Question About Cuban Wrestler's

[dmaswary]

Hello y'all, lomg time no speak.

How highly is the Cuban school of wrestling, or Cuban wrestler's in general - regarded.

I know traditionally Russian's and Eastern European's are given the highest marks but I figured perhaps the Iranian's and Cuban's are up there as well?????

I'm working out daily at the moment with some Cuban wrestling coaches and Cuban boxing coaches so I'm curious.

My own opinion - awesome. I'm curious how they stack up in international competition.

Thanks

[5pointcrossankle]

cuba is awesome in both wrestling and boxing, i think internationally they are better in boxing(it is their national sport isnt it?), in wrestling they can be top 5 in the world as a team, and if not usually top 10

[Hubbard]

Baseball is the most popular sport in Cuba.

[dmaswary]

Their Judo is top 5 as well. I'm asking because I am currently training with one American wrestling coach, two cuban wrestling coaches and my boxing coach is cuban. I an MMA fighter and I admire their school tremendously and it has made my game soar. My American coach, Darell Gholar, is a specialist in wrestling for MMA. The Cubans are the coaches of the Olympic team here in Brazil and I train privately with them as well as the Olympic team.

Their are so few Greco wrestlers in Brazil I may get a shot at competing for the team. It was never my intention and I didn't compete in high school or college, but I have trained wrestling almost every day for years now, as I took it it very naturally, and now I have nearly a decade of Greco and Freestyle on a near daily basis with pro coaches.

I thought I might try my hand at a competition or two in wqrestling to see how it goes and I partcularly love Greco. I think its better for MMA than freestyle. I just don't know much about the international scene

My layman's impression is

1 - Russians/Eastern European's
2 - Iran
3 - Cuba

and I don't know where the US fits in. It seems to me that the US is a powerhouse at the collegiate level and weaker at the international level. The US is also a weak Judo nation. I think the US is the world's best in Boxing at the pro level however.

Correct me if I'm wrong however. I'm really interested in Wrestling and I'm finding the idea of competing kind of appealing. I obviously won't win an Olympic medal but the Brazilian team competes well in the Pan American games. I wouldn't mind giving it a try

Living and training in Brazil means that everyone's obbsession is BJJ. I'm a very good BJJ fighter but I don't have the biotype for gi fighting. I do great in Greco, Judo and Submission Wrestling for the grappling arts (freestyle as well but a little less so than Greco). I guess that make s me a submission wrestler I'm all about throws and takedowns then leglocks and submission's.

I like Sambo a ton too but no one here trains it. Brazil is a powerful Judo nation

Thanks for answering my questions guys I appreciate it

[5pointcrossankle]

when it comes to mma i feel about greco to freestyle the same as boxing to kick boxing, greco might be used more but why not be more versitile and learn both upper and lower body takedowns

[dmaswary]

I do use freestyle quite a bit. I think Greco is under utilized because a good greco and/or Judo game suffocates the opponent and doesn't give him a chance to shoot if you start to box, close the distance and clinch. From the clinch you can pummel into a double leg, or work a throw, dirty boxing, knees etc...

Freestle alone risks a sprawl and a knee to the head. I see Greco as a way of making freestyle effective in MMA, not an end unto itself. You make a good point though

The one overridinfg rule I follow is that you never use just one art. I'll give you an example

Anderson Silva

He is easily a K-1 level Thai fighter with a perfect thai style body. His BJJ is very good, . His wrestling is terrible. No one can beat him because no one who can take him down can threaten him with stand up. All of the fighters who fought him are pure grapplers or limited in their ranges.

To beat a guy like Anderson you need to ut him on his back. He recently fought Demian Maiaa. Maia is a BJJ fighter of lergendary stature. His takedowns are non-existent. So how can he take the fight to where it needs to go. His striking is weak as well.

As I see it. You have to make a guy like Anderson worry that one of your punches might actually hurt him, make him respect you in the foxhole. While he is worrying he either shoot that takedown or suffocate him with the greco clinch and put him on the ground. All of a sudden, he's not so invincible.

So I really agree with you. I just see greco and boxing as the two best ways to get into that position. Box your way in close, evade any punches, parry the kicks, hit the clinch and start to work. Then you can officially control where you want the fight to be. If you dont want to go the ground, you won't. If you need it on the ground, clinch, throw, pummel into a double or single etc.....

I agree with you

[JudoWrestler]

I'd rank Iran ahead of eastern European states. I would put it Russia then Iran then followed by a whole bunch of 'European' states like Azer, Arm etc....

The reality is lots of these Eastern European countries are being represented by Russian wrestlers.

Cuban wrestlers are alright, but they just appear to be bigger and stronger than other wrestlers rather than being as technical. I tend to root against the Cubans.

I love it when a little Russian guy slaughters a huge Cuban guy, see saitiev romero...

[FRED]

Being a powerhouse on the college level is not that hard. We're the only Country who wrestles this style,,except for a couple of schools in Canada.

[arm-spin]

I've noticed that Cuban wrestlers, Lopez aside, tend to win a lot of silver and bronze medals but don't do so well in the world/olympic finals. It's rumored that they sometimes lose matches on purpose for money. That, and as JW says they aren't the most technical/tactical wrestling country... a good example is the Garzon vs Shahin matches, where Garzon seems to be the superior athlete but gets put on his back by well-timed throws.