Issue 069

December 2010

If history has taught the world at least one valuable lesson, it’s that all things happen in cycles. In the sport of mixed martial arts, that statement is readily apparent when surveying the landscape in search of the single most effective approach to successful fighting.

And while it was Gracie jiu-jitsu that changed the world of martial arts as we know it in 1993, the current success of dominant wrestlers in the UFC and other top organizations must certainly put a smile on the face of old-school ground ‘n’ pound greats such as Dan Severn and Mark Coleman.

When kickboxing stud Maurice Smith claimed the UFC’s heavyweight title from Coleman in 1997, it was supposed to usher in a new era of striking-savvy champions. Light heavyweight legend Chuck Liddell certainly put his combination of pinpoint stand-up and defensive wrestling skills to great use during his legendary run. It seems, in the battle of striker versus grappler, the wrestling stylists have gained the upper hand.

Recent UFC middleweight challenger Chael Sonnen says he believes, that while dominant grapplers are currently abundant in the UFC, the amount of ground ‘n’ pound (or lay ‘n’ pray bores, depending on your particular preference) is a bit overstated.

“I think it’s a cycle,” Sonnen said. “Listen, if we were to rewind the tape 12 months, wrestling wasn’t all that dominant. You’ve got Georges St Pierre, but he was never a wrestler. He’s an excellent wrestler now, but he was never a wrestler. BJ Penn points himself a jiu-jitsu guy. You’ve got that pyjama-wearing guy that drinks his own urine at 205lb. 

“And then at heavyweight, I can’t remember that far back, but there really weren’t that many wrestlers that were champions, and that’s all that really matters.”

But as St Pierre has dispatched of exciting strikers such as Dan Hardy and Thiago Alves, some fans have started to bemoan the champion’s recent grinding style as a perfect example of how MMA has turned into a sport where competitors fight not to lose rather than go all out for the win. 

Again, as he often does, Sonnen sees things a little differently, and he refers to a UFC 61 contest – one of the least eventful title fights in the company’s history – to make his point. “There’s real misconception that fans love two guys that bang, whatever that means,” Sonnen says. “Fans do want to see two guys that are working, but we’ve all gotten caught up in this, ‘Stand up and bang; we want to see you bang.’ Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia – these two bums that got fired – were fighting one night, and they banged the whole time, and the crowd was booing them to death and I was falling asleep in my living room.”

Like it or not, Sonnen says, wrestling has always been an integral part of mixed martial arts, and it’s not going away anytime soon. As Nate Marquardt recently proclaimed, it’s up to the sport’s best strikers to round out their skill set. Former UFC middleweight champion and Pride star Murilo Bustamante couldn’t agree more.

“In the beginning, MMA was a challenge between disciplines,” Bustamante says. “In the early days, Brazilian jiu-jitsu proved that it was the best discipline. Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters used to win most of the fights. Then after that, everybody started to train in jiu-jitsu. Then it became a kind of sport among teams. There are teams that come from wrestling, teams that come from jiu-jitsu, teams that come from Muay Thai. They have different backgrounds, but everybody trains everything.”

One of the founders of the famed Brazilian Top Team, Bustamante has long been a proponent of cross-training. And because of that same shift in training philosophy by almost all fighters, Bustamante believes the days of successful sprawl ‘n’ brawl – as well as those of other rhyming one-dimensional approaches – are behind us.

“I think that people are trying to learn the entire game,” Bustamante says. “You can see Brock Lesnar, a great wrestler, finishing with jiu-jitsu. You saw Anderson Silva, who’s a black belt, as well, but his background is Muay Thai, and yet he finished his last fight with a jiu-jitsu submission. I think that everybody wants to learn. I don’t think there’s time anymore for wrestlers or jiu-jitsu fighters or strikers. It’s about people that know everything. I cannot see people going to the top or staying on the top that are one-dimensional.”

Bustamante, who fought to a 40-minute draw in a 1996 contest with then undefeated wrestling monster Tom Erikson, remembers the days when fighters could be neatly filed into a tidy category. But like baseball’s ‘dead-ball era’ or golf’s ‘feathery’ days, the Brazilian legend believes today’s fighters are competing in a different game.

“People are learning takedowns a lot,” Bustamante says. “They’re learning how to approach their opponent and the best timing to shoot a takedown. I think sprawl ‘n’ brawlers can have some success, but to be in the top, to be a champion, you have to do everything right. There’s not a place for people that are good at just one discipline. You have to learn everything. If you don’t do that, you won’t make it to the top.”

By John Morgan.