Are there any grapplers who have won or medalled in different grappling style world championships/Olympics?
Let’s exclude BJJ/no-gi competitions are no-gi is still pretty much (gi-less BJJ). I suppose judo and sambo may be too similar? I know Kashiwazaki for example won worlds in both (as well as Nobuyuki Sato or some of his colleagues of that era)? But have there been others who have won both judo and sambo worlds? I know that Georgians and Mongolians in judo come from their folk styles of jacket wrestling.
Has anyone won medals in both freestyle and Greco for example? I don’t think we will count American collegiate transitioning to free/Greco for this purpose.
Or has anyone won or become “elite” (like top 5’ish) level in judo, wrestling, or BJJ?
I know there are guys like Travis Stevens, Dave Camarillo, Jimmy Pedro who have come from strong/world class judo backgrounds who are also doing BJJ at a pretty high level…also Brazilian judoka Flavio Canto (world medallist or champ) is also a good BJJer? Has anyone come from BJJ to do well in judo comp? I am not sure if any of the judoka above have actually competed elite level in BJJ however?
I believe Werdum and Jacare also have judo backgrounds?
Perhaps to extend the subject, have their been any grapplers that have done ok in striking comp and vice versa?
Kid Yamamoto had that one flash of glory, knocking down Masato. Kid comes from a wrestling background and I believe could have fought as a Fly Weight in MMA had the division existed and Masato is a LW or 155er and one of the top KBers of his era.
wiggum - Mark Kerr? ADCC champion, NCAA champion, USA Free Senior National Champion.
He has a far stronger case to be made than anyone listed so far.
Right now, Adam Coon is one of our top greco guys, but, before that, he was a top free and folk
Dam, forgot about Kerr…I knew you would know someone Wiggs haha…I think you are right. Kerr may be the single most accomplished…esp if we consider judo and sambo to be too similar?
I guess there are a number of guys like Tonon, etc who only had minor wrestling backgrounds and transitioned to elite BJJ, subgrappling but dont think there are any that actually were top 3 All Americans for example who then competed high level in BJJ/subgrappling?
I guess Jeff Monson also deserves a shout for being a wrestler turned 2 time ADCC champ. His wiki doesn’t elaborate much on his wrestling comp placements but guessing he wasn’t a national champ or top level (top 3).
“He attended Timberline High School and continued on as a Division I wrestler at Oregon State University and at the University of Illinois and was a Pac-10 champion for Oregon.[6] He also competed at senior level at USA Wrestling events for a number of years.[7]”
Now 31 years old, Bilyal Makhov’s legacy began in 2005 when he won a Junior World title in free That same weekend, Makhov won bronze in Greco-Roman. The Russian repeated as free champion in 2006 before moving up to the senior level, where he won his first World championship in 2007, repeating with additional gold medal performances in 2009 and 2010. Makhov’s 2010 title was over three-time Olympic champion Artur Taymazov, then just a two-time World and two-time Olympic champion. Taymazov has now been stripped of two Olympic titles due to drug test failures.
Across all age groups, that’s five World titles in short order, and six medal performances. While Makhov would never stand on top of the podium again, he never left contention. Makhov reached the finals of the 2011 World Wrestling Championships, won bronze at the 2012 Olympics, won Greco-Roman bronze in 2014, then earned double bronze at the senior level at 2015 Worlds, placing third in both free and Greco.
Master of sport in free but don't know what he ever did in comps.
I seem to remember hearing Gokar won national or jr. national titles in judo, free and sambo. He won the masters IBJJF pan ams and worlds in 2019.
A Russian HW won both greco and free worlds a while back, name is not coming to me.
I know the Russians come up doing both sambo and judo (and sometimes wrestling) like Khabib and the like. Judom (not sure where he went) had extensive knowledge in this area. Fedor I think came 3rd in judo in Russia at HW and Russian HW judo has always been world and then of course he was the combat Sambo champ although that is a bit diff from pure (grappling only) Sambo.
Is this Russian HW you cant think the name of the only guy who has won both titles in free and Greco? Wasn’t same year was it? lol
Now 31 years old, Bilyal Makhov’s legacy began in 2005 when he won a Junior World title in free That same weekend, Makhov won bronze in Greco-Roman. The Russian repeated as free champion in 2006 before moving up to the senior level, where he won his first World championship in 2007, repeating with additional gold medal performances in 2009 and 2010. Makhov’s 2010 title was over three-time Olympic champion Artur Taymazov, then just a two-time World and two-time Olympic champion. Taymazov has now been stripped of two Olympic titles due to drug test failures.
Across all age groups, that’s five World titles in short order, and six medal performances. While Makhov would never stand on top of the podium again, he never left contention. Makhov reached the finals of the 2011 World Wrestling Championships, won bronze at the 2012 Olympics, won Greco-Roman bronze in 2014, then earned double bronze at the senior level at 2015 Worlds, placing third in both free and Greco.
wiggum - -I think Kerr will end up being the top dog in this category. He took 7th at worlds. Not bad.
-AJ Azagaram wrestled at Ohio State and has had a good grappling career.
-Good call with Monson.
-Chad Mendes and Randy Couture deserve some credit for their grappling superfights. Randy drew with Jacare and Mendes beat Jeff Glover.
-As far as strikers and grapplers, it has to be Overreem (ADCC, K1) and Vera (WKA and grappling tournaments), right?
How high did Vera place in both? Overeem, might be the sole 3 champion with subgrappling (ADCC), K1 (kickboxing) and StrikeForce (MMA)? DId he actually win the SF title, cant remember now.
Don't know what BJJ tournaments existed when Rolls Gracie competed. He did win the 79 and 80 Pan Ams in sambo. He is also listed on wiki as winning them in free in 79 but that does not check out on th Pan Ams wiki results page and I think we would have heard of that.
You would have to assume he would have been a Mundials champ if they existed while he was alive.