Wrestling is an Olympic sport that involves a fight between two competitors, in which one of them tries to throw the other to the ground. The goal is to keep your opponent down and score according to certain rules. In a narrow sense, wrestling is a sports fight between two fighters who aim to knock down an opponent without striking. Wrestling is one of the oldest sports and dates back thousands of years. Since 708 BC, it has become an Olympic sport and to this day represents one of the pillars of martial arts.
Today’s MMA world would be unthinkable without wrestling. The wrestlers who entered the MMA world have shown their superiority over other sports, and along with the Brazilian jiu jitsu, it forms a strong and indispensable basis for any MMA fighter. The wrestlers have exceptional physical predispositions and are characterized by great strength, athleticism, large and proportional build, strong legs, strong chest and neck. Once upon a time, just like nowadays, wrestlers were regarded as above-average strong men, and most celebrated wrestlers went into the legend thanks to that. This description of a wrestler is a typical example of what today’s MMA fighter should look like. Regular wrestling training is the key and without good wrestling there is no good clinch fight, nor good crashes that are the essence of wrestling for MMA fights. Wrestling is most commonly divided into two styles, Greco-Roman, where under-the-belt interventions are prohibited and free-style where under-the-belt interventions are permitted.
We have witnessed a large number of different takedowns in MMA fights, with the largest percentage of them coming particularly from wrestling techniques. The most well known techniques for crashing opponents into the ground are the Double leg takedown and the Single leg takedown. Double leg is a technique of lowering an opponent to the ground when attacking his legs and joining them to get him off balance, while single leg is a technique where we only attack one leg. George st Pierre is a great example and personification of the progression and evolution of MMA. His base sport is karate and over time, he became one of the greatest wrestlers in UFC without any wrestling matches before. Constant work with experienced wrestlers has brought him the title of champion of the Welterweight Championship, and his overthrow of his opponents is a serious problem for all his rivals. Mastering wrestling made him a complete fighter and made his body a machine that destroys everything in front of him.