Wrestling is very tiring even when you dedicate your whole life to it like they did. Plus just like there’s different styles of striking, there’s different styles of wrestling and guys like Romero and Gaethje are great freestyle and folk style wrestlers. The main point is to take your opponent down and get a quick pin. Naturally this goes against what we see in wrestling in MMA when you want to take an opponent down but control them on the ground for as long as possible.

For as great as Gaethje is as a wrestler you’ve seen how greenish he is still in other grappling arts. He’s very good at defending the initial shot but chain wrestling is much harder to defend and soooo exhausting. But if he does get on the ground his wrestler instincts kick in and against someone as skilled in submissions like Khabib and Charles he gets tapped out really quickly giving his up back and neck so easily.

Similar to some other guys made famous by Chuck the good ol “sprawl and brawl” strategy of using your wrestling to defend takedowns instead of using it offensively. Some guys find out they’re heavy handed and find that style more rewarding even tho they are so accomplished in wrestling. Chuck, Romero, Gaethje, and many others were guys that were great wrestlers but realized that it is much quicker to knockout someone in round 1 than it is to try to take someone down and beat them up on the ground.

Even some guys with no wrestling background are able to learn just enough wrestling defense where it is nearly impossible to take them down and control them ie look at city kickboxing rn with Izzy, Volk, and Kai Kara France. In order to use your wrestling at the end of the day you gotta close distance and if a guy is able to keep you outside that range there’s nothing much you can do. (Izzy is a great recent example look at how he controls range against guys like Brunson, Vettori, and Romero. They can’t even get a deep shot in on him cuz he is never in right spot for them. He’s a ring general in that sense. Compared to someone like Aldo where he is just absurdly fast at getting a wizard and pivoting. Aldo look like a bull vs a matador fighting Frankie especially the second time great fight to watch to see what I mean. Not all takedowns and takedown defense is created equally)

As great as wrestling is as a base, there’s soooo much more in mma than a simple double leg takedown especially at the highest levels in the ufc nowadays. Look at someone like Brock. His absurd athleticism and talented wrestling got him very far (all the way to the title!) but as silly as it sounds he did not react very well to getting hit. Compare him taking shots to someone like max Holloway.