Ok, so I know that the title is pretty loaded, but I mainly want to focus on more recent changes we’ve seen in MMA. Recently in MMA (keep in mind that I mean in like the past 3 years), we’ve seen a resurgence of high-level and spectacular striking with Israel Adesanya, Yair Rodriguez, Stephen Thompson and Zabit Magomedsharipov, becoming easy favourites.
This is in a sharp difference from what has been the consensus that wrestling is the most important skill in MMA (not saying that it isn’t btw) and therefore the main deciding factor in fights. But to add to this change we’ve seen that high-level wrestlers and other grapplers have begun to add more intricate striking into their arsenal as the game keeps evolving.
The rise of traditional Martial Arts striking
In the last decade, we’ve seen a rise in not only the number of traditional martial arts stylists in MMA, but also, they’re doing pretty damn good, with a lot being ranked in the top 10 of their weight class.
In the early days of the sport, when it was basically just Tekken with all the matches being style match-ups, traditional Martial Arts were taken out of the tournaments pretty quickly, especially by grappling styles like BJJ and Wrestling. This led people to the conclusion that most if not all traditional Martial Arts styles are useless in a real fight, especially if that style lacks a grappling component. But in recent years we’ve seen how fighters who have experience in traditional martial arts using traditional martial arts techniques like the sidekick, spinning attacks and some like Wonderboy Thompson even use the side on stance in their fights and this is because of the addition of wrestling into their MMA arsenal.
Both these men are traditional strikers with excellent Wrestling defense
Everyone Learns Wrestling
We all know how important wrestling is, it’s the base of the MMA pyramid says the famous Epstein conspiracy theorist Joe Rogan and he’s not wrong, the ability to determine where the goes are the most useful one to have.
In the early days, MMA traditional martial artists were taken down easily, especially off of their spectacular kicks, but nowadays it’s a bit different. High-level strikers like Israel Adesanya have tremendous takedown defence, as well as the ability to get back on their feet if they do get taken down. This wrestling training not only allows strikers to keep the fight standing but also allows them to throw more flashy techniques or heavier shots without the fear of going to the ground.