College Wrestling : Current UFC Fighters With an Amateur Wrestling Background

NOTE: I do not follow UFC. I follow some of the fighters with amateur wrestling backgrounds on Twitter and facebook, but I do not watch it on TV or read about it in magazines. I got all of the names for this list from UFC"s current list of UFC fighters as of 7-1-2017. I don't doubt that I have left some current UFC fighters off the list that have an amateur wrestling background. If you see someone that is not on the list that should be, please contact me with where they wrestled, and what they accomplished while wrestling. Thank you.

Cain Velasquez

Wrestled for Kofa King High School in Yuma, Arizona where he was a two-time State Champion with a 110-10 career record. Wrestled at Iowa Central Community College where he won an NJCAA championship. Wrestled for Arizona State University where he was a two time All American, placing 5th in 2004 and 4th in 2005.

Stipe Miocic

Wrestled at Eastlake North High School in Ohio. Wrestled for Cleveland State where he was an NCAA qualifier.

Anthony Hamilton

Wrestled for Kentwood High School in Kent, Washington. Wrestled for Highline College in Des Moines, Washington. Wrestled for Central Washington.

Shamil Abdurkhimov

Participated in freestyle wrestling in his home country of Russia.

Curtis Blaydes

Wrestled for De La Salle Institute in Chicago, Illinois where he held a 95-18 career record including capping off his high school wrestling career with a 44-0 State Championship. Wrestled for Harper College where he won a NJCAA championship.

Arjan Bhullar

Competed in Freestyle Wrestling for Canada. 2010 Common Wealth Games Gold Medalist. 2012 Olympian.

Ed Herman

Wrestled for Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Washington.

C.B. Dollaway

Wrestled at Northmor High in Galion, Ohio where he was a state Champion. Wresteld for Colby Community College where he won an NJCAA title. Wrestled for Arizona State where he placed 5th at the 2006 NCAA wrestling championships.

Jon Jones

Wrestled for Union-Endicott High School in New York where he won a State Title in 2005. Wrestled for Iowa Central Community College where he won an NJCAA title.

Ovince Saint Preux

Wrestled at Immokalee High School in Florida where he took 2nd in the state with a 26-1 record his senior season.

Daniel Cormier

Wrestled for Northside High School in LaFayette, Louisiana winning three state titles with a 101-9 career record. Wrestled for Colby Community College winning two NJCAA titles. Wrestled for Oklahoma State where he finished in second place at the 2001 NCAA championships. 2004 Olympian and 2007 World Championships Bronze Medalist.

Tom Lawlor

Wrestled for Estero High School in Florida. Wrestled for Central Florida in College.

Gian Villante

Wrestled for MacArthur High School in Levitown, New York where he placed third his junior season before winning the state title as a senior. Wrestled collegiality for Hofstra.

Pat Cummins

Wrestled at Penn State University where he was a two time All American placing 4th in 2003 and 2nd in 2004 at the NCAA championships.

Corey Anderson

Wrestling for Hononegah Community High School in Rockton, Illinois. In College wrestled for both Newberry College and Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Ilir Latifi

Wrestled in his home country of Sweden.

Ion Cutelaba

Participated in Greco-Roman wrestling in his home country of Moldova.

Devin Clark

Wrestled for Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota placing second in the state championships as a junior and winning a state title as a senior. Collegiality wrestled for Rochester Technical Institute where he won a national title in 2009 as a junior and placed fourth as a senior at the NCAA Division III championships.

Josh Stansbury

Wrestled for East Liverpool High School in Ohio where he took a 4th place finish at the 2002 State championships.

Jordan Johnson

Wrestled in both Illinois and Iowa during high School. Won an Illinois State title wrestling for Naperville High School and took third in the Iowa State championships wrestling for Bettendorf.

Dominick Reyes

Wrestled for Hasperia High School in California.

Johny Hendricks

Wrestled at Edmund Memorial High school where he won three Oklahoma high school state titles with a 101-5 record. Wrestled at Oklahoma State where he was a four time All American going 5th-1st-1st-2nd with a 159-13 career record.

Tim Boetsch

Wrestled for Camden Hills Regional High School in Lincolnville, Maine where he won four state titles. Wrestled in college for Lock Haven.

Luke Rockhold

Wrestled for Soquel High School in California

Rashad Evans

Wrestled for Niagara-Wheatfield High School in Sanborn, New York where he placed fourth at both the 1997 and 1998 State championships. Wrestled at Niagara County Community College where he won the 1999 and 2000 NJCAA championships. Wrestled for Michigan State University where he took third in he 2003 BIG 10 wrestling championships, finishing one match shy of All American honors where in his last victory, he was Greg Jones of West Virginia's last collegiate loss.

Derek Brunson

Wrestled for John T Haggard High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. In College wrestled for UNC-Pembroke where he was a three time NCAA Division II All American placing fourth in 2003, eighth in 2005 and seventh in 2007.

Chris Weidman

Wrestled for Baldwin High School in Long Island, New York. Wrestled for Nassau Community College. Wrestled for Hofstra collegiality where he took sixth at the 2005 and third in the 2006 NCAA championships.

Trevor Smith

Wrestled for Mark Morris High School in Longview, Washington. Wrestled collegiality for Highline College and Iowa State.

Kelvin Gastelum

Wrestled at Cibola High School in Yuma, Arizona. Wrestled for North Idaho College.

Sam Alvey

Wrestled for Waterford High School in Wisconsin.

Yoel Romero

Freestyle wrestler representing Cuba. Five time Pan-American Championships Gold Medalist. Five time World Medalist including a Gold medal in 1999, Silver medals in 2002 and 2005 and Bronze Medals in 1998 and 2001. Olympic Silver Medalist in 2000. Owns a winning record against Cael Sanderson in freestyle competition.

Andrew Sanchez

Wrestled for McKendree University where he won an NAIA title in 2011.

Robbie Lawler

Wrestled for Bettendorf High School in Iowa.

Carlos Condit

Wrestled for Cibola High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jorge Masvidal

Wrestled for St. Brendan High School in Miami, Florida.

Tyron Woodley

Wrestled for McCluer High School in Ferguson, Missouri where he won a state championship. Wrestled for Missouri where he was a two time All American placing eighth at the 2003 NCAA championships and seventh at the 2005 NCAA championships.

Ben Saunders

Wrestled for JP Taravella High School in Coral Springs, Florida

Court McGee

Wrestled for Layton High School in Utah where he was a two time State Place winner taking sixth at the 2002 and third at the 2003 state championships.

Zak Cummings

Wrestled for Glendale High School in Springfield, Missouri. Wrestled for Meramec Community College where he was a two time NJCAA qualifier.

James Krause

Wrestled for Odessa High School in Missouri

Yancy Medeiros

Wrestled for Waianae High School in Hawaii where he took third in the State Championships his senior season.

Colby Covington

Wrestled for Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon. Wrestled for Iowa Central where he won an NJCAA title. Wrestled Division I for both Iowa and Oregon State. Took fifth place at the 2011 NCAA wrestling championships.

Ryan Laflare

Wrestled at Linderhurst High School in New York.

Omari Akhmedov

Wrestled freestyle in his home country of Russia.

Kamaru Usman

Wrestled one year at William Penn University where he was a NAIA national qualifier. Wrestled three years at Nebraska-Kearney where he was a three time Division II All American taking third in 2008, second in 2009 and winning a national title in 2010.

Dominique Steele

Wrestled for Norwood High School in Ohio. Went 43-1 as a senior where he suffered a season ending injury at the district tournament.

Mickey Gall

Wrestled for Watchung Hills Regional High School in Warren, New Jersey

Nathan Coy

Wrestled at Oregon State where he took fourth place at the 2002 NCAA Division I championships.

Jesse Taylor

Wrestled for Poway High School in California. Wrestled for Palomar Community College where he placed second in 2003 before winning a California Community College National Championship in 2004. Wrestled for Cal State Fullerton where he took third place at the PAC-12 championship and qualified for the NCAA Division I tournament.

Bobby Nash

Wrestled for Roseville High School in Michigan where he took third in the state as a junior and won a state title as a senior with a 62-1 record. Wrestled collegiality for Michigan State.

Jim Miller

Wrestled for Spartan High School in Spartan Township, New Jersey. Wrestled a brief stint at Virginia Tech.

Nick Lentz

Wrestled for Bloomington Jefferson High School in Minnesota where he was a state champion. Wrestled collegiality for Minnesota.

Evan Dunham

Wrestled for Winston Churchill High School in Eugene, Oregon

Michael Johnson

Wrestled for Marquette High School in Chesterfield, Missouri. Wrestled collegiality for Meramec Community College

Josh Burkman

Wrestled for Cottonwood High School in Salt Lake City, Utah where he he finished second in the state tournament.

Tony Ferguson

Wrestled for Muskegon Catholic Central High School in Michigan where he won the state title in 2002. Wrestled collegiality for Grand Valley State where he was an NCWA champion.

Takanori Gomi

Wrestled freestyle for Prefectural Aikawa Higarti in Karagawa, Japan.

Bobby Green

Wrestled for A.B. Miller High School in Fontana, California where he was a two time state place-winner.

Kevin Lee

Wrestled in Southfield High in Detroit, Michigan. Wrestled collegiality for Grand Valley State.

Al Laquinta

Wrestled for Wantaugh High School in New York. Wrestled collegiality for Nassau Community College.

Abel Trujillo

Wrestled for Riverside High School in Durham, North Carolina where he won a state championships in 2002. Wrestled for William Penn University where he was a four time NAIA All American placing fourth in 2004, fifth in 2005, third in 2006 and sixth in 2007.

Gilbert Melendez

Wrestled for Santa Ana High School in California.

Drew Dober

Wrestled for Millard North High School in Nebraska. Wrestled collegiality for Nassau Community college where he finished in second place at the NJCAA championships. Transferred to SUNY-Oneonta where he finished in fifth place at the NCAA Division III championships.

Mitch Clarke

Wrestled for Walter Murray Collegiate Institute in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Magomed Mustafaev

Was a freestyle wrestler in his home country of Russia.

Josh Emmett

Wrestled Collegiality for Sacramento City Community College and Menlo College.

Will Brooks

Wrestled for Warren Township High School in Gurnee, Illinois

Teemu Packalen

Won a bronze medal at the 2011 European Championships in freestyle representing Finland.

Lando Vanetta

Wrestled for Neptune High School in New Jersey. Recruited to wrestle for UT-Chattanooga but went the fighting route instead.

Gregor Gillespie

Wrestled for Webster Schroeder High School in New York where he was a two time state champion. Wrestled collegiality for Edinboro where he was a four time All American taking seventh place as a freshman, winning a national title as a sophomore and then finishing fifth as a junior and fourth as a senior.

Drakkar Klose

Wrestled for South Haven High School in Michigan where he won a state title in 2005. Wrestled collegiality for North Idaho.

Darrell Horcher

Wrestled for West Perry High School in Elliottsburg, Pennsylvania

Justin Gaethje

Wrestled for Safford High School in Arizona where he was a four time State finalist. Wrestled collegiality for Northern Colorado where he placed seventh at the 2010 NCAA championships.

Desmond Green

Wrestled for Rush Henrietta High School in New York where he was a state champion. Wrestled collegiality for Buffalo where he was a Mid-American Conference Champion and a three time NCAA qualifier.

Jeremy Stephens

Wrestled for Norwalk High School in Iowa.

Frankie Edgar

Wrestled for Toms River High School East in New Jersey where he was a three time state qualifier placing third as a junior and fifth as a senior. Wrestled collegiality for Clarion where he was an Eastern Wrestling League conference champion and four time NCAA qualifier.

Gray Maynard

Wrestled for both Bonanza High School and Durango High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. Wrestled for St. Edwards High School in Ohio, where he took second place in the 1997 state championships before winning the 1998 state title. Wrestled collegiality for Michigan State where he was a three time All American placing eighth in 2001 and seventh in both 2002 and 2003.

Darren Elkins

Wrestled for Portage High School in Indiana where he was a four time state qualifier placing seventh as a freshman, third as a junior and winning a state title as a senior. Wrestled collegiality for Wisconsin-Parkside.

Ricardo Lama

Wrestled for Hinsdale Central High School in Illinois. Wrestled collegiality for Elmhurst College where he was a two time conference champion and an All American placing sixth at the 2005 NCAA Division III championships.

Chad Mendes

Wrestled collegiality for Cal Poly where he was a two time NCAA Division I All American placing sixth at the 2006 NCAA tournament and second at the 2008.

Dennis Bermudez

Wrestled collegiality for Bloomsburg.

Myles Jury

Wrestled at Fenton High School in Michigan where he was a state champion.

Chas Skelly

Wrestled for Azle High School in Texas where he had a 164-3 career record winning a state title in 2003. Wrestled collegiality for both Oklahoma City College and Missouri Baptist capturing NAIA All American honors with a seventh place finish in 2006.