Gold Medalist Jordan Burroughs on Why He Didn’t Try MMA: ‘It’s a Very Different Sport’

Jordan Burroughs could have been mixed martial arts’ next big prospect, and for a little while, he appeared to be on that path.

Burroughs was set to make the transition shortly after winning the gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 2012 Olympic games. In addition to that feat, Burroughs was also a four-time World Champion and a two-time NCAA national champion — making him one of the most highly regarded American wrestlers of all-time. Given those credentials — and the success of wrestlers in the sport as a whole — Burroughs would have been highly coveted by most any major promotion.

“I’ve been close. My wife, Lauren, is the one that’s talked me out of it,” Burroughs recently said on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast. “When I graduated from college in 2011, University of Nebraska, wrestling was still in its infancy of marketing and branding and really making it a professional career. MMA was the new kid on the block and it was growing and expanding and we had a lot of our guys transitioning in — Henry Cejudo, Ben Askren, Daniel Cormier and so I really thought about it.

“I was like, OK, I’m going to wrestle in the Olympics in 2012, win the gold and then I’m going to make the transition to MMA. I’m going to be 25 years old, I’ll have plenty of time and then I met Lauren and she was like ‘you’re doing well in the sport, stay here, you’re comfortable.’ It’s a different sport MMA in comparison to wrestling but it’s a good thing.”

Burroughs admits that the difference in the amount of damage absorbed in MMA as opposed to wrestling certainly swayed his point of view. In particular, he remembers when UFC welterweight Mike Perry suffered a brutally broken nose at the hands of Vicente Luque in an August 2019 bout. That life, Burroughs admits, isn’t for him.

“I think about going to MMA until I see a guy like ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry get his whole thing split, nose crooked and I’m like, 'I’m good,'” Burroughs said. “In wrestling, you lose, you get taken down, pushed out, you get pinned.

“In fighting, you lose, you get something broken, choked out, tapped, unconscious. It’s a very, very different sport. Wrestling, you score as many points as possible doing the least damage as possible. In MMA, I feel like it’s different.”