Wrestlers Prove to Own the Sport

MMA has its various forms of styles. Tonight, wrestling proved to dominate its counterparts with two tremendous wins by two wrestlers: Frankie Edgar and Randy Couture.

Wrestling proves to be the dominant foundation in Mixed Martial Arts and UFC 118 proved just that.

In a highly anticipated defense against his Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight title against the man he beat to earn it, Frankie Edgar won a five-round unanimous decision over B.J. Penn on Saturday at the TD Garden in Boston. In this highly anticipated wrestling vs. Jiu-Jitsu special, wrestling won the bout from the beginning. Edgar scored a takedown in the first 20 seconds and fromt he get-go, it was all over. After Penn escaped and got to his feet, Edgar took him down again and continued to dominate on the ground. Edgar took him down again in the second and after both fighters spent most of the third round on their feet trading punches, Penn began the fourth round with a takedown. However, Edgar got up with 3:45 left in the round and swept Penn's left leg, sending him to the mat, where he landed a hard right hand to Penn's head in the final minute. Edgar kept working Penn throughout the whole fight and proved his dominance in this sport. The New Jersey wrestler represented his state and most importantly, his sport.

In a highly anticipated match of wrestling's best vs. boxing's best, wrestling won as well.

Randy Couture, probably the best MMA fighter in history and a sure shoe-in for the MMA Hall of Fame, defeated Toney, a Heavyweight champion in his own right, by submission. Within the first 30 seconds of the bout, Couture brought Toney to the mat with a single-leg takedown and he never let Toney off the mat once. He landed punches to the head, and then was able to force Toney into a head triangle until Toney signaled to the ref that he couldn't go any longer. Toney tapped out at 3:19 of the first round.

Although Toney ran a big mouth leading up to this fight (mostly from outside pressure by boxing folks to gain publicity), Toney began training for MMA only nine months ago. Nine months is not enough time to catch up to the experienced 47 year old who has owned this sport for years.

Toney was younger, has held world championships in boxing at middleweight, super middleweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight, and outweighed Couture 237 to 220 pounds. Yet, we saw who was the dominant champ and thus, is the dominant sport in the world.

Wrestling clearly proves to be the most dominant background to have in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.

Not only did Edgar and Couture prove this, but Matt Hughes proved over and over that wrestling wins fights. Wrestling wins MMA by either setting up submissions or by controlling the pace and flow of a fight.

While many of those who do not wrestle don't understand why wrestlers dominate, it should be quite clear that wrestling is the most fundamental background to being a good fighter. Strikers are forced to change their stances and be very cautious throwing kicks, or they will be taken down and mauled; and grapplers/good ground fighters cannot stand toe-to-toe on their feet with a solid wrestler.

Opponents get taken down over and over and consequently, get exhausted by the late rounds (that is, if they are able to survive that long).

Everyone should begin to see the inherent value of wrestling in MMA and any fight, by that matter.