Shhh! Chris Leben is sleeping!
Shhh! Chris Leben is sleeping!

This has been a tough week for me. I’ve got three term papers due on Saturday. A frozen turkey fell on my head and cracked my skull Tito Ortiz style, and Jake Rosholt got cut by the UFC.

In the spring of 2007 a new management group named Team Takedown announced that they had signed four former NCAA wrestling standouts to MMA contracts. These four fighters would earn a salary and receive the best coaching available, while working to become top MMA fighters. After former Penn State all-American Eric Bradley was arrested there were only three fighters.

The innovative concept seemed like it was flawless. Anyone who has followed MMA at all can see the impact high level wrestlers have made, or, in the case of Tito Ortiz, the impact of sorta okay wrestlers. Johny Hendricks, Shane Roller and Jake Rosholt all quickly made their way to Zuffa owned promotions. Before they all made their WEC debuts, their combined record was 10-1. Now their combined record stands at 19-4. That’s not bad for three former wrestlers who started training MMA two and a half years ago.

Check out the rest of the article and my weekend picks after the jump

The UFC apparently was not impressed by one of the trio, Rosholt. After being submitted by TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove at UFC 106, he was cut by the promotion.

Anyone who has seen Rosholt fight knows that he has talent. His top control jiu jitsu game is surprisingly advanced. Like a lot of recent wrestling converts he has a sick arm triangle choke. In the Leben bout, he out struck a guy who once took out a door on cable television. In both of his losses he got caught in a submission hold and completely froze. This “deer in the headlights syndrome” will fade with experience.

Now that he has been cut, he will be able to get that experience. Team Takedown needed a return on their investment, so they rushed all three of their fighters to the Zuffa product. Their model is not flawed, but it may need to be tweaked a bit to allow for more development time.

In a perfect world more people will adopt the Team Takedown model. Perhaps then collegiate wrestling can become the proving ground for future MMA fighters, just like college football is for the NFL. The survival of wrestling is vital for the continued development of MMA. Wouldn’t it be great to see some wrestling highlights on ESPN?

In the case of Rosholt, the haters are wrong. The wrestling pedigree does mean something, and I predict that he will be back in the middleweight mix by the end of 2010 – that is of course unless the 2012 thing happens a few years early.

Required Viewing
Rosholt winning his third NCAA Division I title over fellow MMA fighter Phil Davis (video)
Rosholt showing off some tough top game in a grappling match with BJJ brown belt Brendan Raedy (video)

Weekend Picks
MFC 23
Thales Leites lost to Alessio Sakara in his last fight, so I’ve got Dean Lister. However, you should know there is always a chance that Lister will gas out terribly.
Jason MacDonald will submit Solomon Hutcherson faster than War Machine can ruin a career.
Emanuel Newton will regain some of his “hot prospect” momentum with a decision victory over Ryan Jimmo.

Ring of Fire 36
Mike Nickels will show up with some new tats and a lose a ground battle to Vinny Magalhaes.
Ryan “Are you ready?” Roberts is ready to lose to Duane Ludwig. It will be his fifth loss in a row. Remeber when he got submitted by Marcus Aurelio in 16 seconds?
Cody Donovan will run through Eric Smith. He is a quality prospect and a close personal friend of TUF 10’s Brendan Schaub.

Rage in the Cage 138
Let’s hope Joe Riggs can look impressive against Eric Regan. I think he will.

K-1
I always try to avoid making picks in sports other than MMA. However, this one is too hard to pass up. Sergei Kharitonov’s leg will get kicked off by Daniel Ghita. I can hear Schiavello saying it now, “oh my god! He has only got one leg like Paul McCartney’s old wife.”

Richard Anderson Mann is an MMA journalist who makes his home in Chicago. He is a member of the Journalism Master’s degree program at Roosevelt University. Currently, he is a columnist for PROMMA.info and a news writer for adcombat.com. Richard can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Facebook at Facebook.com/RichardAndersonMann.

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