Jordan Burroughs is perhaps the most recognizable wrestler in the United States.  The 31 year old Burroughs began wrestling when he was 5 years old. In 2012 he became an Olympic Gold Medalist by defeating Sadegh Saeed Goudarzi of Iran.

The following year he won the World gold medal. He and John Smith are the only American wrestlers to win 3 world or Olympic gold medals in a row.

He went 3.5 years without a loss before having his streak broken in February 2014.

Back in 2012 he said that he was considering an eventual career in MMA.

His Olympic dreams were dashed early in 2016.

He was a guest on the Joe Rogan podcast late last year where he explained his reasons for not making the plunge to MMA:

“I’ve been close. Mostly the lady outside, my wife Lauren, is the one that’s talked me out of it. When I graduated from college in 2011, University of Nebraska, wrestling was still in its infancy of marketing and branding and really making it a professional career. MMA was the new kid on the block and it was growing and expanding and we had a lot of our guys transitioning in — Henry Cejudo, Ben Askren, Daniel Cormier and so I really thought about it.

“OK, I’m going to wrestle in the Olympics in 2012, win the gold and then I’m going to make the transition to MMA. I’m going to be 25 years old, I’ll have plenty of time and then I met Lauren and she was like ‘you’re doing well in the sport, stay here, stay comfortable.’ It’s a different sport MMA in comparison to wrestling but it’s a good thing.”

He has no regrets:

“I think about going to MMA until I see a guy like ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry get his whole thing split, nose crooked and I’m like I’m good. In wrestling, you lose, you get taken down, pushed out, you get pinned.

“In fighting, you lose, you get something broken, choked out, tapped, unconscious. It’s a very, very different sport. Wrestling, you score as many points as possible doing the least damage as possible. In MMA, I feel like it’s different.”