M.M.A VS Amateur Wrestling?

[p-jersey]

You make it sound like USA wrestling has money there are purposefully keeping from amatuers wrestler and MMA will force them to open their wallets.
We all know there is no money on amatuer wrestling, I am amaazed the Cejudo was able to net $85K last year (good for him, I wish he could earn more wrestling).

Depending on your perspective you can either state the problem as there is no money to be made in amatuer wrestling or that there is some money to be made in MMA which will draw wrestling away from international competition

Ther is bno doubt that if MMA did not exist some of the top wrestlers would still be wrestling instead of trying MMA. Ben Askren and Mo Lawal are the first two that come to mind (Joe Warren as well, but he is a special case because of the ridiculous drug suspension). These guys are legitmate contenders for world medals in their wrestling prime, but instead they are climbing the ranks of MMA.

In adition to these guys there is a whole class of top notch wrestlings who instead of climbing the national ladder and pushing the top guys, they have decided to pursue MMA (johny Hendricks, Phil Davis come to mind)

I am not criticizes these guys, I just wish they could fulfill their wrestling potential before picking the gloves like Matt Lindland, Randy Couture and Dan Henderson did.

I dont think I made it seem like that at all. Everyone in the wrestling world is up in arms about wrestlers leaving the sport but no one is coming up with any solutions to the problem. The problem is there is no money, instead of blaming mma for wrestlers leaving the sport blame the lack of money.

I hope all these guys continue to leave the sport until there is a solution to the problem and our top wrestlers are given some sort of incentive to stay in the sport.

If that were to ever happen it could be a great relatonship between mma and wrestling. MMA would bring in many new participants to the sport, some of our top guys would be more inclined to stay in wrestling while the larger pool would lessen the blow of guys moving into mma.

[arm-spin]

How do you bring more money into wrestling? I don't think Americans (as a whole) are willing to pay to watch freestyle. What can be done about that?