In the history of Mixed Martial Arts, fighters with a background in wrestling have always been successful. Whether it be early heavyweight standouts like Dan Severn and Mark Coleman, or modern greats like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Daniel Cormier, wrestling is an integral part of MMA, and Eric Bischoff knows that all too well, which he believes is part of the reason for RAF’s success in the past year.

“Combat sports in general have grown so fast over the last 30 years. UFC has been around a long time, and the sport itself has been exploding for a long time, but it is really emerging now. For us to see a pathway where we can introduce a combat sport like this is exciting, because freestyle wrestling is the oldest combat sport known to man, and it is a very important part of any MMA athlete’s arsenal. If you look at a lot of the big names and legends in MMA, they come from a wrestling background. Wrestling is very much a part of MMA. All we have done is put a spotlight on it, make it more popular, put it in a format that is appealing and entertaining to watch, and boom, you have a brand-new sport. It is not a new sport, but it is a new way to watch the sport.”

Bischoff rounded off by saying that wrestling, whether it be freestyle or Greco-Roman, is not only very popular around the world, but is one of the oldest sports in the entire world. This point is only emphasized by the long line of high quality grapplers coming out of Dagestan, Russia, with Bischoff also pointing out that Japan and Europe are also hotbeds for wrestlers good enough to compete in both RAF and MMA.