Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series following the wresting career of senior Jordan Blanton, who will soon have to make a critical decision regarding his future.

Illini wrestler Jordan Blanton’s fascination with mixed martial arts began when he built a relationship with UFC lightweight Clay Guida during high school. Blanton, a Richmond, Ill.-native, lives in a nearby town to Guida, who is from Johnsburg. Guida’s mother was Blanton’s pediatric nurse throughout high school and during some of middle school as well. The two wrestled at Richmond’s wrestling club as children, though at different times, since Guida is about eight years older than Blanton.

Blanton got to know Guida better through workouts together at Richmond-Burton High School. Guida also knew Blanton’s high school wrestling coach, so he would jump in at wrestling practices on occasion to help instruct some of the students. Guida, 30, has been one of the most successful wrestlers in MMA history. While wrestling at Harper College, Guida never thought he’d become a fighter. Guida earned his nickname “The Carpenter” because of one of his past professions.

“Absolutely not,” Guida said of thinking he’d be fighting for a living. “I was building houses, and I was a union carpenter. I’ve been fighting full-time for the past seven years, but I still pay my dues. I was also working on a fishing boat in Alaska before I started fighting, so who knows. I like trying new things and picking up new skills, so who knows what I would’ve been doing still. I would imagine some sort of hard labor.”

Guida, who has a 9-7 career record inside the octagon, has the sixth-most takedowns in UFC history according to fightmetric.com with a whopping 48 takedowns landed in his career. Guida is known for his uncanny pace, constantly moving and pushing the tempo. He averages 3.85 takedowns landed per 15 minutes while successfully defending 71 percent of his opponent’s takedown attempts. In comparison, UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson averages only 2.96 takedowns landed per 15 minutes and defends 62 percent of his opponent’s takedown attempts. Guida’s wrestling background has been vital in his career thus far, which has seen him become the first Strikeforce Lightweight Champion and earn the ranking as the No. 7 lightweight in the world by Sherdog.com.

“Wrestling, I believe, is the best crossover,” Guida said. “It’s the catalyst; it’s the foundation of mixed martial arts. The hard work that we’re brought up on, we’ve been through the fire hundreds of times. Some of these wrestlers have wrestled thousands of wrestling matches. Nothing’s ever come easy to us in wrestling. We’re used to working for success and working extra hard and having that never-say-die attitude. I believe that wrestling crosses over to MMA because you can dictate where the fight is gonna go and if you have a hard time on your feet with a stand-up fighter, you can take the fight to the ground.”

Although wrestling has been a large contributor to his success, Guida realizes some wrestlers can struggle early on in MMA.

“A lot of wrestlers have a hard time transitioning,” Guida said. “Sometimes they get submitted very easily because they haven’t learned the proper technique or it takes a while to adapt. Also, a lot of wrestlers have a hard time getting a takedown because they think they could just run in there and tackle a skilled striker with some decent takedown defense. That’s when you see a lot of wrestlers get banged up on the feet and get knocked out. There’s definitely a learning curve. But I still do believe wrestlers have the best pedigree and the best chance at becoming successful mixed martial artists.”

UFC fighters with similar accomplishments to Blanton in wrestling have had outstanding fighting careers. Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez finished fourth at the 2006 NCAA Championships while wrestling for Arizona State. Blanton finished fourth at least season’s NCAA tournament at the 174-pound weight class. Despite being a wrestler, Velasquez has the highest strikes landed per minute in UFC history with 7.47, according to fightmetric.com.

UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck was a four-time All-American at Edinboro University, winning a national championship at Blanton’s weight class of 174 in 2001.

Since Koscheck began competing in the UFC in 2005, he has more fights than anyone else in the company at 21 contests.

Arguably the most similar fighter to Blanton is Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren, a two-time 174-pound national champion while at Missouri who took the Olympic path before competing in MMA. Blanton, like Askren, is working toward becoming an Olympian before he even considers MMA. Askren qualified for the 2008 Olympics at 74 kg in freestyle wrestling, but did not place. Askren started training MMA following the Olympics with little fighting background other than wrestling.

Despite his inexperience, Askren has won his first 10 fights.

Although Blanton’s wrestling accolades point toward an MMA career, Blanton and his girlfriend of five years, Caitlin Richert, will ultimately have to make a decision together.

“I have a pretty serious girlfriend,” Blanton said. “I’m gonna have to think about that, our future together. She’s real supportive, she’s the best. Going forward, it’s really gonna matter what situation suits us best. We just gotta see how that goes. There’s a chance I might be called to be an assistant coach at Cal Poly or Hofstra University on the East Coast or the West Coast, that’s other stuff that we’re gonna have to talk about too.”

Although the idea of fighting worries Richert at times, in the end, she would support Blanton in whatever path he chooses.

“I’ve been with him throughout the whole wrestling journey, and if he does want to pursue (MMA), I would support him 100 percent,” Richert said. “The fighting aspect, I’m not scared for him. He’s a tough person, he’ll be OK through it. One of our gym teachers in high school did mixed martial arts and would come with bruises everywhere, black eyes. That aspect is kind of nerve-wracking and scary, but that’s the only part that would make me nervous. I would support him, whatever choice.”

Even though Guida has achieved so much in his MMA career thus far, he still advises Blanton and other prospective fighters to focus on school and wrestling before fighting.

“Go get your degree first,” Guida said. “Go get a few medals, do your best and try to become an All-American or a national champ and go on and try out for the Olympics.

Stick with international and collegiate wrestling as long as you can because it’s a short window. Fighting’s gonna be here for a long time. Your college career, your education, is getting shorter as the days go on. Jordan got a little taste of it cause he got to go out and train with the best camp in the world at Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohns’ MMA, He got to train with one of the best fighters in the world in Jon Jones. He got to see all these great fighters. But a lot of these other guys that are uneducated about (fighting); they see the success on TV. It doesn’t happen over night. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into it. I like to see them be successful in their college career. That way there’s always an education, there’s a degree. It doesn’t hurt to work for a great company first and then try out mixed martial arts. Jordan is very fortunate in that he has great supporters around him in athletics through his whole life. I encourage these guys to get it done in the classroom first and then on the wrestling mat and then in the cage possibly.”

Israel Martinez, a current MMA wrestling instructor and former wrestling coach of Blanton, hopes his long-time student weighs the pros and cons before choosing to be a wrestler or fighter in the future.

“My advice to Jordan Blanton is just figure out what he wants to do,” Martinez said. “Write some goals down and see what he wants to do. If his goals are to make a lot of money, then he probably shouldn’t be a wrestler. If his goals are to make a lot of money and put your brain at risk, the fight game’s not easy. Either way, he’s got a tough choice ahead of him, but my advice is to evaluate your goals and head in the direction that best suits those.”

In the meantime, Blanton is preparing for his national championship run.

“Nov. 3, I got invited to wrestle in the NWCA All-Star Classic for the third time in my career,” Blanton said.

“Coming into the season, I’m ranked second, I’m gonna be wrestling the No. 1 kid,” he said in anticipation of wrestling Oklahoma State’s Chris Perry. “Really I look at it, I plan on earning the No. 1 rank in the first day. I plan on going out and starting to dominate on

day one all the way through the end of March.”

Michael can be reached at [email protected] and @The_MDubb.