USA Wrestling: We’ll Give You a Quarter-Million Not to Fight

In a move that could have some significant implications in MMA, USA Wrestling has announced an incentive program that would pay amateur grapplers a $250,000 ransom for winning a Gold medal in the Olympic Games.

“MMA is growing, and it’s a basic wrestling sport,” gold medalist Henry Cejudo told the New York Times. “A lot of fighters are ex-wrestlers. A lot of guys take the easy way out, make quick money. This fund will keep wrestlers in wrestling.”

So can we expect less ground and more pound? Maybe, maybe not: At the risk of sounding absurdly cynical, the promise of $250,000 to train for four years and still come up short doesn’t compare all that favorably to the several fights and guaranteed purses in prizefighting a wrestler could amass in the same timeframe. It’s also of little value to aging athletes who may already be past their Olympic prime.

The best of the best -- Cejudo, Cael Sanderson -- are already absent from fight cages and valued Olympic acknowledgment over a fight title. If anything, the compensation just reinforces their existing resolve.

Good for them. Wrestlers have been among the hardest-working, yet least-rewarded, athletes in recent memory. That kind of sacrifice and discipline should be worth more than a smelly pair of shoes.