Was reading the ADCC thread speculating on how Gordon Ryan would do in mma and it got me thinking...what is more important in mma today to be increase the likelihood of being a world champ & reign for a long time?
Striking, wrestling or BJJ. I know you can break these abilities down into many sub categories but for convenience will stick to just the 3.
if you had to give the 3 a % to make the best fighter, what would it be?
I think BJJ is the least important atm (although a decent defence at least is essential) so I would give it a low %.
Competitive toughness like the mentality of someone who had 12 varsity letters in high school and multiple state and national titles before ever fighting. Which ties into why wrestlers or even submission grapplers are often successful. Lots of matches. Gregor Gillespie grew up wrestling in the same bracket as Jordan Burroughs.
Fighting abilities and skillset are largely irrelevant. Will to win means much more. Wonderboy Thompson and Israel Adesanya for instance, two strikers who can impose their will to win due to having vast experience in kickboxing. Adesanya is 75-5 in standup only fights and between amateur and pro bouts Wonderboy is 95-0 in pure striking fights. Obviously there’s a lot more to it. But you see those strikers who have a wrestlers level of matches can have an elite wrestlers success.
Why did Masvidal find a way to win vs. 19-0 Askren? He has like 50 pro fights in MMA over 16 years. His skillset that mattered most was his competitive toughness that made lasting almost 20 years in the game possible. Mentality is the most important aspect. Then conditioning is right there next to that.
CRE - Competitive toughness like the mentality of someone who had 12 varsity letters in high school and multiple state and national titles before ever fighting. Which ties into why wrestlers or even submission grapplers are often successful. Lots of matches. Gregor Gillespie grew up wrestling in the same bracket as Jordan Burroughs.
Fighting abilities and skillset are largely irrelevant. Will to win means much more. Wonderboy Thompson and Israel Adesanya for instance, two strikers who can impose their will to win due to having vast experience in kickboxing. Adesanya is 75-5 in standup only fights and between amateur and pro bouts Wonderboy is 95-0 in pure striking fights. Obviously there’s a lot more to it. But you see those strikers who have a wrestlers level of matches can have an elite wrestlers success.
Why did Masvidal find a way to win vs. 19-0 Askren? He has like 50 pro fights in MMA over 16 years. His skillset that mattered most was his competitive toughness that made lasting almost 20 years in the game possible. Mentality is the most important aspect. Then conditioning is right there next to that.
Fights are all about control. Fights are even fought for control meaning either you and another man are at odds and each of you are going to beat the other man into a compromise and one of you will have control or you are both fighting to control a property such as a UFC title.
It's all about control. So if it's all about control why not pick the art that gives you the most control? A boxer has little control during a fight over his opponent. He is hoping that the opponent is willing to be in range for him to be attacked. If the opponent either backs up or steps forward then he is out of range and there is little the boxer can do to control his opponent and put him in range. A kickboxer is not much better. At first glance the correct answer would seem to be that a wrestler has the most control because he has skills that allow him to takedown opponents and be on top which is the most controlling position in a fight but the key word there is position. The truth is a wrestler who has no bjj experience might be able to control the position but the buy guy will end up controlling the fight with a fight ending submission and the wrestler will be willing to compromise so the buy guy will let him go.
The answer lies in a mix of wrestling and bjj while striking on the feet is at best minimally needed unless you are fighting in mma with time limits and judges that need to be impressed in case the fight goes to a decision.
100% wrestling
100% bjj
If you want to be a great fighter develop both of those to the best of your ability. And throw in enough striking skills to hold your own and impress the judges, or set up easier takedowns. But the real control and the skill that counts in becoming the best is the grappling.