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To succeed in the UFC these days, a fighter needs to have supreme skills in all areas. Sure, specialists can still have plenty of success, but if they’re lacking skills in a single area they’re always likely to struggle.
Over the years we’ve seen plenty of grapplers develop excellent striking skills in the UFC, but we’ve also seen a number of high-end strikers suddenly become renowned for their grappling too.
Is it trickier for a striker to master the art of grappling than it is for a grappler to master the art of striking? It’s almost impossible to say, as anyone learning new skills after developing a different skill-set from their younger days is going to find it difficult.
However, plenty of fighters have pulled it off – and gone onto see major success in the UFC.
So with this considered, here are five strikers in the UFC who went onto become excellent grapplers.
#5. Max Holloway – former UFC featherweight champion
When Max Holloway made his UFC debut in 2012 as a late replacement in a fight with Dustin Poirier. He did so as one of the youngest and most inexperienced fighters in UFC history.
‘Blessed’ was just 20 years old at the time and had only four professional fights to his name. However, he had garnered plenty of hype thanks to his kickboxing skills, as he’d been striking since his school days and had apparently won his first amateur bout at the age of 15.
Holloway was duly dominated by Poirier on the ground and looked far out of his depth when it came to grappling. The Hawaiian then used his striking to reel off three straight wins, but came unstuck on the ground again against Dennis Bermudez and Conor McGregor.
However, after taking a few months off following the McGregor loss, Holloway returned – and had clearly been working on his ground game a lot.
He choked out the talented Andre Fili with a guillotine choke at UFC 172 in April 2014. A year later, he displayed phenomenal grappling skills to submit a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt in Cub Swanson with the same choke.
And while ‘Blessed’ has not won a fight via submission since, he has used takedowns and his grappling skills to dominate other opponents. He is clearly a fully-rounded fighter capable of scrambling with the best on the mat.
Essentially, he couldn’t be much further from the one-dimensional kickboxer that he was when he debuted in the UFC nearly a decade ago.
#4. Leon Edwards
UFC fighters coming out of the UK are rarely known for their grappling, largely thanks to the lack of an amateur wrestling scene in the country. Even British fighters who ended up training primarily in the US – names like Michael Bisping and Paul Daley – remained largely renowned for their striking.
However, one name has bucked that trend in the UFC. His name? Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards.
Edwards is now renowned as one of the strongest wrestlers in the UFC’s welterweight division – a division that’s chock-full of high-end grapplers. But ‘Rocky’ is now amongst the best, as he’s dominated top grapplers like Rafael dos Anjos and Gunnar Nelson on the mat.
It definitely wasn’t always like that. When Edwards entered the UFC in 2014, he lost his debut fight to Claudio Silva thanks to his lack of skills on the ground. In his earliest fights, he was essentially a pure kickboxer, albeit an excellent one.
But his loss to Kamaru Usman in 2015 clearly opened his eyes. Since then, Edwards has worked so hard on his wrestling that he now fights like a former NCAA Division I All-American.
‘Rocky’ has shown such tremendous improvement that you could probably argue he’s the best British grappler in UFC history.
#3. Robert Whittaker - former UFC middleweight champion
Former UFC middleweight kingpin Robert Whittaker has been known for his heavy hands and explosive striking style ever since his UFC debut back in 2012. However, he’s also become renowned for his excellent defensive grappling skills.
‘The Reaper’ showed off some solid takedown defense in his second visit to the octagon, a win over fellow TUF winner Colton Smith. However, his wrestling clearly wasn’t perfect, as he was taken down by both Court McGee and Brad Scott, hardly vaunted wrestlers.
But over the years, the Australian has worked remarkably hard on that part of his game. Despite facing monstrous wrestlers like Derek Brunson and Yoel Romero, his takedown defense still stands at a phenomenal 83%.
And when an opponent does get ‘The Reaper’ down, it’s nearly impossible to keep him there. He’s usually able to deploy a highly underrated jiu-jitsu game to escape back to his feet quickly.
But it’s in the wrestling realm that Whittaker has really improved. It’s unlikely we’ll see him spamming takedowns inside the octagon any time soon. However, the fact that he reportedly considered competing in the 2018 Commonwealth Games as a freestyle wrestler tells you enough about his skills in that area.
#2. Anthony Pettis – former UFC lightweight champion
Former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis might be out of the promotion now, competing instead in the PFL, but ‘Showtime’ remains one of the most highly regarded strikers in UFC history. His array of kicks and flashy moves were legendary, and his superman punch knockout of Stephen Thompson is up there with the best in UFC history.
Despite being so widely recognized for his striking, Pettis also developed a hugely dangerous grappling game during his time inside the UFC.
Part of this development probably came from the nature of his first UFC loss. His octagon debut saw him blanketed by wrestler Clay Guida. Unable to use his flashy striking, ‘Showtime’ fell to a disappointing decision loss.
After that, though, his grappling improved dramatically. While Pettis never became a truly excellent wrestler, his submission game became so venomous that it was just as risky for an opponent to take him down as it was to stand with him.
Benson Henderson found that out at UFC 164, when Pettis surprisingly caught him with an armbar and became the first man to submit him, taking his UFC lightweight title away in the process.
Later on, ‘Showtime’ submitted another highly regarded grappler in the form of Gilbert Melendez to defend that title successfully.
Add in the fact that Pettis is one of the few fighters to be able to tap out the most prolific submission artist in UFC history – current lightweight champ Charles Oliveira – and it’s clear that ‘Showtime’ belongs on any list of UFC strikers who also developed excellent skills on the ground.
#1. Georges St-Pierre – former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion
Legendary former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre – arguably the greatest fighter in MMA history – became so renowned for his grappling skills that it was hard to believe that he began life as a striker.
When he first entered the UFC, ‘Rush’ did so with a background primarily in Kyokushin karate. He was largely known for throwing flashy strikes like spinning kicks.
While he used his grappling to win some of his early fights, his biggest wins still came via strikes. A good example is his UFC welterweight title victory over Matt Hughes, which came via a second round head kick.
But after his shock loss to Matt Serra in 2007, it was pretty clear that while St-Pierre was still an excellent striker, he was more than happy to focus on his wrestling and ground game.
Incredibly, St-Pierre’s grappling game developed so highly that he outgrappled high-level collegiate wrestlers such as Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch, as well as Brazilian jiu-jitsu aces like BJ Penn.
By the time his storied UFC career ended in 2017, GSP was widely recognized as not only one of the best strikers in the sport, but arguably the best grappler too. Essentially, it’s why he is widely renowned as the greatest overall fighter of all time.
