5 of the most dominant wrestlers currently competing in the UFC
Ever since the days of Mark Coleman and Dan Severn, wrestling has been one of the most integral tools in the arsenal of every UFC fighter. A variety of different styles of wrestling such as sambo, freestyle and Greco-Roman have all been integrated into modern MMA. While most high-level UFC fighters are at least proficient in them, some fighters particularly excel.
We recently had several of the UFC's wrestling greats retire, with both Khabib Nurmagomedov and Daniel Cormier hanging up their gloves in 2020. Thus there is no better time than now to take a closer look at which fellow fighters with wrestling backgrounds will succeed the two champions.
In the following list, we will go over five current UFC fighters who have wrestling games that stand out from the rest of the pack. Honorable mentions go to Kevin Lee, Jon Jones, Tatiana Suarez and Curtis Blaydes who could all easily feature on this list.
#5. Kamaru Usman - UFC welterweight
Ranking Kamaru Usman only at fifth may seem to discredit the UFC welterweight champion. Still, he only places here due to his recent tendency to favor striking over wrestling. This change could be attributed to his time spent training with Trevor Wittman.
But he still has that incredibly high-level wrestling that saw him establish himself as a top contender in the UFC's 170lb division. He outwrestled Tyron Woodley, a man who had been dominating everyone he came up against with his superior ground game.
However, Usman's wrestling accolades are not limited to the UFC. 'The Nigerian Nightmare' is an NCAA Division II national champion and once had dreams of competing for the US Olympic freestyle wrestling team before injuries forced him to turn to MMA instead.