Wrestle-Mania

Check out who is on top of each of the divisions of the UFC:

• Heavyweight:  Champion Cain Velazquez.  Cain was a 2-time All-American wrestler at Arizona State, and the Junior College National Champion before that.  He took the belt from Brock Lesnar, who won the 2000 NCAA National Championship in wrestling.
• Light Heavyweight:  Champion Jon Jones -- High School State Champion and Junior College National Champion wrestler.  Challenger Rashad Evans -- JuCo national Champion and wrestler at Michigan State.  Rising star Phil Davis -- former NCAA national wrestling champion.
• Middleweight: Champion Anderson Silva, perhaps the greatest living MMA fighter.  Anderson, however, was dominated by Chael Sonnen, who was a 2-time National Champion wrestler at the University of Oregon.  This deserves an asterisk, of course, because Chael was slightly juiced.  However, the point is that the only time that the Spider was ever in trouble in a fight in the UFC was when he was pounded by a wrestler.
• Welterweight: Champion GSP, perhaps the best wrestler in all of MMA.  The #2 welterweight is Jon Fitch, who was the captain of the Purdue University wrestling team.
• Lightweight:  Champion Frankie Edgar, a 4-time national qualifier in wrestling while at Clarion University.  He's followed closely by Gray Maynard, who was a two-time Ohio state high school wrestling champion, and placed in the top 10 three times in the NCAA nationals.
• Featherweight: Champion Jose Aldo, a BJJ and Muy Thai specialist.  One of these things is not like the others... one of these things does not belong.
• Bantamweight: Champion Dominick Cruz -- decorated wrestler.  Followed by Joseph Benavidez -- decorated wrestler.  Followed by Urijah Faber -- decorated wrestler.

Need I go on?

The UFC has evolved, and will continue to evolve.  At its outset, during the Royce Gracie era, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was dominant.  Then strikers like Vitor Belfort and Tank Abbott and Chuck Liddell came to the forefront.  This was followed by the rise of the BJJ/Muy Thai combination in fighters like Shogun Rua and Wanderlei Silva.

However, right now we are in the age of the wrestler.  Why is this the case?  1) Because wrestlers are experts in taking fighters to the ground.  And where do most fights end?  On the ground.  2) Because wrestlers tend to have tremendous endurance.  Perhaps this is a carry-over from their NCAA training regimens.  And 3) Because, like it or not, in today's UFC, all good fighters have BJJ and Boxing or Muy Thai experience -- those are no longer specialties.

These days it does not make sense to get into the octagon without strong wrestling chops.  BJ Penn learned that before his fight with Jon Fitch, and, as a result, wrestled to a draw.  Lil Nog learned this before his fight with Phil Davis, and stifled the NCAA's champion's take-downs for three rounds.

Lyoto, Shogun, Anderson, Hardy and others -- time to round out those wrestling skills a bit.