Hacker News Reader

Comment by uniclaude | Hacker News Reader

Very impressive photography work in this article.

I would really like to see how this type of wrestling evolves in the next few years, and if we'll see champions try to join international MMA leagues like UFC.

View on HN

This kind of wrestling, as all wrestling I can think of, has nothing to do with MMA. This fights are much more similar to olympic wrestling than any martial arts. It is actually less physical or violent (not sure what word to use here) than olympic wrestling. Is all about getting the opponent to the floor under some rules and then the fight is over.

Very different sports.

It perhaps closer to Judo, if anything?

Here's what it looks like in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHWw9UKzHAo

Surprisingly similar to games like Swiss Wrestling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRJQpXMAm3E

And Korean Ssireum:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5eyvFYjxgA

And Mongolian Wrestling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry-OuWGhjVg

And to a point even Sumo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyA4kW-Y5rE

And Igbo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYkarWIhTDg

Turns out it just seems to be a pretty human kind of thing to do.

Oh this is absolutely true, but there is a non trivial proportion of MMA fighters with a serious wrestling background, even in UFC. A good amount of skills are transferable between those two sports, as different as they are.

Yes, but many American college wrestlers take their skills to MMA. I think he was referring to the possibility of Senegalese wrestlers doing that.

It will probably happen in the future (assuming mma money is still there), but locally at first. To get to something close to the UFC they'll need to get much more competitive, meaning learning more disciplines and training harder.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com