Look Back: The Art of Ground and Pound Striking

Fighters who prefer to strike as opposed to engage in grappling scrambles often have a favored style they want to use... but even wrestlers have their own type of striking category in which they tend to dominate. Look no further than ground and pound, which is a striking style that elite top control wrestlers tend to truly excel in. 

Obviously, Mark Coleman, the Godfather of GnP style, put it on full display when he proved he could just use his physical control to land down hammer fists and other strikes from top control.

If those options weren't available to him, he would use dominant head control and land brutal knees while on the ground with an opponent - and to demonstrate how effective he was mixing GnP strikes into submissions, or just battering an opponent, here is every Coleman victory from his professional career:

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz helped show the world what dominant wrestling top control, paired with powerful elbows, could look like. Oftentimes, watching what happened from fighters like Coleman and Mark Kerr, Ortiz realized he could adapt the style. He relied on his renowned cardio to land a high volume of strikes, while also blending elbows into his attack arsenal. 

There were a number of times Ortiz battered someone with elbows, but it's hard to forget when Shamrock and Ortiz met in their heated trilogy series of fights - Ortiz sweeping the series with 3 TKO finishes. 

The late Evan Tanner, a largely self-taught fighter who started by watching UFC pay-per-views recorded on VHS tapes, also showed a special prowess in skilled GnP after putting an opponent on their back. Although it's not the most technically advanced GnP display compared to current MMA, it was truly revolutionary at the time.

There is a certain artistry to every component in MMA, with impressive GnP no different. In today's MMA landscape, many people think of fighters such as Khabib Nurmagomedov - a shining example of dominant wrestling in top control, with carefully picked strikes that can get you.