Bubba Jenkins believes that American wrestlers hold the edge over Russian wrestlers.
Bubba Jenkins Believes American Wrestlers Top Russians
Jenkins is preparing to take on Brendan Loughnane at the 2022 PFL Championship event for PFL’s Featherweight Title and a $1 million prize on November 25.
He brings in a great wrestling base to his mixed martial arts (MMA) career, having competed in both NCAA Division 1 and Big Ten Conference matches.
Now, Jenkins sits amongst other fellow wrestlers who are dominating the MMA scene, most notably new UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
Speaking at a media scrum in Las Vegas recently, Jenkins discussed the dominance that Russian wrestlers such as Makhachev have seen in MMA as of late.
Jenkins believes that American wrestlers would dominate Russians if given the opportunity.
“I could give two s—ts about Dagestani wrestling because their wrestling isn’t American wrestling,” Jenkins said (via MMA Mania). “I don’t give a damn about Russian wrestling, I really don’t. It’s freestyle, it’s not folkstyle.
“If they came over here and wrestled Americans in folkstyle, we would beat the s—t out of Russian wrestlers because it’s control, it’s top. We don’t just take you down and hope to maybe turn you or something like that.
“College wrestling, collegiate style-folkstyle wrestling is the No. 1 style of wrestling in all of mixed martial arts. Period.
“At me, come at me, holla at me, whatever you want to do, look at the champions and all of those guys have those form of NCAA wrestling ability to it. Obviously except for Khabib [Nurmagomedov] who’s like an outlier of that type of wrestling.”
Jenkins’ wrestling has certainly paid off for him as of late, racking up a three-fight win streak under the PFL banner. His last Octagon appearance this past August resulted in a submission win over Ryoji Kudo.
The semifinals featherweight matchup has earned him a spot in the finals against Loughnane later this month, and a shot at $1 million.
