Arizona State-- The School of MMA Fighters

Diamondback Jay · April 15th, 2007, 12:11 PM

Just a little fun stat to chew on..

Dan Severn, Don Frye and Dan Henderson all wrestled at Arizona State University and to my knowledge are all alumnus of the school.

Up and coming stars Cain Velasquez, Kellan Fluckiger, Ryan Bader and CB Dolloway also wrestled for the Devils, while Kyle Kingsbury played football. Drew Fickett, currently in the UFC, was an alumni of ASU.

Just a fun stat to chew on. The first three have extensive history in the sport, Velasquez currently fights for Bodog, and Fluckiger, Bader and Dolloway are all being looked at by the UFC for possible future fights in the company.

devilfan02 · April 16th, 2007, 10:07 AM

I saw Bader at a bar about 6 months ago and chatted for a while. I got to know him while I was playing golf at ASU, our workouts were at the same time as the wrestlers. He said he's training at a gym on McClintock and Broadway and loves it. He was a great wrestler at ASU which will def help him in MMA

Brian in Mesa · December 13th, 2008, 10:03 PM

Props to Bader for becoming the most recent Ultimate Fighter. :notworthy

Kablansky · December 14th, 2008, 10:32 PM

When I was at ASU they were pretty much neck and neck with Iowa as the most respected NCAA wresting teams in the nation. They had some mean SOBs in the day

Brian in Mesa · February 20th, 2010, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diamondback Jay

Up and coming stars Cain Velasquez, Ryan Bader and CB Dolloway ... wrestled for the Devils ...

UFC 110

Diamondback Jay · November 23rd, 2011, 07:02 PM

Funny how things worked out with some of the names I mentioned on the first post and how their careers have progressed since then.

This weekend at UFC 139, Henderson, Bader and Kingsbury all fought. So too did one time ASUer Seth Baczynski. Last weekend, Velasquez fought in what arguably was the biggest statured fight in MMA history. Dollaway has been a UFC regular. Also, Aaron Simpson has become a UFC mainstay and Clifford Starks who wrestled at ASU just made his UFC debut at 137. In Bellator, Richard Hale and Eric Larkin both are under contract to the promotion.

ASU produces champions in MMA. That list has only grown since my first posting on the topic 4 years plus ago.

Brian in Mesa · November 25th, 2011, 09:57 PM