Ahead of CFFC Match Day Finale, Brian Smith recounts legendary Missouri careers of Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley, Michael Chandler
Smith and Tigers close out regular season in Big 12 dual with Iowa State this Saturday, live on UFC FIGHT PASS.
COLUMBIA, Missouri – The sports of college wrestling and mixed martial arts have shared clear links with each other from nearly the inception of the latter, with octagon pioneers and UFC Hall of Famers like Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, Don Frye, Kevin Randleman and Dan Severn – among others – all sharing lineage to NCAA Division I programs.
The University of Missouri Tigers have done their share to produce fighting greats in recent times, with the trio of Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley and Michael Chandler all competing under Head Coach Brian Smith, who is currently in his 27th year in charge the team. The Tigers will be featured in Saturday's season finale of CFFC Match Day, where they will face the Iowa State University Cyclones live on UFC FIGHT PASS.
Ahead of that Big 12 battle, Smith took some time to reflect on the wrestling careers of that group, all of whom went on to have astounding success in MMA, as well.
Askren was the most accomplished of the three teammates at Missouri, and before earning titles in Bellator MMA and ONE Championship, he was one of the most dominant and influential athletes in college wrestling history, credited for the innovation of his "Funky" style that saw him go an astounding 153-8 for the Tigers, taking home two NCAA individual titles as well as two Dan Hodge Trophies, the award given annually to the nation's best college wrestler.
Smith has coached six different athletes to national titles, including two who went on to the Olympics – Askren and J'Den Cox, who took home a bronze medal. When prodded, the three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year stopped short of saying Askren was the best he's ever seen at Missouri, but was certain to stress his importance to the development of the modern game.
"He's definitely the guy that came in and changed the sport at the time," Smith said. "There were people scrambling before Ben scrambled, but Ben kind of picked it up from watching film, from doing things – and then not being a great athlete, you know, just kind of rolling into things. So he brought the funk with him, and then got better and better. There were some coaches on staff that helped him with it, but he just evolved and he made it with his personality.
"I think at one point his junior or senior year, he had like 13 straight first-period pins, which is unheard of. I mean, you get a guy to get 13 pins now, it's a lot, and he had 13 in the first period in a row. People stopped to watch him. It was like the (Mike) Tyson effect that 'Man, he's coming out. He's going to put you on your back and pin you.' That takes some special mentality, but he loved it."
Future UFC welterweight champion Woodley didn't have quite as lofty of a track record as Askren, but he did notch two All-American honors of his own, as well as one Big 12 title, finishing his college run with a 110-38 record.
Smith said Woodley's value to the team went well beyond his own individual performances and helped pave the way for future standout wrestlers from the St. Louis area to look at Missouri as a viable option for their college careers, where before they might have been looking at leaving the "Show Me State."
"Just to get him to stay home was big because he was a kid out of Ferguson, Missouri, which is in the St. Louis area, and he had committed, I think, to Nebraska and I just taking over, and I remember driving down and talking with mom and him," Smith recalled. "Convincing him to stay home was big for our program because he becomes our first Big 12 champion and then goes on and All-Americans a few times. That was important because we brought in that first stud from St. Louis that those kids were thinking, 'Ah, Mizzou's not at that point I want to go there.' He was the first stud to come, and that made a big difference that when he came here.
"He was a great leader. He actually coached with us a year after he graduated, and that was like going into Ben's junior or senior year, and they would battle. Actually, one year they were in the Southern Scuffle finals, and I wouldn't let them wrestle. It would have been great, but I just didn't need the two of them going at it.
"He's a great young man, great family. His mom, unbelievable woman. ... It was really, really good to have Tyron in the program."
Finally, Chandler was perhaps the most unexpected success for Smith, with a career that started humbly but finished with a 100-40 mark and an All-American honor after four years of trying. Smith said Chandler's trademark effort and positive energy was evident from the start.
"He came in the room as a walk-on and just would battle and battle," Smith said. "He started his second through fifth year. He was the starter, went to nationals all those years, an All-American, but he was the type of kid that went so hard that there were times I would say, 'I'm locking the doors. You're not allowed in. I want you to take a day or two off,' and then Ben had a mat in his basement of his house, and he would try to sneak in there, and I'd be like, 'Ben, you've got to shut him down. He needs a break.'
"It was so hard for Michael to understand, but he did finally figure out that it was to help him, that his body needed to slow down a little and get a break and then come back, and when he would do it, he'd come back and be killing people in the room. So he learned from it, but no, he's always been that way. A hundred miles an hour, but a great person, too. He's always been a special young man."
Smith maintains contact with all three of his former pupils but has yet to make it out to a big MMA event. He had planned on attending Chandler's scheduled UFC 303 meeting with Conor McGregor but called off the trip when that fight fizzled.
Perhaps an April 12 trip to Miami could be in store instead.
