Seven Wrestlers Who Have Competed in MMA and UFC – Wrestling fans can enjoy boxing – and vice versa – as well as mixed martial arts. The disciplines may require different skill sets but the debates will always rage about how good wrestlers would be in the octagon and how well the top UFC fighters would do in a square ring. Sports fans love those kinds of arguments and they will continue as long as there are different fighting styles.
MMA is the relative newcomer on the scene, of course. The growth in popularity has been rapid, however. With UFC 299 coming up, the organization will get another chance to attract a wider audience. It may also give some current wrestlers and boxers ideas about switching codes. But they would not be the first.
Figure 1 Not all wrestlers can swap the ring for the octagon
One of UFC’s most impressive skills is wrestling, so it is perhaps unsurprising that there have already been a number of wrestlers who have tried their hand in the octagon. Not all have been particularly successful – and that would definitely be the case the other way around. But here are seven fighters who have tried both.
CM Punk
Phillip Jack Brooks, better known as CM Punk, is one of the most versatile fighters we have ever seen. He has competed in smaller organizations, WWE, UFC, All Elite Wrestling, and then back to WWE. He has consistently been an inspiration to younger fighters.
He has also never been shy to let his opinions be known and that has not always done him a lot of good with the organizations he has been fighting with. His short-lived MMA career didn’t bring him any further career wins but that hasn’t stopped him from receiving commentator work, alongside a glittering wrestling record.
Dave Bautista
Better known for a whole host of movie roles these days, including Drax the Destroyer in the hugely successful Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, Bautista will go down as one of the finest heavyweight wrestlers ever – and he also found time to enter the octagon as well.
Bautista actually left WWE on a number of occasions, each time returning to claim another championship belt. But it was in 2012 when he won his one and only MMA bout. He had undertaken Brazilian jiu-jitsu training to hone his skills but he came back to wrestling again and then hit the silver screen full-time in 2019.
Dan Severn
Dan “The Beast” Severn was probably the first top-tier wrestler to move to MMA and is now credited with being one of the true pioneers of UFC in its early years. Severn began professionally wrestling in 1992 and was the first to compete in both disciplines at the same time.
Severn was so impressive after making the move to MMA that he became a UFC Hall of Famer. But he was equally as feared in the wrestling ring and has been one of the few fighters who has successfully bridged the gap between the styles. He continues to be an inspiration to fighters to this day.
Ronda Rousey
This is one tough fighter who made the move from UFC to WWE – and she was already a world-renowned champion before switching codes. Rousey actually won a judo bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. However, she found greater success in MMA after beginning her professional career in 2011.
Rousey was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018 – the very same year that she began professionally wrestling, signing up with WWE. She experienced no problems at all with the different styles of fighting and remains the only woman to be a champion in both UFC and WWE – as well as headline a pay-per-view event for both organizations.
Brock Lesnar
Lesnar has tried a number of different sports, including wrestling and MMA – and also attempted to pursue a career in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings. His football dream didn’t pay off but the worlds of wrestling and UFC certainly saw the best of him during his career.
Lesnar became the youngest ever WWE champion at the age of 25 but signed with UFC in 2008 and had become the heavyweight champion of the MMA organization by the end of that year. Injury problems saw Lesnar return to WWE in 2012 and he is now considered one of the most accomplished wrestlers of all time.
Figure 2 Training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu will help a wrestler make the switch
Bobby Lashley
A two-time WWE Champion, Bobby Lashley is a rare breed of fighter who was able to wrestle as well as fight in mixed martial arts bouts for a stretch of time – and was equally successful in both. Starting off in wrestling, Lashley left WWE but continued grappling even after signing with UFC.
His MMA career is particularly impressive, losing just twice in 17 fights, including a winning streak of eight bouts up until his exit from the sport in 2016. That wasn’t the end of his wrestling career though. Lashley came back to WWE and won those two championships and is currently the leader of The Pride stable.
Shayna Baszler
The TV show The Ultimate Fighter brought female head coaches in for the first time in 2013 and the previously mentioned Ronda Rousey knew just who she wanted to mentor. Shayna Baszler had already been fighting in MMA for over 10 years and had already gained a reputation as a fearsome fighter.
She fought a few more times in the octagon but then decided that a career in pro wrestling was calling. She had already dabbled in the square ring but quickly became the NXT Women’s Champion and even teamed up with Rousey for a while. She is now the number one contender for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.
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Seven Wrestlers Who Have Competed in MMA and UFC
