UFC President Dana White got his man … sorta.
Former three-time NCAA Oklahoma State University Wrestling champion Jake Rosholt has inked a contract to compete in the Zuffa-owned World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) promotion.
Rosholt –- who is undefeated as a mixed martial artist (4-0) since he turned pro more than one year ago -– is widely regarded as the top 185-pound prospect around. In fact, White recently gushed over the Team Takedown talent in a recent interview with ESPN The Magazine.
Here’s the quick snip:
“He’s the real deal.”
Rosholt was reportedly approached about competing on this season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF); however, the Spike TV reality series features light heavyweights and lightweights. And Rosholt was apparently not interested in moving up 20 pounds to showcase skills.
Who can blame him with that kind of talent and upside. Besides, it all seems to have worked out for the best.
Rosholt has been on the sidelines with an injured hand after a third round technical knockout win over Chad Jay during an Extreme Fighting League middleweight match back in March. He has finished all four of his opponents thus far and will look to do the same when he makes his WEC debut on September 10.
MMAmania.com has learned that his first test will be Danillo Villefort. “Indio” has also won his last four fights, including a submission (kneebar) over Mike Massenzio at an IFL back in May.
Expect to hear a lot of hype around Rosholt. And if he’s successful in his debut there will be a lot of talk that he will soon challenge Paulo Filho or the champion for his strap.
He’s that good.
WEC 36 features the rematch between Filho and Chael Sonnen, as well as featherweight champion Urijah Faber putting his 145-pound belt on the line against Mike Brown.
For an extensive piece on Rosholt check out this story on Yahoo!Sports.com.
16 Comments »
i am a little biased against WRestlers so I dont know what to say. I dont know if he is well rounded yet, or just another wrestler that can ground n pound. There is nothing that i hate more in mma than 1 dimensional wrestlers….Hopefully this guy isnt one of them.
I will keep an open mind, and just wait to see him in action.
I don’t know how well rounded he is, but he is currently one of the best wrestler’s in mma. I don’t care much for the camp he trains with, which is primarily wrestlers (team takedown) but I know a lot of guys from this camp cross train at other camps. Another outstanding wrestler in this camp that may do big things is Johnny Hendricks.
I read the Yahoo article and it talks all about him training at Extreme Couture. That is a good thing, because I don’t know much about Team Takedown other than they sound like a team of 3 GnP fighters. AND, they, including Rosholt, will be featured in an episode of TapOut in August. I will wait until then to provide an opinion of him.
I watched his first pro fight on youtube, and it was all GnP, as expected. He looks very powerful, and of course needs to work on his striking, as do all wrestlers. Once a wrestler feals comfortable and can end fights standing with techinical striking, he has made it in MMA
Yeah, I wrestled in Oklahoma, never at the collegiate level though, and the three guys Rosholt, Hendricks, and Roller are all pretty much wrestling Phenoms. my little brother was pretty competative with johnny hendricks throughout Jr High and high school.
I am not so sure about how true this is, but I hear that the UFC will try to invade Japan! if true this will be GREAT news, that is long over due!
Tagg Radio’s lights out show today will shed some light onto this situation
Cut N paste job:
BJ Penn in New Orleans with legendary performance coach Mackie Shilstone
For those that are not familiar with Shilstone, he is a big name in the boxing world as he has helped several athletes move up successfully in weight to challenge for other belts. Here is what Roy Jones Jr. had to say about Shilstone after Jones moved up from light heavyweight to heavyweight to challenge and beat then heavyweight champion John Ruiz. “”I’ve got to be honest, when I looked at the tapes, I said, ‘How am I gonna beat him [Ruiz]? How am I going to do this? Then I met Mackie Shilstone … he motivated me to train at another level.’”
Do u guys realize what a big deal this is? If Penn links up to train with this guy, he may truley become UNSTOPPABLE! This spells trouble for GSP!!!
Agreed.
Nice gem, john.
Did you know…? (Interesting Facts)
Interesting MMA facts:
Did you know Nathan Jones (WWF wrestler) fought on the first ever Pride event?
Did you know Mike Plotcheck (Bart Gunn off WWF) holds a win over Cabbage in MMA, and has been knocked out by Butterbean who actually has a win over Cabbage to?
Did you know Evan Tanner has more triangle choke submission victories than anyone in MMA ever?
Did you know the UFC 28 fight between Josh Barnett and Gan McGee was the first and only Superheavyweight fight in UFC history?
Did you know Brad Imes is the only fighter in MMA history to have 2 wins via gogoplata submission? (Pretty impressive for a heavyweight)
Did you know UFC Ring announcer Bruce Buffer has a Jiu Jitsu black belt and fought as a kick boxer?
Did you know Matt Serra was in Japan ready to fight in Pride 9. Unfortunately his opponent got injured by a pyrotechnic and he could not fight. He was never invited back to Pride?
Did you know Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture both fought in the Rings King of Kings tournament in 2000? They would have fought but Fedor was cut by TK and Couture was submitted by Valentijn Overeem.
Did you know Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira doesn’t lose fights, he just runs out of time, 4 losses in 36 fights all decisions?
Did you know Chuck Liddell was in a 1981 movie with Jack Nicholson called “The Postman Always Rings Twice”? (Very young Chuck)
Did you know Japanese Superstar Genki Sudo was a contestant on the show “Ninja Warrior”?
Did you know Tim Sylvia was on “Blind Date”?
Did you know Aaron Brink who has fought fighters like Andrei Arlovski, Rich Franklin, Alistair Overeem and Jeremy Horn is also an ex porn star?
Did you know that Shad Smith is the first openly gay fighter ever in MMA?
Did you know PRIDE 12 was where the term Lay and Pray was coined? Quadros coined the term while calling the fight between Kazuyuki Fujita and Gilbert Yvel.
Did you know at the pre-fight staredown between Quinton Jackson and Igor Vovchanchyn at PRIDE 22, Rampage gave Igor a note allegedly from his mother that said, “Please don’t hurt my son.”?
Did you know in the pre-fight staredown between Josh Barnett and Mark Hunt, while the referee was issuing the rules, Barnett added, “No flying ass drops.”?
Did you know Shooto is the oldest MMA organization on the planet? It started in 1985.
Did you know Japanese and Pride MMA Legend Kazushi Sakuraba actually won one of the very first UFC tournaments- UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan 1?
Did you know Anderson Silva allowed Travis Lutter to take him down in their fight at UFC 67 so that he could beat him on the ground to avenge Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons, Anderson’s training partner who lost to Lutter via armbar?
Did you know Rickson Gracie (claims to have won over 400 fights without a loss) the supposedly undefeated in all competitions has at least one loss from the 1993 U.S. Sambo Championships in Norman, Oklahoma, where he was defeated by American Ron Tripp by Total Victory via uchi-mata in 45 seconds? Rickson disputed this loss, claiming he was misinformed of the rules of the event.
Tim Sylvia on Blind Date?
Rampage’s note?
Brink an ex-porn star?
Barnett, no flying ass drops?
OMG, john. LMAO. Funny stuff.
Great find there John! I knew about several of them, and man, do I enjoy getting schooled on mma!
“Did you know Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira doesn’t lose fights, he just runs out of time”
yeah it was some funny stuff that I havent heard before. Its so true about Nog though! lol
I did see Tim Sylvia on Blind Date. He was pathetic. I don’t know if I was more embarrassed for him, or for myself for watching.
Pete Spratt was on Blind Date once too. Unlike Big Poopy, Pete’s date actually wanted to see his “Secret Weapon.”
Jake Rosholt is a tank. He is the future of this sport.
i saw the last show he was in in Tulsa… he and hendricks both have quite a future… jake actually took some shots in his fight and i don’t know how jay survived till the 3rd round cuz jake beat the piss out of him… in hendricks fight that night he won via darse choke… good luck to both of them…
Please dont hurt my boy! clasic thanks jon