MMA Worldwide

Kevin Jackson: Thoughts on MMA Wreslting

Posted by Connor Bell on the 16 July 2009 | No Comments

With wrestlers like GSP and Brock Lesnar making their presence known at UFC 100 we had the honor to talk to one of the greatest American wrestlers of all time, Kevin Jackson. Currently the head coach at wrestling powerhouse Iowa State and former Olympic champion and coach, Kevin Jackson had a brief professional career in mma and fought in the UFC during the glory days of fellow wrestlers Mark Coleman and Don Frye. Now see what his thoughts are on the evolution of wrestling in mma and his advice to wrestlers now.

Connor: So what are your thoughts on wrestlers today in MMA? Are there any trends that you notice among wrestlers or any advice that you’d like to give?

“The problem that I have with the MMA world is that everyone is called a world-class wrestler. There are guys who have great takedown skills and are good takedown artists, but when I see guys wrestle or when I see guys fight who are wrestlers, they’re not world-class wrestlers. I have a lot of respect for all of our wrestlers that compete and they’re all winning and having success because of the background in wrestling, but when you call a guy a world-class wrestler that means that he has the ability to take his opponent down when he wants to or needs to at anytime. When you watch my fights people can say that it’s advanced from then, but at the same time a world-class wrestler with freestyle skills or even upper body skills can take that mixed martial artist down when he wants to where he wants to. For example, I would say that St. Pierre has world-class wrestling skills. You notice that when he wants to take a guy down he can get it done. You watch a guy like Bobby Lashley who has the ability to take the guy down when they want to and it’s never a grab a guy, hold his legs, get clinched and then let him go. When they decide to take them down its hit him and he’s down and I get disappointed. Everyone wants to become an all around fighter and that’s important, but realistically what wrestlers have to try to remember is that they are skilled in an art form that can’t be matched. For them to not take full advantage of their total athletic ability, from a wrestling standpoint, is very much defeating what they’ve done the majority of their careers. They are great wrestlers, they’re great fighters, but they’re better fighters and so for them to not use their skill is disappointing.

I think that you see the evolution of wrestlers because you start seeing a lot of wrestlers say that “I’m an all around fighter, and I can fight off my back so I’m going to take the guard position,” no. People take the guard position because either they’re excellent, excellent, jiu-jitsu guys or they were just taken down. No body really wants to fight off their back, unless they feel so much superior then their opponents. So we had a lot of wrestlers for awhile taking the back or taking the guard position and showing people that ya I can fight from here, but no. Now you see the evolution, where as even great jiu-jitsu guys and great submission guys, what we always new as wrestlers was I couldn’t be taken down and if I was taken down that I couldn’t be held down. So now the reality is, and you’ll see this from not only wrestlers but you’ll see this from normal fighters, if you get taken down you don’t take that guard. You get away; you get back to your feet. You don’t take that position because the only thing that can happen is your going to take damage, because expert fighters are going to defend submission holds for the most part. You know I’m not sure what the percentage is now where you’re getting more submissions and stuff, but I think that at the highest level that submission is really low. You’re getting more knockouts and guys are getting stopped by punches more then getting tapped out. You’re going to get some submissions every now and then for the most part, but against the very best guys you’re not seeing that as much.

I truly believe that wrestlers have to stick to their wrestling base and then improve in every other area. If a wrestler can defend submissions he has a great chance to win at this level. Because the deal is on my feet if I keep my hands up I can defend myself from punches now if you choose to exchange with a guy that’s your choice. I thought that Rashad Evans made a drastic tactical mistake of trying to stand with an expert striker. That’s not to his benefit since his expertise is in wrestling.

So I’m hoping, I’m preaching the message to all of the wrestling fighters out there, that you have far more expertise in wrestling then you do in fighting. Your job is to defend yourselves at all times, you can hit a guy when you want to and when you need to, but at the same time you need to use your wrestling skills to advance yourself in this fight game.

A guy like Rashad Evans who it doesn’t matter how he wins anymore, sure he wins exciting fights, but he needs to win taking as little risk as possible. He’ll still have exciting fights and he’ll still stop people because he’s aggressive and he’ll get a guy down and throw punches. It’s a ground and pound type of mentality and then maybe after that guy wears down a little bit maybe you start striking on our feet, but I’m a little bit disappointed with some of our expert wrestlers trying to become all around fighters. That’s fine, but at the same time remember what you’re an expert at and don’t deviate from that, because if you don’t deviate from that then you’re going to have some success.”