With each of the UFC’s nine weight classes stockpiled with former collegiate wrestlers, the company’s brass should consider the NCAA Division I wrestling championships a de facto feeder system.
Since the UFC’s inception in 1993, amateur wrestlers have taken alternative avenues for success following their collegiate or Olympic careers by fearlessly jumping in the Octagon, some with sparse MMA training.
UFC stars, such as Cain Velasquez, Chris Weidman and Johny Hendricks, among many others, have used their wrestling chops to soar to the tops of their respective weight divisions.
With another UFC stalwart potentially in the works, company president Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva can pluck plenty of talent from this year’s NCAA championships in March in Oklahoma City.
In the same vein, plenty of primed wrestling talent was on display at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Many of those competitors will gear up for the 2016 Olympics, and if White’s lucky, a few will make the leap to MMA.
Here are five standout amateur wrestlers that fans would love to see make the leap to MMA.