Hellboy

Will we see more wrestlers coming into MMA younger than usual which will give them more time to develop the other aspects of their game. Or will we see people training MMA from a younger age and have an era of Rory and Michael McDonalds coming through the ranks?

N.B I'm from Australia so the impact of wrestling not be an Olympic sport is insignificant down here so trying to understand the point of view of Americans.

Dtwizzy2k5

I don't see it having any real impact on MMA or the UFC. Very few Olympic wrestlers make the jump to pro MMA, and the ones I can think of (Hendo and Couture) are old guys who wrestled as amateurs before MMA really existed in its modern form. Today, if a wrestler wants to do MMA I would imagine they would get into it well before deciding to go to the Olympics.

xxpillowxxjp

Where have you been bro? Cormier? Askren?

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RedRocket44

Hard to say -- I think it could mean less 1-dimensional wrestlers 20 years down the line -- but probably not. College wrestling will still be around, and isn't going to lose popularity. Many kids do it as a means of getting scholarships, and putting themselves thru school.

There are lots of collegiate wrestlers in the UFC, but not as many Olympic wrestlers make the jump to MMA. While I still consider wrestling a combat sport, it takes a different type of person willing to get in a cage with 4oz gloves on and get punched in the face (probably KOed a few times in their career) or choked out. Only a small fraction of wrestlers out there would be willing to take a MMA fight -- and they will do so with or without Olympic wrestling.

The wrestlers out there that are thinking about making the jump to MMA will just make the jump sooner I think, since Olympic competition is out of the picture.

No_Mercy

The problem is without a worldwide platform the competition will taper. Now that I've seen the comparisons between collegiate vs Olympic caliber it's like NCAA vs NBA pretty much.

It's really too bad. Wrestling would have been the absolute last sport I would imagine the Olympics cutting out after being around 15,000 years.

If they're going to take it out add in skateboarding. As Tony Hawk says, it'll bring renewed interest to the Olympics towards the younger demographic.

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Marcus Aurelius: Tell me again, Maximus, why are we here?
Maximus: For the glory of the Empire, sire.

Baked, not fried... the healthy choice.

Hammerlock2.0

If there's no Olympic wrestling there won't be any college and high school wrestling either because the money to fund it partially comes from it being an Olympic sport. Greco-roman will suffer from it even more.

If they really go through with this I think there won't be any fighters with a wrestling base in MMA in ten years time.

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Iuanes

Well yeah, it's a really shitty decision. I mean I don't understand how you take away one of the most fundamental events in the Olympics.

Hopefully MMA itself proves to be enough motivation for the kids coming up to stick with wrestling. After all, what are the chances of medalling in the Olympics versus competing and making a living in MMA?

Liddellianenko

This.

It's not as simple as "olympics gone, so what, college wrestling is still around". The reason college wrestling is so popular is because it feeds into international competition and there is a career, audience and worldwide glory opportunity for wrestlers. Without that stage, there will be much fewer career prospects for collegiate wrestlers and it will negatively impact budding elite athletes looking to choose their sport.

I don't see wrestling disappearing entirely, but this will definitely strike a huge blow to wrestling in every country and the level and number of wrestlers crossing over into MMA, simply because the talent pool will shrink.

Horrible, horrible move by scheming Olympic committee douche-bags for internal political reasons, not rational or economic.

Killz

It'll make UFC titles easier for UK fighters to get

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khoveraki

The first article I read said a lot more colleges will cut wrestling, so most kids will stop at 17/18 internationally.
What happens to MMA gyms when this generation of collegiate and olympic coaches retire?

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