Kyle Snyder Is The Latest Olympic Gold Medalist Interested In Fighting For The UFC

Mixed Martial Arts takes years to master, as CM Punk learned on Saturday night when he lasted all of two minutes against an opponent who had been training since he was 16. But while pro wrestling doesn’t seem to give a person much of an edge coming into the sport, the same can’t be said about freestyle wrestling. Many MMA greats have come into the sport using their existing amateur wrestling skills as a base, and now Rio Olympics gold medalist Kyle Snyder may be the latest with his declaration that he wants to fight in the UFC.

Kyle was at UFC 203 in Cleveland and left so impressed he made this simple and straightforward declaration on Twitter:

Snyder expanded on his tweet in an interview with FOX Sports, saying he wanted to wrestle and fight at the same time and would love to become the first active UFC fighter to win a gold medal at the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo.

“I like making history,” Snyder said. “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 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,” he continued. “I think it would be a good thing on the days I’m not practicing wrestling going and getting an extra workout.”

The 20 year old Snyder is the youngest American ever to win an Olympic gold medal in wresting, taking that record off Henry Cejudo, who is now a contender in the UFC’s flyweight division. He is also a 2016 NCAA National Champion, 2015 NCAA Team Champion, 2015 FILA World Champion, and and 2013 Junior World Champion. He’s already shared his goal of becoming the greatest wrestler ever, and many inside the sport give him a good chance at achieving it.

“I’m not sure when exactly I would want to come out. Hopefully, 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.”

With four years until the Tokyo Olympics and Kyle at the top of his physical game right now, he’s giving himself more than enough time to catch up in other avenues of martial arts, especially given his already razor sharp abilities a wrestler. We doubt he’ll pull a CM Punk and suddenly show up on the UFC roster. Instead, he’ll probably do things right and develop as an amateur and professional in the lower leagues first. If all goes well, he could be a force to be reckoned with at heavyweight or light heavyweight down the road.

(Via FOX Sports)

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