Last week, USA Wrestling announced that Joe Warren would return to competitive wrestling and take part in one of their international tours. Three days later, they took it a step forward and said that “he’s moved back to the U.S. Olympic Training Center” and plans to compete in the Kiki Cup and Dave Schultz Memorial Tournament.

The results are back from the Kiki Cup. Of course, you would not know it from reading any MMA websites. Warren went 0-3. Last year, he made a brief comeback at the Kit Carson Cup and went 0-2. His wrestling record since starting his MMA career stands 0-5.

So, the two big questions are, can Warren make the team and fulfill his Olympic dream in 2012 and has USA Wrestling properly promoted a top MMA fighter taking part in their program?

Can Warren Make it in 2012?

Now, I will not be foolish enough to say that Warren can’t do something. The man defeated Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto in his MMA debut. He switched from freestyle to Greco-Roman wrestling and overcame a variety of issues in his personal life. It is safe to say that Warren has the ability to do anything.

With that being said, it is my job to approach things from an analytical perspective. Plus, if I make winning a gold medal sound impossible, it will only add to Warren’s mystique if he does.

In order for Warren to win an Olympic gold medal, three things must happen. First, someone needs to qualify his weight, 60 kg/132 lbs, for the games. Second, he needs to make the U.S. Olympic team. Third, he needs to win the Olympic tournament.

I could run through the whole qualification process, but I already did that for this article. I will go out on a limb and say that someone will qualify the weight, but it is not certain. In 2008, the U.S. did not have a 60 kg wrester in Greco-Roman, but then again Warren was barred from competing in the 2007 World Championships and that didn’t help.

In order to make the team, Warren will have to get past 2009 world team member Jeremiah Davis and Joe Betterman. While Warren went 0-3 at the Kiki Cup, Davis went 2-0 and Betterman went 4-0.

In addition to defeating three European championship medalist at the Kiki Cup, Ivo Angelov, Edward Barsegian and Stig Andre Berge, Betterman also had an impressive 2010. He won the Sunkist Kids International and the NYAC International before injuring his knee in the process of taking second at the prestigious Padubbny International in Russia. Plus, he has this great highlight video featuring MC Chris.

Also in an interesting twist of fate, Warren defeated a then 22-year-old Betterman in the finals of the 2007 U.S. World Team Trials, which was Warren’s last tournament before his two-year ban from international wrestling.

We should get a better idea of how these three stack up this weekend. They are all scheduled to compete at the Dave Schultz Memorial on Thursday.

Greco-Roman wrestling is probably one of the toughest sports to try to earn an Olympic gold medal. The U.S. has had zero Olympic or World gold medals since 2006 in the style. The last time the U.S. won a gold was in the 2006 World Championships. Can you guess who took home gold?

Is USA Wrestling Missing a Golden Opportunity?

I once had to write a paper about the compensation of Olympic athletes and it turned into a 30-page tome about USA Wrestling’s inability to ride MMA’s popularity train. (In case you are wondering, I got an A, but I had to drink a John-Buhlish number of energy drinks to get it done.)

Warren is the Bellator featherweight champion. Warren is a consensus top-ten fighter. Don’t you think that the good folks over at USA Wrestling would want to use him to bring attention to their events and sport?

They did write a press release and put it on their website, TheMat.com. However, to my knowledge, they did not send it to any MMA media. We get press releases all the time. Yesterday I got one about guys who wrestle snakes and tigers in their spare time, but nothing about the Dave Schultz Tournament that takes place tomorrow.

Imagine this. How ridiculous would it be if Strikeforce signed Herschel Walker and decided not to send anything to ESPN or the football media?

Look at a sport like submission wrestling. Grapplers Quest has embraced the UFC. They work together to host grappling tournaments for UFC Fan Expos. Brian Cimins’ product has never been more popular. USA Wrestling seems to know that MMA goes on, but they do not take advantage of the comparison. Instead they want to be seen as some sort of family friendly entity. Compare these two YouTube commercials – Grapplers Quest and USA Wrestling.

USA Wrestling streams many of their tournaments for free on TheMat.com, which is great. Commentator Jason Bryant does a better than almost all the voices in MMA. However, it is clear that they dropped the ball on promoting Warren and his chase for Olympic gold.

8 thoughts on “Mann Talk – Joe Warren’s Olympic Quest”
  1. Did he make it down to 132 for the Kiki cup. Just wondering since he bulked up to compete at 145 in MMA.

  2. Also Joe Warren is hilarious. In one of his matches the ref took the win away from him for the second time. Warren looked at him and said “we’re in America!”

  3. I thought the rule was if it’s incidental tangle on the feet the takedown still counts? I’m guessing they ruled he used it to trip him to the mat in the third?

    Also I never watched him compete before his MMA career, more than once or twice. Do you see any particular area that is different about his game now compared to back then?

  4. It looked like a bit of a trip to me.

    In response to your question, I think his biggest problem, and hardest thing in Greco, is par terre defense. With the way the “ball grab” is you really have to be able to defend from the bottom position.

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