Other than a couple popular universities like University of Alberta, University of Saskatchewan and University of Calgary. It seems that the prairies and the west are winning this battle in every weight category for the most part. The only difference is in the individual rankings where there are some wrestlers from the east at the top, but they are still mostly western and prairie university athletes.
Brock, Western and Guelph are always trailing behind. Does this mean that the east athletics training when in comes to west is weaker? It could mean they don’t have the funding in the wrestling department compared to other sports. That is something we are looking to discuss, but not today.
There seem to be little views, little sponsors and very little media that covers collegiate and university level wrestling in Canada. Some of these athletes train year round, staying in impeccable shape struggling paying for their tuitions and eat right to maintain a good career. Their journeys seem to be undocumented until they make it to the level of an Olympian.
But just south of the border it is a popular passtime wrestling. It seems to be a cultural thing for Americans. They have the term coined “All American Wrestlers” and their collegiate athletes are famous and their names are remembered throughout the fight scene. For example, Bo Nickal, Cael Sanderson and Jordan Burroughs to name a few. Even there are many athletes who were college/university level and olympic wrestlers that transitioned over to MMA, Colby Covington, Daniel Cormier and Tony Ferguson. But in Canada we don’t have any collegiate wrestlers in the UFC or any major fight promotion. We don’t celebrate these beloved hard working athletes.
Do the wrestling programs just suck in Canada? Or do we not have the funding into our education system going towards the wrestling department in order to produce better athletes?
MMA Loki news room staff
