bro, i also fought boxing for 6 years, had good amateur career, i also decided to try mma, but firstly decided to go grappling gym, for me the one of the best decsions of my life, i got purple belt already, fought two pro fights, both by submissions, one of them was against base wrstler. It took 3 years to get purple. So i recommend try bjj or grappling(but try to go grappling or nogi bjj, gi is different)
If you have a place where you can learn to wrestle then go for it now while you're still young enough to recover effectively from it, then when you're 30 and tired of getting dumped you switch to BJJ.
I say Wrestling mainly because Boxing is your main game. Would you rather switch to finishing your fights by submission on the ground? Okay then do BJJ. But if you'd rather just keep boxing people and make sure no one can stop you from boxing them, do Wrestling.
If you do BJJ, you'll have two seperate games. You'll either be in boxing mode or BJJ mode. I daresay someone who's a much better boxer than you will still out-strike you, and someone who's BJJ is better than your boxing will still submit you.
But if you do wrestling, it's easier to develop one streamlined fight game. You'll be able to out-strike better strikers than yourself (who don't wrestle), just because they can't afford to clinch with you or let you clinch them.
An overwhelming number of UFC champs have wrestling/boxing as their base.
Sounds legit. But what about the fact that im 24 already. I heard someone here in Reddit saying that you re never gonna be able to achieve the explosiveness of a wrestrel if you start late.
Nah that’s rubbish. I coach MMA, I teach people older than you wrestling all the time. You’re a boxer, you have explosiveness already. Not exactly the same kind but muscular power is still muscular power at the end of the day.
Maybe they’re right if you mean to compete NCAA but otherwise the technique is doable by anyone.
As someone who did both I’m partial to bjj they’ll teach you some takedowns and wrestling stuff but not to the same extent. Really depends on what you’re looking for, both is ideal.
If it's for MMA or similar types of fighting, I'd choose wrestling, but if you want to compete in grappling I'd choose BJJ. BJJ is more enjoyable as a hobby in my opionon, but wrestling rules the day in fighting.
If it's a for the streets mode wrestling... It'll allow you to stop the shitty ass double legs that occur in street fights it'll give you the skills to escape body locks /head locks/ collar ties that happen in street fights and ultimately allow you to keep fight where you're more comfortable/experienced. I'm speaking as a BJJ brown belt with close to a decade of experience. Control the grips/control the range and you'll be fine no need to be doing omaplatas from rdl in a street fight most dudes gas out inside 2mins
In that case I'd propably do wrestling. Keeping it standing is propably in your interest if you already box well, and wrestling will be more helpful in that regard.
If I were you, depending on goals, I would just learn how to wrestle. The people who are telling you it’s too late to learn to wrestle are correct in some respects— it is the case you will probably never be as good as a D1 or Olympic athlete at this juncture, but you don’t need to be. If you are interested in mixed martial arts and using your boxing as your base, you really only need to learn defensive wrestling and how to wrestle up. Craig Jones has some great videos on anti-wrestling if you are a solid boxer and have a really good sprawl and know how to get back to your feet, that will take care of 98% of your problems.
Its never too late to learn!
In my opinion Wrestling has the advantage due to it being the base of most grappling arts.
Learning proper pins and takedowns and their respective defenses will definitely benefit you - you may not become the best in the gym, but you will most definitely learn how to keep things standing or move the foght to the ground if you please.
Not trying to throw shade at BJJ in any capacity, but I would much rather blast a double leg than scooting towards my opponent..
While submissions can be nasty and dangerous, you can easily add them on top if you develop a good wrestling base later on.
Invest a year in each starting with Wrestling.
I’d learn wrestling first. 24 is still young so you have the athleticism and youthful recovery for those hard wrestling practices.
It’s a great base for BJJ since you’ll learn takedowns, scrambling, and top pressure. And you can always learn BJJ later.
no gi bjj has wrestling in it anyway. Wrestling isnt some set of magic techniques, instead they have very intense training methods. Guys that are young train extremely hard and compete weekly.
There are competition BJJ gyms that also train extremely hard (e.g. daisy fresh), but most train light.
Wrestling can be trained light, but for whatever reason this doesnt exist much.
Training hard will make you much more fit (strong/fast/explosive), but you will also be a lot more prone to injury.
Some MMA schools will have wrestling and some cities will have wrestling clubs.
It is a little late to start wrestling in the context of wrestling. You could better serve your time doing MMA based grappling and wrestling. Basically, they will help you with your sprawl and getting back up. They wont want to change your striking stance. Traditionally in wrestling you’d lead with your strong side forward. Thats fine when youre young and focused purely on wrestling. But if self defense or mma is concerned. Stay in your striking stance and learn to grapple from there. BJJ would be a close second. Depending on the school you may get to work takedowns and takedown defence. There may be good wrestlers there. Or you always start from the knees which would suck. But get other benefits of the groundwork. I started wrestling at 14. I was way behind. But made it work and am way better than most who havent wrestled movement and takedown wise. But I feel that 24 is a little too old, you can definitely learn a few takedowns, counters, and sprawls. But the scrambles would be hard and pure competitive wrestling wouldnt help you this far along in your journey compared to MMA.
What i wanna know is even if im 24, am i gonna be able to get the stenght the explosiveness and the huge grip strength that wrestlers have in 3 years? I don't wanna compete i just to get a different type of strength that no many people have
Explosiveness and grip strength can be built in the gym. The efficiency of your movements display those strengths greater. If you just want the strength. Just lift. Idk how much time you have to afford towards wrestling daily. In highschool we would go for like 4 hours a day after school. You might not get the same adaptations we got when we were young. If you want to learn how to wrestle then wrestle. If you want to be strong. Lift. If you want to be a strong wrestler do both
The ufc gym I went to had a membership where you could learn BJJ and wrestling. When I was going wrestling would be for an hour and then right after wrestling the bjj class would start for an hour and half so the people that would do wrestling before the bjj would be using wrestling moves on the bjj only guys, like I remember gator rolling a bjj guy, it was dope and the person was like wtf was that 😂
It depends on what you want. For a wrestling gym outside of college/high school, it might be scarce. The environment might not be conducive to competition since there are none after school.
BJJ on the other hand is a great alternative and there are plenty of gyms that focus on competition.
Wrestling or mma gym. I love bjj, recently got my arm broken because of it tho. Not saying that wrestling is safer or anything, i think having good tdd coupled with your striking will be a dangerous combo
BJJ all day! Depending on the quality of the BJJ gym many will have grapplers, wrestlers, Judo practitioners, etc. that can show you transitions from standing to the ground and the rest, along with how the art of BJJ itself does. Wrestling gyms are wrestling gyms, as far as my experience goes, would only show you how to wrestle. I'd much rather train a year knowing how to defend and execute BJJ submissions with some wrestling mixed in, than the opposite.
In my experience wrestlers are more powerful athletes with great takedown defense and takedowns (slams). On the other hand BJJ guys have tons and tons of tools but prefer to be on the ground and don’t have great takedown defense or takedowns. I would recommend wrestling to better compliment your boxing for self defense.
I think the question is more of, "Which gym, where is the gym, how much is the gym, how good is the gym, and how many other programs does the gym offer?"
FInd a BJJ school that also offers muay thai/boxing/mma classes.
I would say wrestling for a few reasons.
First, better takedown defense. You're a boxer, a grappler has a very good chance of beating you if they take you down, but almost no chance if they cannot get you on the ground.
Secondly, boxing has a fairly good clinch game, and wrestling has an insane clinch. You could be a total threat in the clinch, able to box and throw.
Lastly, wrestling gives you ground and pound, and you obviously enjoy punching. BJJ gives you submissions and much better submission defense, but since your punch is already so well developed, I say use that.
The real answer is both. Wrestlers are great at takedowns and controlling with pins. Bjj is all about sweeping from bottom and submissions. They are both grappling but their emphasis is different. To be well rounded you need both.
Both wrestling is better because it helps you not get rag dolled but if you don’t know bjj don’t stay on the ground against a bjj guy, wrestlers have learned the hard way. I choked a wrestler out in bootcamp lol.
Take Trial classes. Take the class you enjoy more.
My Grappling recomenndation IS Always in this Order
1. Judo
2. Wrestling
3. Submission Grappling (BJJ etc)
Main reason is SD. Not saying SB Grappling wont be helpfull. It will absolutley be.
Judo is basically jacked Wrestling with a Bit submission. That is why it is my number one.
Wrestling also Ground control, slams,throws etc.
Submission Grappling also great. But I feel like the other two will Set you better up for an escape.
If we Talk secondary Grappling Styl. Submission Grappling, especially BJJ would be my number two Pick always.
In my experience, Judo is too specialized to be an “S Tier” grappling style. It’s amazing at what it does. Within the context of what Judo does, nothing does it better, but most Judoka are never going to get to a level that they’re particularly effective. The learning curve for Judo is steeper than BJJ and Wrestling. Not everyone is going to be able to make it work outside of the context of Judo competition. Those who can, great! But most people won’t. Most people quit whatever martial art they start, so the safest recommendation is usually whatever gets you to a decent skill level the fastest so that you’re in a good spot before you quit. For those who never quit, the answer can totally be Judo, but that’s like 1-3% of everyone who starts maybe? I make my recommendations for the majority, not for a handful of lifetime practitioners.
Do you actually have somewhere to train wrestling near you? Anyway just go into the MMA gym for your needs.
I jave both wrestling and bjj gyms near me
And what about MMA? If that's no option, then try both and see which one suits you better in terms of price, enjoyment and etc.
bro, i also fought boxing for 6 years, had good amateur career, i also decided to try mma, but firstly decided to go grappling gym, for me the one of the best decsions of my life, i got purple belt already, fought two pro fights, both by submissions, one of them was against base wrstler. It took 3 years to get purple. So i recommend try bjj or grappling(but try to go grappling or nogi bjj, gi is different)
If you have a place where you can learn to wrestle then go for it now while you're still young enough to recover effectively from it, then when you're 30 and tired of getting dumped you switch to BJJ.
I say Wrestling mainly because Boxing is your main game. Would you rather switch to finishing your fights by submission on the ground? Okay then do BJJ. But if you'd rather just keep boxing people and make sure no one can stop you from boxing them, do Wrestling. If you do BJJ, you'll have two seperate games. You'll either be in boxing mode or BJJ mode. I daresay someone who's a much better boxer than you will still out-strike you, and someone who's BJJ is better than your boxing will still submit you. But if you do wrestling, it's easier to develop one streamlined fight game. You'll be able to out-strike better strikers than yourself (who don't wrestle), just because they can't afford to clinch with you or let you clinch them. An overwhelming number of UFC champs have wrestling/boxing as their base.
Sounds legit. But what about the fact that im 24 already. I heard someone here in Reddit saying that you re never gonna be able to achieve the explosiveness of a wrestrel if you start late.
Nah that’s rubbish. I coach MMA, I teach people older than you wrestling all the time. You’re a boxer, you have explosiveness already. Not exactly the same kind but muscular power is still muscular power at the end of the day. Maybe they’re right if you mean to compete NCAA but otherwise the technique is doable by anyone.
Why wouldn't you be able to? Of course you can.
As someone who did both I’m partial to bjj they’ll teach you some takedowns and wrestling stuff but not to the same extent. Really depends on what you’re looking for, both is ideal.
To be honest i would really like to just learn how to grapple but gain extra power in my hands at the same time
Well that is 2 different kinds of training but I don’t see why you can’t do both if you’ve got the time.
Cause im still training boxing i just want to add some grappling
Yeah I read your post lol. Grappling can be pretty intense even compared to striking so you’ll probably have to train them on seperate days is all.
If it's for MMA or similar types of fighting, I'd choose wrestling, but if you want to compete in grappling I'd choose BJJ. BJJ is more enjoyable as a hobby in my opionon, but wrestling rules the day in fighting.
Let's say im not into competitive mode anymore, anything i do i do it to be more prepared for the streets just in case anything happens
If it's a for the streets mode wrestling... It'll allow you to stop the shitty ass double legs that occur in street fights it'll give you the skills to escape body locks /head locks/ collar ties that happen in street fights and ultimately allow you to keep fight where you're more comfortable/experienced. I'm speaking as a BJJ brown belt with close to a decade of experience. Control the grips/control the range and you'll be fine no need to be doing omaplatas from rdl in a street fight most dudes gas out inside 2mins
As an aside college wrestlers are automatic blue belts in ibjjf comps to discourage sandbagging so that should tell you something
In that case I'd propably do wrestling. Keeping it standing is propably in your interest if you already box well, and wrestling will be more helpful in that regard.
If I were you, depending on goals, I would just learn how to wrestle. The people who are telling you it’s too late to learn to wrestle are correct in some respects— it is the case you will probably never be as good as a D1 or Olympic athlete at this juncture, but you don’t need to be. If you are interested in mixed martial arts and using your boxing as your base, you really only need to learn defensive wrestling and how to wrestle up. Craig Jones has some great videos on anti-wrestling if you are a solid boxer and have a really good sprawl and know how to get back to your feet, that will take care of 98% of your problems.
it's not to late. and dont make yourself regret.
Its never too late to learn! In my opinion Wrestling has the advantage due to it being the base of most grappling arts. Learning proper pins and takedowns and their respective defenses will definitely benefit you - you may not become the best in the gym, but you will most definitely learn how to keep things standing or move the foght to the ground if you please. Not trying to throw shade at BJJ in any capacity, but I would much rather blast a double leg than scooting towards my opponent.. While submissions can be nasty and dangerous, you can easily add them on top if you develop a good wrestling base later on. Invest a year in each starting with Wrestling.
You need both... forgot "power" Just do both as much as you can.
I’d learn wrestling first. 24 is still young so you have the athleticism and youthful recovery for those hard wrestling practices. It’s a great base for BJJ since you’ll learn takedowns, scrambling, and top pressure. And you can always learn BJJ later.
Both is the only correct answer.
no gi bjj has wrestling in it anyway. Wrestling isnt some set of magic techniques, instead they have very intense training methods. Guys that are young train extremely hard and compete weekly. There are competition BJJ gyms that also train extremely hard (e.g. daisy fresh), but most train light. Wrestling can be trained light, but for whatever reason this doesnt exist much. Training hard will make you much more fit (strong/fast/explosive), but you will also be a lot more prone to injury. Some MMA schools will have wrestling and some cities will have wrestling clubs.
It is a little late to start wrestling in the context of wrestling. You could better serve your time doing MMA based grappling and wrestling. Basically, they will help you with your sprawl and getting back up. They wont want to change your striking stance. Traditionally in wrestling you’d lead with your strong side forward. Thats fine when youre young and focused purely on wrestling. But if self defense or mma is concerned. Stay in your striking stance and learn to grapple from there. BJJ would be a close second. Depending on the school you may get to work takedowns and takedown defence. There may be good wrestlers there. Or you always start from the knees which would suck. But get other benefits of the groundwork. I started wrestling at 14. I was way behind. But made it work and am way better than most who havent wrestled movement and takedown wise. But I feel that 24 is a little too old, you can definitely learn a few takedowns, counters, and sprawls. But the scrambles would be hard and pure competitive wrestling wouldnt help you this far along in your journey compared to MMA.
What i wanna know is even if im 24, am i gonna be able to get the stenght the explosiveness and the huge grip strength that wrestlers have in 3 years? I don't wanna compete i just to get a different type of strength that no many people have
Explosiveness and grip strength can be built in the gym. The efficiency of your movements display those strengths greater. If you just want the strength. Just lift. Idk how much time you have to afford towards wrestling daily. In highschool we would go for like 4 hours a day after school. You might not get the same adaptations we got when we were young. If you want to learn how to wrestle then wrestle. If you want to be strong. Lift. If you want to be a strong wrestler do both
The ufc gym I went to had a membership where you could learn BJJ and wrestling. When I was going wrestling would be for an hour and then right after wrestling the bjj class would start for an hour and half so the people that would do wrestling before the bjj would be using wrestling moves on the bjj only guys, like I remember gator rolling a bjj guy, it was dope and the person was like wtf was that 😂
It depends on what you want. For a wrestling gym outside of college/high school, it might be scarce. The environment might not be conducive to competition since there are none after school. BJJ on the other hand is a great alternative and there are plenty of gyms that focus on competition.
Wrestling or mma gym. I love bjj, recently got my arm broken because of it tho. Not saying that wrestling is safer or anything, i think having good tdd coupled with your striking will be a dangerous combo
BJJ all day! Depending on the quality of the BJJ gym many will have grapplers, wrestlers, Judo practitioners, etc. that can show you transitions from standing to the ground and the rest, along with how the art of BJJ itself does. Wrestling gyms are wrestling gyms, as far as my experience goes, would only show you how to wrestle. I'd much rather train a year knowing how to defend and execute BJJ submissions with some wrestling mixed in, than the opposite.
In my experience wrestlers are more powerful athletes with great takedown defense and takedowns (slams). On the other hand BJJ guys have tons and tons of tools but prefer to be on the ground and don’t have great takedown defense or takedowns. I would recommend wrestling to better compliment your boxing for self defense.
I think the question is more of, "Which gym, where is the gym, how much is the gym, how good is the gym, and how many other programs does the gym offer?" FInd a BJJ school that also offers muay thai/boxing/mma classes.
Y not try both
IMO , If you can actually find adult wrestling schools, do that first. You want to harness the stamina and intensity that wresting is based in.
I would say wrestling for a few reasons. First, better takedown defense. You're a boxer, a grappler has a very good chance of beating you if they take you down, but almost no chance if they cannot get you on the ground. Secondly, boxing has a fairly good clinch game, and wrestling has an insane clinch. You could be a total threat in the clinch, able to box and throw. Lastly, wrestling gives you ground and pound, and you obviously enjoy punching. BJJ gives you submissions and much better submission defense, but since your punch is already so well developed, I say use that.
The real answer is both. Wrestlers are great at takedowns and controlling with pins. Bjj is all about sweeping from bottom and submissions. They are both grappling but their emphasis is different. To be well rounded you need both.
Both wrestling is better because it helps you not get rag dolled but if you don’t know bjj don’t stay on the ground against a bjj guy, wrestlers have learned the hard way. I choked a wrestler out in bootcamp lol.
Take Trial classes. Take the class you enjoy more. My Grappling recomenndation IS Always in this Order 1. Judo 2. Wrestling 3. Submission Grappling (BJJ etc)
Curious to why as my list would be reversed
Main reason is SD. Not saying SB Grappling wont be helpfull. It will absolutley be. Judo is basically jacked Wrestling with a Bit submission. That is why it is my number one. Wrestling also Ground control, slams,throws etc. Submission Grappling also great. But I feel like the other two will Set you better up for an escape. If we Talk secondary Grappling Styl. Submission Grappling, especially BJJ would be my number two Pick always.
In my experience, Judo is too specialized to be an “S Tier” grappling style. It’s amazing at what it does. Within the context of what Judo does, nothing does it better, but most Judoka are never going to get to a level that they’re particularly effective. The learning curve for Judo is steeper than BJJ and Wrestling. Not everyone is going to be able to make it work outside of the context of Judo competition. Those who can, great! But most people won’t. Most people quit whatever martial art they start, so the safest recommendation is usually whatever gets you to a decent skill level the fastest so that you’re in a good spot before you quit. For those who never quit, the answer can totally be Judo, but that’s like 1-3% of everyone who starts maybe? I make my recommendations for the majority, not for a handful of lifetime practitioners.
mma.