While success at this tournament is often a good predictor of future wrestling greatness, and some of these wrestlers will no doubt go on to become world and Olympic medalists, there's no telling where any given wrestler will be 5 or 10 years from now.
One such path for these world-class athletes to embark upon is the one that leads to the world of mixed martial arts, where wrestlers of their caliber can make a very significant impact. There is certainly precedent for this to occur, as quite a few top fighters were once their country's top age-group wrestler. Read on to find out who …
Norifumi "Kid" YamamotoNorifumi "Kid" Yamamoto
Many fans know that Japanese MMA superstar Yamamoto took to the mats in 2007 as the Beijing Olympics loomed, in the hopes that he would realize his lifelong dream of becoming an Olympic champion. However, few fans realized just how good a wrestler he actually was.
Yamamoto owns a very strong resume that includes items like three-time Arizona state champ (as a guest of Townsend Saunders), Japanese Collegiate Nationals champ, Japanese Senior Nationals runner-up, and 2007 World Team hopeful. He first turned heads on the mat by winning both the 1990 and 1991 Cadet Nationals in freestyle and competing at both years' Cadet World Championships.
Yamamoto tragically passed away in 2018 from stomach cancer. RIP Kid.
Marcus LeVesseur
Before putting in a solid but slightly disappointing 22-7 MMA career, the super-talented LeVesseur went 155-0 as a four-time Division III national champ. Though this is the lynchpin of his resume, he was one heck of an age-group wrestler as well.
LeVesseur won four Minnesota high school state titles and was a phenomenal Cadet/Junior wrestler. In four years at Fargo he placed first through fourth in successive years, defeating or placing ahead of future Division I champs Greg Jones, Jesse Jantzen, and Zack Esposito in the process. He also made a Cadet World Team in 1999, placing sixth at the Worlds ahead of great wrestlers like World/Olympic/European medalist Andrey Stadnik of Ukraine.
Possibly his signature performance, LeVesseur beat Keith Gavin, Tyron Woodley, Bryce Hasseman, and two other Division I wrestlers to win the 2004 University Nationals. He went on to place 10th in a stacked 74-kilogram class at University World Championships.
Heath Sims
As an integral member of the legendary Team Quest that featured top Greco-Roman wrestlers like Matt Lindland, Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen, and Randy Couture, and as head coach of the groundbreaking Evolve MMA in Singapore, Sims is one of the more under-appreciated fighters and coaches in MMA history.
As a wrestler, Sims won everything from two California state titles, to the 1998 California Junior College State Championships, to Greco Senior Nationals, to the 2000 Olympic Team Trials, eventually going 1-1 in Sydney. Impressive as these accolades are, his only world medal came in the Espoir (20 and under) division in 1991 where he took silver.
Ilir Latifi
Watch UFC fan favorite Ilir Latifi fight today and it will quickly become clear that he is an extremely powerful individual. What you may not know however, is that the Swedish-Albanian brute honed that power as one of the best Junior Greco-Roman wrestlers in his home country of Sweden.
In a part of the world known for its Greco-Roman wrestling, Latifi is the owner of several very impressive medals. Winning gold and silver at the Junior Nordic Championships in 2001 and 2002 respectively, and a bronze at the Swedish Senior Greco Nationals in 2005, Latifi was the real deal.
To illustrate the level of Latifi's skill, these were the very same tournaments that featured world/Olympic medalists Mark O. Madsen (recently signed by the UFC) and Jimmy Lidberg. Latifi trains with both, along with all the stud wrestlers at American Top Team to this very day.
Genki Sudo
MMA fans from the early 2000's will surely be thrilled to see "The Neo-Samurai" Genki Sudo on this list. An extraordinarily entertaining fighter, Sudo is a product of the extremely high-level, lighter-weight, amateur wrestling scene in Japan.
One of the slickest, most daring, high-amplitude takedown artists of his day, it was as one of Japan's best Junior Greco wrestlers in the mid 1990's that he developed such ability. In fact, Sudo made it to the 1996 Junior World Championships as a result of winning collegiate and Junior division national titles in Greco-Roman wrestling.
Always present in the Japanese wrestling scene, in addition to being on the team at vaunted Takushoku University, he studied under Japanese legend Noriaki Kiguchi for years, a man who in 1969 gave Dan Gable all he could handle.
Having taken the reins at his alma matter in 2008 as coach of the Greco-Roman team, Sudo recently coached Japan's only medalist Ken Matsui at the 2019 Greco-Roman Junior World Championships.
Mike van Arsdale
Iowa native Mike van Arsdale is another competitor who doesn't get mentioned enough in the conversation discussing the best wrestlers to ever compete in MMA. Having been in the MMA ring/cage with some of the very best fighters of his generation and always performing well, van Arsdale was a much better wrestler than he was a fighter.
Mike was successful at every level and in every style. He was a state champ at West Waterloo High, won Junior Nationals, and took second at Junior Worlds before ever suiting up for the Iowa State Cyclones. This catapulted him to an outstanding NCAA career where he became three-time All-American and a national champ for Iowa State.
Van Arsdale continued wrestling after college, taking home many prestigious medals at tournaments like the World Cup and Military Worlds. He rolled from international wrestling right into fighting. Van Arsdale has since used his pedigree to become a highly sought-after MMA, wrestling and fitness coach.
Bubba Jenkins (Photo/Bellator)Bubba Jenkins
Currently taking his fighting talents on the road in an attempt to finally break through and realize his combative potential, Bubba Jenkins was a major high-profile acquisition for the MMA world back in 2011. It's easy to see why, considering Jenkins was Virginia state champ, NHSCA Senior Nationals champ, Fargo Cadet Freestyle All-American, NCAA DI champ, University Nationals champ and Junior world champ.
Initially teetering between pursuing international freestyle wrestling and fighting, it was ultimately Bubba's age-group success that helped him decide. In a late 2012 interview with Ultimate Grappling Magazine, when asked why he chose to pursue MMA and not the Olympics, Jenkins alluded to a feeling of satisfaction as his reason for leaving his first love. He said something to the effect of "I won Junior Worlds in 2007 so in a way I've already been the best in the world in wrestling…"
Dan Severn
The very first world-class wrestler to enter MMA, pioneer Dan Severn has been in the game so long that the term "MMA" didn't even exist when he began fighting. Severn burst onto the scene at UFC 4 and proudly flew the flag for wrestlers everywhere. He got into the event in the first place because of his extensive amateur wrestling credentials and was determined to do his sport proud.
Severn's career and credentials are almost as extensive in wrestling as they are in MMA, and considering he fought 127 fights, that is saying something. In addition to being a two-time Division I All American at Arizona State University and a very successful senior level wrestler in both styles, Severn reached the very top of the world as an age-group wrestler. He won multiple AAU national titles in freestyle and Greco-Roman on his way to winning the Junior World Championships in 1977.
Asen Yamamoto
Also known as Asen Sasaki, this Japanese wrestling standout is the nephew of the aforementioned dearly departed superstar Kid Yamamoto. Carrying the torch for the fighting/wrestling Yamamoto family of Japan, the kid has some big shoes to fill.
With high expectations to contend with, both because of his family and his credentials, Yamamoto has his work cut out for him. While he is clearly committed to fighting despite his iffy record, perhaps the young fighter (22) can take some comfort in knowing that he can still exit MMA if need be and head back to wrestling to make good on his considerable potential.
As a teen Greco-Roman wrestler representing Japan, Yamamoto won Cadet Worlds in 2013. He later relocated to Hungary to take advantage of their world-class facilities and coaching where he continued to wrestle. He hasn't ruled out taking a shot at the Tokyo Games in 2020.
Daniel Cormier
The wrestling exploits of Daniel Cormier are well-documented in the MMA world. His Olympic appearance in 2004, Olympic debacle in 2008, stranglehold on the U.S. 96-97 kilo World Team spot for six straight years, runner-up finish to Cael Sanderson in the NCAA, and even his two NJCAA national titles are mentioned frequently.
Lesser-known are Cormier's Greco-Roman and age-group accolades, which overlap quite a bit. While "DC" made his name in collegiate and freestyle wrestling, he was quite the Greco-Roman wrestler as well. Though this may be unknown by most of Cormier's MMA fans, it shouldn't be a surprise as he has used his upper-body game and clinch-work to great effect inside the cage.
Cormier was an NHSCA All-American and four-time Fargo All-American as a high schooler in Louisiana. Of his four Fargo trophies, two came in Greco-Roman, including the one earned in his best showing, a runner-up finish in 1997 as a Junior wrestler. He also scored a bronze medal at the 1995 Cadet World Championships in Greco-Roman.
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