middleway wrote:- Most people in my area of the world will be wearing jackets for about 75% of the year
- It is only the dominant method for the people who trained it from an early age, outside of that we see some great Judoka (Rousey) and obviously a huge amount of BJJ people dominating.
Jackets - makes sense but see the note above about the specifics of jacket training. Just because someone wheres a jacket does not mean the details translate to/from gi.
Wrestling dominance - I can't think of any current bjj or judo top ranking title holder in UFC. A quick look over UFC top fighters and at a guess it's about 80% or more that have a wrestling base. The rest is a mix. Even top 3 for heavyweight, light heavyeight, middleweight etc. any non-wrestlers are an annomally.
Also it is important to consider what works in general vs. the exception. For example Steve Wonderboy is an excellent kicker from a karate background but is an exception in UFC. I wouldn't be recommending people mimic his style unless they really had the drive and body type for it.
But wrestling is clearly dominating.
https://www.vividseats.com/blog/ufc-champions-fighting-styleThe thing to note is look at the last 5 years vs. UFC history. In the last 5 years there would not be any judo/bjj rankings. The game has changed and this is even in the light of the world wide popularity growth of both styles. As you say - it seems easier to find schools in these areas but it does not correlate to what is dominating in the octagon.
middleway wrote:- In the USA i agree the access to amazing wrestling academies should be focused on. In the UK we have VERY little wrestling but a huge amount of Judo. I think that Access to a good system, a good coach and a good training environment is as important as 'what' you are training.
Agreed. The only bit to add is even if it's hard to get to a a good wrestling coach I would at least augment Judo training with it if possible. In the UK I would spend time trying to hunt down freestyle, lancashire, folk or catch wrestling. Even once per month in addition to judo would expand the mind.