It’s well known that wrestling is an essential component for success in MMA. Randy Couture, Frank Edgar, Daniel Cormier, and many other world champions have strong wrestling backgrounds. Even Georges St.-Pierre, who did not wrestle for a high school or college team, developed world class wrestling skills and used them to beat some of the best fighters on the planet. GSP has even scored takedowns on NCAA Division I champions Josh Koscheck and Johny Hendricks!

If you can outwrestle your opponent, you can decide where the fight takes place. If you want to take the fight to the ground and win via ground-and-pound like Mark Coleman or via submission like Royce Gracie, takedowns provide you with an avenue to get on top of your opponent and finish the fight. If you’re a great striker like Chuck Liddell, you need strong defensive wrestling to keep the fight standing and go for the knockout. Bottom line, if you can’t wrestle, you can’t fight!

The fireman’s carry is a takedown technique used in amateur wrestling/ Judo/ Sambo/ Brazilian and other grappling arts.

Former two-time Penn State All-American Dan Vallimont shows a different version of the fireman’s carry and sends the 230 lbs Bernardo Faria flying. Dan is barely 170 lbs!

Zach Goldrosen writes about wrestling, grappling, and combat sports in general on his blog, The Mat Rat Blog. He’s a former all-conference college wrestler and current coach.

Wrestling can make or break you in a tournament.  If you, like many other want to win the ADCC one day, you better start training wrestling now!  This can give you the competitive edge.  If you don’t have a place to train wrestling, check out Hudson Taylor’s “Wrestling for BJJ” DVD Set.  Hudson was a division 1 all American wrestler and he is a blue belt World Champion.