Olympic Gold Medal-Winning Wrestler Kyle Snyder Wants to Compete in MMA | FIGHTLAND

Photo by Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports

The UFC has a penchant for Olympian medallists. Bantamweights Ronda Rousey and Sara McMann both have bronze and silver medals to their credit respectively, while former UFC flyweight title contender Henry Cejudo won wrestling gold in the 2008 Games in Beijing, China.

Now it would appear another Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler wants to leave the mats for the Octagon one day—Kyle Snyder.

In the 2016 edition of the Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Snyder broke Cejudo’s record of being the youngest Olympic gold medallist wrestler in US history aged just 20 years old to Cejudo’s then-21 years.

The Olympics are usually a bit of a tease. While Cejudo decided to take his elite-level wrestling to the world of MMA, American gold medallists such as Jordan Burroughs have strung MMA fans along before deciding MMA isn’t for them.

Judging by the above tweet, which was sent during Saturday night’s UFC 203 at the Q in Cleveland, Ohio—an event which saw professional wrestler CM Punk drown in his MMA debut against Brazilian jiu jitsu brown belt Mickey Gall—Snyder isn’t stringing anyone along.

Damon Martin of Fox Sports got in touch with Snyder to gain some clarity on his tweet. "I want to fight. Basically what that tweet means. I love wrestling, I really do. I would want to continue wrestling, but I want to do both at the same time. I want to pursue my wrestling career, wrestle in World Championships and the Olympic games, but if the scheduling could work out and I can become an elite fighter, then I want to fight in the UFC as well.”

"They put on a great show, it's really exciting. I think it's something that I could excel in. I haven't done much boxing or jiu jitsu or striking or stuff like that, but I think that I could pick it up pretty quickly. The crowd and the way they made the whole thing a big show was just exciting for me. It's something that I want to do."

Unlike the aforementioned CM Punk, who did not have any martial arts background of note ahead of his now-infamous MMA debut, Brock Lesnar impressed in the heavyweight division with the help of a reputable amateur wrestling background—despite entering the MMA world relatively late. Given Snyder’s size in spite of his young years, it’s expected he will compete as a heavyweight should he fight inside the Octagon—and his youth allows plenty of room to smooth out any wrinkles in the rest of his game as he progresses.

Besides being the youngest American Olympic gold medallist in wrestling, Snyder also won a gold medal in the World Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada, aged just 19-years-old—as well as being the youngest American two-time junior world medallist. This was after compiling a flawless 179-0 in high school. Snyder is simply the real deal.

Russian Olympic medallist Bilyal Makhov—who has already signed with the UFC despite no amateur nor professional fights under his belt—has suggested he will be devoting his time to MMA in its entirety once he’s done with wrestling. However, Snyder has other ideas: the brash American wants to be the first active UFC fighter to compete and win a medal at the Olympics at Tokyo, Japan’s, Games in 2020. And why not? He’s made history plenty of times already.

“Yeah I mean I like making history. If this would be something ground breaking that no one has ever done before, it excites me. The crowd and everything the UFC has to offer is really exciting. I'm excited. It will be cool. I want to do both. I don't know if anyone's ever done that. I don't even know if the UFC would let you do that, but I want to fight in the UFC and I want to wrestle in the World and Olympic championships at the same time."

In spite of his early success, Snyder remains realistic on his UFC goals—which could have been helped by the sobering reality produced by CM Punk on Saturday. The former Ohio State Buckeye is well aware he has to put plenty of time and work in training the multiple MMA disciplines required to compliment his stellar wrestling work.

"I think I'll throw some different training in pretty soon. I'm not sure exactly when I would want to fight, but I want to start working on the stuff I’m not as good at like the striking and jiu-jitsu and stuff like that," Snyder said. "I think it would be a good thing on the days I'm not practicing wrestling going and getting an extra workout.

"Obviously I would be wrestling, which would help me fight. I'm not sure when exactly I would want to come out. Hopefully [I’ll compete in MMA] sometime soon—not soon as in like this year or something like that—but within the next couple of years when I get my grounds in this sport.”

Should Snyder decide to fully commit to MMA, this is a gift from the MMA Gods. It looks like we will have to wait some time to see this materialize—if it materializes at all (my natural British cynicism refuses to allow me to get my hopes up). But, the acquisition of Snyder to MMA will be well worth the wait and could be the sport’s biggest and best coup yet.

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