Brock Lesnar Vs Cain Velasquez

Brock Lesnar Vs Cain Velasquez: The weigh-ins are done. The pre-fight hype is over. And in a little under 12 hours time we'll see the most intriguing and anticipated Heavyweight fight combat sports has seen since Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson. Some hardcore purists will no doubt bring up the Pride fights of Fedor Emelianenko vs Antonio Nogueira and Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filopovic but let's be frank: those fights were huge in Japan. Tomorrow's fight feels more global and thanks to UFC's tenacious international expansion efforts will at least be available pretty much world wide.

What should come as no surprise to anyone with more than a casual interest in MMA is that this fight will come down to wrestling. How the wrestling will be utilised is what's really interesting to an analyst like myself, not only the years of Amateur wrestling up to the highest national levels in the NCAA Division 1 collegiate program, but in the relatively obscure and yet slowly permeating version known as Catch Wrestling.

Catch Wrestling, you see, isn't just another style. It's an archetype. It spawned the American Folkstyle of wrestling found throughout the US school system. It influenced the Judo game of Mitsuyo Maeda when he took part in challenge matches throughout Europe and the Americas before settling in Brazil and teaching the Gracies. It in part helped form the basis of Sambo. And it spawned what we now know as Pro Wrestling in both America and Japan, the latter of which honoured the competitive element of Catch Wrestling through the formation of Shooto, Pancrase, Rings, Pride and so on, while the former moved away from the competitive element and to a more Show Business aspect culminating in World Wrestling Entertainment. Catch Wrestling is the undeniable link between Pro Wrestling and MMA and it's what justifies a site like Cageside Seats in covering both.

Brock Lesnar Vs Cain Velasquez