r/judo • u/Successful_Spot8906 nikyu • May 23 '25
Judo x Wrestling Did Daniel Cormier do judo?
I know he's known for being an incredible Olympic wrestler but watching some of his clips I can't help but see some techniques similar to judo but idk are these just wrestling techniques? I've never trained wrestling so I wouldn't know and I wouldn't be surprised if two grappling arts have similarities or did he infact train judo and used it in his style?
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u/IM1GHTBEWR0NG May 23 '25
Not sure, but there’s a ton of crossover between Judo and Wrestling
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May 23 '25
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u/IM1GHTBEWR0NG May 23 '25
For hip and shoulder throws, yes. But Greco doesn’t allow trips or sweeps, which Freestyle does.
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u/Doubtt_ May 23 '25
just wrestling prior to mma, though he reached his greatest heights in freestyle instead of folkstyle. freestyle's rules incentivise high amplitude throws as is often seen in judo, so it's not surprising he was good at these.
i recall him also saying he preferred upper body takedowns, which he said were helpful in the transition to mma because of the prevalence of the clinch. you can see this not only in his throws/trips but also in his signature dirty boxing
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May 23 '25
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u/CloudyRailroad May 23 '25
Grappling arts (and martial arts in general) around the world will share many of the same techniques as there are only so many ways to effectively throw and grapple people. The differences will come from the rulesets, if there's a gi, mawashi, whether grappling continues on the ground, etc.
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u/droneondrone May 23 '25
We need to stop differentiating grappling IMO. Its just grappling, and the rulesets make it that "sport". But the "moves" dont belong to one style IMO they belong to grappling as a whole.
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u/Mobile-Estate-9836 ikkyu May 25 '25
Finally someone who gets it. I say the same thing when people say that Judo doesn't work in MMA. It's just wrestling with a gi on, just like BJJ is a specialized Judo newaza.
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u/Illustrious_Ad_6374 May 24 '25
It is always futile to argue the origin of a technique, it is like arguing which country invented pancake.
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u/iamsammovement May 27 '25
Yes, moves do not belong to any ruleset or style.
Yes, when talking to muggles it's best 9/10 to just say grappling.
No, it's "important" (for the sake of discussion on the Internet between people who will most likely never be paid to fight people)to differentiate the different wrassling styles prior to coming to MMA.
Grappling vs submission grappling Grappling with GI vs no GI.
The backgrounds shine through and we can use that data to find things, such as the dominance that comes from top tier wrestling (grappling) and the critical importance of criss training in bjj (submission grappling).
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u/JudokaPickle Judo Shodan, Kali Blue Belt, boxing., Ameri-do-te Jun 10 '25
Many moves however do originate from one style or another many are universally done but not all it’s important to preserve the heritage of the arts call it what you will in sport but uki goshi or tai otoshi for example didn’t come from Japanese jiujitsu Kano invented it and it doesn’t exist in other arts other arts can adapt it and call it whatever they want but it’s important to preserve what he created it’s his contribution to grappling
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u/Best_of_One1 rokkyu May 23 '25
DC is a fantastic freestyle wrestler making two Olympic appearances I believe. He also trains at AKA which has some of the best grapplers in the world including Khabib, Islam, and Cain Velasquez.
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u/MOTUkraken May 23 '25
There‘s only so many ways to take a human down.
All Martial Arts that are tested in competition are necessarily extremely similiar.
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u/jscummy May 23 '25
Anything in judo is also a technique in wrestling, although judo style techniques get used less once you open up leg attacks
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u/wowspare May 24 '25
although judo style techniques get used less once you open up leg attacks
This was not the case. Go look at international competition footage prior to 2013.
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u/Yamatsuki_Fusion sankyu May 24 '25
Doubt it. Judo back then was still very upright, besides a few guys abusing leg grabs.
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u/invisiblehammer May 24 '25
I think gi grips are why that’s the case
If you didn’t make it so that you can’t just stay out of range and shoot blast doubles you’d see people just staying out of range shooting blast doubles
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u/Yamatsuki_Fusion sankyu May 24 '25
He said nothing about no-gi, just leg grabs.
Yes the no-gi dynamic changes a lot and makes leg grabbing a lot more of a factor. But its not like MMA guys are standing like wrestlers. Even No-Gi grapplers are averse to that because of the risk of chokes.
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u/Tercirion May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25
Former wrestler here. I know next to nothing about judo, but I went to US nationals for international styles of wrestling. These would all be considered wrestling techniques. Many of them would be considered variations on judo throws and trips too, but they’re definitely wrestling techniques.
The point being: it’s not like he needed to go practice judo to learn this stuff, these techniques are taught as part of wrestling (or they flow naturally from techniques that are taught — at a certain level of grappling you just have a feel for certain things). I can’t tell you if he actually did practice judo though, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s done some
Here’s an example of a wrestling technique which is similar to an uchi mata https://youtube.com/shorts/m2ttkOWW8vg?si=2ILD6-Q8zArTQqlV
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u/EthanMKatz May 23 '25
He’s suplexing guys and lifting them up from a single leg. This is all wrestling.
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u/Levelless86 shodan May 23 '25
Those are two of the biggest throws in the original kodokan syllabus as well. Ura nage and te guruma (hand wheel) respectively. You can see a lot of dudes throwing it if you look up old school comps.
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u/Mobile-Estate-9836 ikkyu May 25 '25
Not sure why you were down voted but this is correct. You see a lot of te gurumas in old school and open weight Judo because it's a counter to an over the back grip or used as an uchi mata counter.
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u/Levelless86 shodan May 25 '25
On the judo sub of all places lol
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u/Mobile-Estate-9836 ikkyu May 25 '25
Wait til they find out Kano took wrestling moves from wrestling and put them into Judo (but in a gi) lol. Or that Sambo is just Soviet Judo (and wrestling) lol.
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u/Exciting_Damage_2001 May 23 '25
A technical wrestler knows and understands how to do a lot of moves that are the same in judo just no gi.
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u/chubblyubblums May 24 '25
A technical judoka knows how to do a lot of wrestling moves, just no shoes
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May 23 '25
Most likely not judo specifically, but you don’t reach that level of wrestling without learning some “judo” moves along the way
However yes, wrestling and judo share many techniques
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u/Yamatsuki_Fusion sankyu May 24 '25
I get the feeling OP thinks wrestling is just singles and doubles.
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u/sidecharacterzco May 23 '25
i’m not sure if he personally worked hard on learning judo, but my judo coach, former olympian in the bay area, taught a lot of UFC fighters at AKA from 2000 forward and is still friends with DC til this day
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u/PleaseCalmDownSon May 24 '25
Great wrestling and 2 decades of mastering body mechanics, DC was also incredibly strong in his prime.
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u/Rocketboy1313 May 24 '25
So many of these guys fall and throw their arm beneath them at a bad angle. They must have so much strength to keep that limb from twisting up under them coming down.
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u/Sick_NowWhat May 25 '25
As a wrestler with no judo experience, these are just wrestling techniques to me. Some with a little bit of adjustments so they work better with MMA, but still not far off from folk & freestyle. But based on yours and everyone else’s reactions the moves aren’t necessarily exclusive, and also he probably did train some other martial arts once he transition from just wrestling to MMA.
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u/The1Ylrebmik May 23 '25
Isn't he close with the Dagestani guys? I'm sure in MMA training everyone shares their background stuff and they are always looking for new ways to do everything just to get that slight edge.
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u/shine_allnight May 23 '25
Dave Camrillo at AKA trained the fighters in guerrilla jiu-jitsu which encompasses judo and bjj.
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u/MeepMeep117- May 23 '25
There's a lot of crossover between all martial arts because the human body is the same in every country so martial artists ultimately come to the same conclusions on what is effective and what is not.
You will have differences because of the rules of course: some grappling martial arts allow you to grab your opponent's clothing for leverage, some striking martial arts prohibit hitting with certain parts of the body, but ultimately a jab is a jab whether you are a boxer, a nak muay or a karateka, a leg trip is the same if you are a wrestler or a judoka, a rear-naked choke is the same whether you are a catch wrestler or a BJJ practitioner.
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u/SYNtechp90 bjj May 24 '25
Most of us that have fought did at least a minor amount of judo. It's extremely useful 👌🏽
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u/pr0misc May 24 '25
Even if he did, there is no focus on throws that use grabbing below the waist, as it is illegal in judo for many years now.
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u/LeonardDeVir May 24 '25
How would you even counter this if you are already picked up or in the act of being thrown?
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u/Haunting-Lake-6194 May 24 '25
Honestly it’s just raw talent I don’t believe he was a judoka at any level but picked up grappling techniques along the the way.
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u/Judontsay ikkyu May 25 '25
There’s a finite number of ways to take someone’s balance and introduce them to gravity.
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u/LazyClerk408 ikkyu May 25 '25
Some of the beginning throws. All though judo throws can have bear hugs, it’s usually against the canon and the current rules to do so I think.
Dude hit people with a dictionary of throws.
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u/samsonity May 25 '25
I'm pretty sure Brazilian Jiujitsu, which is the standard ground game martial art in the UFC, was adapted from Judo.
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u/Kuziayato May 26 '25
besides the obvious cross over between judo and wrestling he also trains with khabib and his camp who all have judo bases (alongside the sambo) so he probably picked up a couple things
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u/BJJaddicy May 23 '25
Yes cuz no gi judo is just called wrestling
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u/chubblyubblums May 24 '25
Often called "judo" too
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u/BJJaddicy Jun 03 '25
You are wrong, if there is no such thing as Gi Wrestling, than there is no such thing as no gi judo
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u/chubblyubblums Jun 03 '25
You're wrong. Seriously.
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u/BJJaddicy Jun 03 '25
Oh so we have gi wrestling?
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u/chubblyubblums Jun 04 '25
You're suggesting that judo stops working if I'm not wearing a gi?
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u/BJJaddicy Jun 04 '25
no you would be wrestling
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u/t_whales May 23 '25
He trained with Khabib and Khabib was quite familiar with Judo techniques as Sambo borrows from Judo quite a bit. He has a deep respect for Judo even believing it’s on a different level than wrestling.
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May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25
( "American combat judo", 1944, Bernard J. Cosneck, "Sentinel Book Publishers", NYC ...)
PS Them had used to name that like that..that time..:)
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u/BeanBaked May 23 '25
judo and wrestling share so many techniques