MW becoming the new grapple heavy division?
 

We use to talk about how WW was so jammed packed with wrestlers but in the last 2 years, MW has really came to rival it in terms of being the most grapple heavy division.

In these last 2 years, despite popular assumption, MW has had many stars start to emerge.

Phalares - One of the best grapplers on the ground. Everyone thought if he got the fight there, it was over, and the only way to beat him would be standing.

Belcher - Put on a clinic against phalares on the mat and showed exactly how high level his grappling was.

Munoz - Took maia down, escaped submissions, and kept control.

Sonnen - One of the best mma wrestlers the sport has to offer.

Okami - Out grappled munoz in their match, really showed how technical his grappling has become since training with sonnen.

Boestch - Once a 205er, drops to MW and ends up beating Okami. Though he won standing, he is still a great wrestler.

Weidman - Though he looked drained and gassed vs okami, his match with munoz will bring alot to light.

Sheilds - Moved back up to his natural weight class, will be interesting to see how he performs.

Evans - Said he's looking to move down. Alot of interesting matches for him.



What do you guys think?

Agreed, would be pretty excited to see Rashad drop down. I think with his size and explosiveness he gives anybody in the division problems, could definitely see him holding the belt.

EDIT: At first I thought yes, but then I looked at the facts and though nah, it's not so bad. There's Anderson, Belcher, Vitor, Marquardt, Wanderlei and Bisping at the top, and Cote, Le, Leben a bit further down.

Not quite like WW, which has only Condit, Kampmann, Alves and Hathaway and a bunch of wrestlers.

agreed.

Only thing i'd like to add is Silva has a great guard and bisping is one hard dude to keep down. So they are both great gapplers, they just use it defensively

I'd be interested in seeing Shields fight Anderson..

but only so I can compare it to Shields VS GSP.

Wouldn't be a very accurate comparison imo.

Sheilds' striking is too elementary to face anderson. Probably rd1 KO or another maia performance.

Well at that level pretty much everyone is multi-dimensional so I think you could say that for pretty much everyone.

You'd probably have to look at what they're best at or use more to categorize them as standup/grappler.

Kampmann might be a better grappler than he is a striker.

One point to look at is the demographic of the UFC. It's an American based organization, but a globalized sport. That's why there are tons of wrestlers. The current talent pool are division one wrestlers transitioning into MMA.

Cage Rage - I can't remember seeing too many wrestlers.

Pride or Dream - Tons of Japanese fighters some with wrestling background.

Jungle Fights - Pretty much all Brazillian cards.

TKO - mostly striking

At this point all fighters including current champions understand the importantance of learning grappling techniques. It's great to see that they're capable of winning without specializing in it though.

The Iceman laid out the blueprint not long ago.

Weidman just showed how great of a grappler he truely is