Pat Miletich Analyzes Which Wrestlers Make Good Strikers

Pat Miletich, on “Beatdown,” discussing which wrestlers become good strikers:

“When I look at wrestlers, I look at the style of wrestler that they are. Their ability to pick up striking, very similarly, will depend on -- most of the time -- on how they wrestled. How quick were they? How fleet-footed were they? If they were a guy that just latched onto people and just kind of tried to grind people out -- which there’s a lot of guys who are great at that and win national championships and Olympic medals doing that style of wrestling -- they’re generally not the kind of guy who’s going to be great at striking. It never works out that way, not very often.

“But the guys who are real fleet-footed, real quick, agile athletes, guys that can scramble, a lot of fast-twitch muscle, guys like Ty Woodley, a guy like Cain Velasquez, a guy like Daniel Cormier, guys like that, they get it. Rob Lawler’s the same way. Jens Pulver was that way. The style of wrestler that they are lends itself to the striking, but also the base of wrestling -- wrestling’s a brutal sport. I have to admit that the daily grind of wrestling, it’s a street fight for two hours in practice every day. It’s just a brutal sport. If you give up for a second in a wrestling match, you’ll get put on your back. You can’t coast when you’re up against tough people, and that’s just their mentality. Between the work ethic, the explosiveness, the balance, the grip, the tendon strength, everything combined, I don’t see how you could not pick that as the best base for an MMA career.”