Following his outstanding 3rd place finish at the Division 1 NCAA wrestling championships in March, two-time All-American Sebastian Rivera published an article titled, “Which Fighting Styles Generate the Most UFC/MMA Champions?” for Vividseats.com. A lifelong wrestler with MMA aspirations of his own, it’s natural for Rivera to approach the subject with bias, but the numbers don’t lie.
By Rivera’s estimation, based on data pulled from ESPN, 28 UFC champions have come from the sport of wrestling, making it the most prevalent base for UFC gold.
To build on that premise, and Rivera’s aesthetic graph-work, I will focus specifically on undisputed UFC championships won by wrestlers with folkstyle wrestling backgrounds.