10 Pro Wrestlers Who Would Have Made Intriguing MMA Fighters

Lou Thesz

When Josh Barnett champions catch wrestling as a style of submission grappling that he learned from grapplers like Billy Robinson, it goes back even further to the likes of the great NWA champion Thesz. Tough American and British pro wrestlers mixed Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling techniques with various submission holds that could be used to incapacitate unaware opponents. Pro wrestling, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, was a laboratory for real ground techniques because pro wrestling champions had to be wary of being double crossed and beaten by uncooperative challengers looking to take control of lucrative championship belts.

Thesz reigned as pro wrestling’s top champion for more than 10 years in part because promoters had confidence that nobody would dare to try to steal that championship from him; and nobody did. Thesz’s reputation was sterling in a world filled with elite grapplers not lacking in self-confidence.

Thesz loved to test himself in real competition, and he would have loved to try MMA. The big question is how he would have taken to striking. His world was all about the mixture of wrestling with submissions, but MMA has over time evolved into more of a striker’s domain. Many techniques of Thesz’s era also revolved around the thread of pinning an opponent, something that is not relevant to today’s MMA. Still, Thesz had some tools that would have worked well in full MMA competition.

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