Olympic Gold medalist wrestler, Jordan Burroughs wants one fight in MMA

Wrestlers are rarely made as great as Jordan Burroughs. And in terms of competitors, he’s the purest of the pure.

MMA has seen several of the world’s best wrestlers enter into the cage at one point or another. Whether it be from one time occasions with someone like Aleksandr Karelin or to current UFC champions such as Daniel Cormier and Henry Cejudo. All of which found themselves competing in the Olympics prior to their fighting careers and they all had incredible amounts of success. Karelin and Cejudo in particular with gold medals.

Burroughs is no different when making that comparison. But when it comes to MMA, he leans more on the possible side of venturing into the cage with a mindset like Karelin’s.

“I just want to fight one time. That’s it,” Burroughs said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “I just want one fight. Because like for me… It’s not about the status, not about the glory. It’s not about the money. Like, I just want to throw my hands and see what I’m made of. And I think that wrestlers and fighters have that same fighting spirit. Like there’s just a spirit about you that it’s such a beautiful art form in which you can implement strategy in order to subdue another individual. And I really feel like that’s in wrestling and UFC we’re kind of, we collaborate in that way. I’ve always thought about it. I’ve considered it when I was young, I was like, ‘listen, I’m going to fight. I want to be a star. I’m going to fight.'”

As for Burroughs’ immediate future, he’s actually set to square off with the current UFC welterweight sensation, Ben Askren in a wrestling super match on May 6 in Madison Square Garden. Askren is also scheduled to face Jorge Masvidal for his next MMA fight on July 6 at UFC 239.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/16/2019