Does the popularity of Ultimate Fighting and Mixed Martial Arts have an effect on high school wrestlers?
Ernie Jones Cascia Hall
I have mixed emotions when it comes to ultimate fighting & the art of collegiate wrestling. It's my belief that ultimate fighting's one for sure beneficial aspect is that it lets former wrestler make money. To me the NCAA tournament at the end of the season is the greatest tournament in the world. Even more so than the Olympics. American wrestlers who go on to compete in the Olympics virtually have to sacrifice normal life and careers for as long as eight years are more, (Kenny Mondays case 12 years)to reach their goals and then the monetary rewards are small if any. So you succeed in UF you make money. As coaches we recruit kids to wrestle from our school bodies. The joke that is pro wrestling has always been a problem with families. Now the violents of UF probably offends many families. Plus I personally find it boring, example ( the "guard position"). One positive wrestlers make money, negatives probably more than we will ever know.
Ray Weis Jenks High School
I am an avid fan of UFC and see it as beneficial for HS wrestling. The sucess of wrestlers in the UFC has given wrestlers a higher profile and an opportunity to compete when their wrestling career is completed. I know many great college wrestlers who had few opportunities after college and now they have another avenue for sucess. I have not had many kids join wrestling because of the UFC but that may change in the future.
Shawn Jones Broken Arrow High School
You can't watch an MMA event without recognizing the advantage an athlete has if he is skilled in the art of wrestling. The landscape of Ultimate Fighting is dominated by competitors who have elite wrestling skills. I feel that wrestling is benefiting from the coverage Ultimate fighting gets; I hope that wrestling continues to gain exposure from this and we see more kids participating in wrestling at all age levels.
H.M. Chapman Claremore High School
I beleive that the coverage of ultimate fighting has increased participation in high school wrestling. Many of the top ultimate fighters have a wrestling background. The announcers on the UFC state this about 100 times a show, and the kids hear this and want to wrestle. My wrestlers love to watch the UFC. We brought in Matt Wiman, a UFC fighter, at the first of the year to mess with the wrestlers and to have fun in practice. The wrestlers really enjoyed it.
