Discussion What is holding us back from becoming an MMA powerhouse?

[GC2015]

Volk actually has a wrestling pedigree - he was Australian freestyle champ (or something like that) as a teen. Great decision on his part to include Craig Jones in his camp too as he's probably the highest level Aussie grappler of any discipline.

If you go back to the first post of this thread you'll see I point out that Volk was a national wrestling champion in his younger years. I'm aware of his wrestling background but I do wonder how much of a factor that is when compared to his rugby league background. How advanced of a wrestler can you really be at 12 years of age? Let's be honest.

 

[SSSSSS]

The four traditional MMA powerhouses in the US (wrestling), Russia (sambo), Japan (Judo/shooto) and Brazil (BJJ) have a strong emphasis + development pathways for grappling. Australia has done well on the international stage for boxing/kickboxing but we lack the grappling pedigree.

 

[GC2015]

The four traditional MMA powerhouses in the US (wrestling), Russia (sambo), Japan (Judo/shooto) and Brazil (BJJ) have a strong emphasis + development pathways for grappling. Australia has done well on the international stage for boxing/kickboxing but we lack the grappling pedigree.

Drastic improvement in this area for us over the last five years though. Whittaker proved that against an Olympic wrestling silver medalist in Romero and Volkanovski proved it against a Sambo World Champion in Makhachev. We need that to filter down into the lower levels to continue to produce world champions in MMA but you're right in saying our striking is already at a high level so that's definitely something playing in our advantage because promoters tend to favour strikers over grapplers in terms of exciting matchmaking these days.