As much as I hate ESPN these days, they really know how to produce a good show. Nate Marquardt comes on to talk about his upcoming fight with Rousimar Palhares at Fight Night 22 this Wednesday. They also talk about the dreaded topic of wrestlers in MMA. I've been debating this with my brother for a while now and I'm pretty much in the camp of someone like Marquardt who made these comments regarding Dan Hardy complaining about it:
"That's just coming from someone who isn't a good wrestler. Wrestling is a big part of MMA. He shouldn't complain about it, he should learn it. With MMA, you see changes and trends in the sport. One minute the strikers are dominating it, the next minute it's the wrestlers. You have to watch that and adapt to it."
I love that attitude. Kenny Florian didn't bitch about rule changes after losing to Sean Sherk and Gray Maynard. He went out and hired a wrestling coach and resolved to get better at it. As long as Hardy, including the many other fighters that do the same, continues to blame his shortcomings on everything but himself he won't find success in MMA.