For years I listened to Josh Gross say on Sherdog radio that the MMA fan base is composed on fans who are not fans of traditional stick and ball sports. With the way many MMA fighters’ wrestling credentials are being thrown around, I’m starting to think he may be right, not only about the fans, but also about the MMA bloggers as well.

While reading the very same website that used to pay the aforementioned Gross, I came across an interesting sentence talking about a possible match up between Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley. Jake Rossen wrote, “watching two NCAA-accredited animals butt heads is a perfectly fine premise for a UFC title bout.” For the sake of this column, let’s ignore the fact that Rossen cannot write five words without calling a fighter an animal, and focus on the factual error.

Actually I was planning on ignoring the whole thing until I ran into the following tweet on Jason High’s twitter, @KCbandit, “@jordanbreen Tell your boy Jake Rossen that being an NAIA natl champion is not the same thing as being an NCAA natl champion.”

So, for Jason High, here is a break down of the different levels of competitive collegiate wrestling. Just like in all over sports, NCAA wrestling is broken down into three divisions. There is also a collegiate association that operates outside of the NCAA called NAIA, and there is of course NJCAA for junior college, which is often referred to as JUCO. In order to become an all-American, you need to place in the top seven in one of the following weight classes: 125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174, 184, 197, and 285.

Here some examples of the athletes competing in MMA

NCAA Division I
Josh Koscheck Edinboro University
Randy Couture Oklahoma State University
Brock Lesnar University of Minnesota

NCAA Division II
Shane Carwin Western State College

NCAA Division III
Matt Hamill Rochester Institute of Technology

NJCAA
Jon Jones Iowa Central Community College
Joe Soto Iowa Central Community College
Mike Massenzio Bergen Community College

NAIA
Bobby Lashley Missouri Valley College

3 thoughts on “Mann Talk – Get the Credentials Right”
  1. I’m a fan of almost all sports. All the people I watch MMA with were fans of other sports first, then came to MMA. I know that’s all anecdotal evidence, but when I hear people assert that “stick-and-ball” fans don’t like MMA it’s confusing to me (I know you didn’t assert that).

    In general I’m surprised when any sherdog writer can put five words together, period.

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