have obviously expanded upon that foundation to become elite strikers and grapplers as well.

There’s simply no other way to reach the top of the UFC, and these elite fighters’ wrestling experience was the birthplace of their tireless work ethic, commitment, and toughness that gives them a big edge over their opposition.

Brazilian fighters are great, but even “The Spider” has admitted that his countrymen have fallen behind by failing to adapt to the times.

That became painfully clear in 2014, and it should be a shift that continues into 2015 and beyond. Do you see any way that the wrestling-based champions somehow get defeated?

Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea for USA TODAY Sports