Burroughs survives some drama in his first two matches then takes it to Gadzhiyev(who might just have been gasses, having already beaten Sushil Kumar, Demirtas, and Abdurakhmanov). Finally got our first men's weight qualified for Tokyo as well, Sidakov next. Chamizo has Khadjiev, the long ago Junior champ for France whose never put it together at the senior level.
Pissed at myself because I forgot to predict that J'den will not be scored on until the finals. And I don't think he gets taken down all tourney
When was the last time he was taken down? 2018 World Cup? Or did Karimimachiani get him once last year?
Fuck, that sucked. Great match from Burroughs, but Sidakov has the same drive and talent, nothing in it 2 straight year and 2 years JB loses in the final seconds. Russians in every single final so far. Jesus
On to Cox vs Mount Situri Can't take another loss here. Gonna be a long day for me personally if J'den loses.
lol @ cox defending that mountain situri takedown. that was just stupid defense. incredible. J'den wins 3-0, sets up another Karimi match for Gold this time.
jesus fucking christ. 97kg bracket is out. #1 Snyder and #2 Sadulaev are on opposite sides of the bracket via seeding, we knew that going in. the #3-#10 best guys are probably on Snyder's side of the bracket. This shit has to stop. It's fucking insane. The only "test" Sadulaev will get before the finals is from Dagestani transplant Magomedgadzhi Nurov who now wrestles for Macedonia. Sadulaev teched him at Euros 12-0 and at World's last year 11-0.
add 61kg to the list of terrible fucking brackets. Luckily Graff is on the terrible side. If Beka Lomtadze is the #1 guy at the weight (debatable with Idrisov there), then the #2-#8ish guys are on the opposite side of the bracket. Graff actually has a solid chance at bronze which is stupid because he's a borderline top 10 guy in the tournament.
79kg is also terribly lopsided. (although not as bad because 79kg is the weakest weight in the world)
and big surprise, 86kg is maybe the worst bracket at any world championship ever. HYC, Naifonov, Shabanov, Gostiyev, Takatani, Amine, Ianulov, Shapiev, Torreblanca, Baranowski, Dudarov, Lin, Orgodol Meanwhile the other half as Fatih Erdin. Other contenders are Deepak Punia and Davlumbayev of KAZ You can LITERALLY make an argument that one half of the bracket has 19 of the top 20 in the weight class which is fucking mind blowing. PD3 is on the bad side. KAZ is on the good side (but does have a tough first round matchup). Also there are 16 wrestlers on the top half, 27 on the bottom half. wtf is this bullshit
Turkey had the #1 seed locked up, India has the #4 hmmmmmm who else should we put in that bracket? Canada, Spain, Turkmenistan, Lebanon, Israel, Switzerland, Lithuania, Guam, Colombia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Morocco, Tajikistan, andddddd....Kazakhstan! By god we've made the perfect bracket!
We need to COMPLETELY revamp the seeding and bracketing processes. I don't even want to watch. Every year we see guys who don't deserve world medals getting freebies because the process is fucking stupid.
Can't feel great being Yianni and watching Bajrang and Musukaev win world medals knowing you beat both those guys.
Rashidov beats Niyazbekov 11-0 in his easiest match of the tournament in the world championship finals. cool.
Gostiev, Aminashvili, Shapiev... all quality guys that now have to beat Naifonov to even make a quarter against Yazdani, wtf. Best match of the tournament at 86 happening in the quarters, just another weak piece. Erdin's going to make back to back finals despite having like zero top wins in that time frame. I honestly think they were tired of all the complaints on the crappy brackets the first few days... and just made them worse, like noticeably worse. The only weight in Men's freestyle that was even close to balance was 92kg and a lot of that was how small it was, in terms of field. Every other weight class was complete horseshit and the Kazakh's benefitted the most of anyone. Weird how that happened and now they have multiple finalists that wouldn't make the top 7 in a remotely fair tournament.
Picks for the last day of a weird and kind of disappointing world's, given the wild imbalances in all Olympic Weights and the indifferent performances of the non-JB/J'den group. Snyder and Sadulaev III, both with the chance to join Rashidov and Petriashvili as the only guys to make the world finals all 3 years of the quad leading up to 2020, plenty to look forward to I guess(though it's mostly dread as Sadulaev is back to killing fools for fun). 61kg - Bonne has not had the best season, Yamaguchi looked fantastic winning Junior Worlds, Idrisov is a stud, and a bunch of solid vets like Tumenbileg, Ehsanpoor, Topal, all on the top side. Graff has a pretty clear path to medal, but we've just never seen him wrestle at this level so idk. Gold - Idrisov Silver - Lomtadze Bronze - Yamaguchi Bronze - Aware 79kg - Dake's half is pretty tough for being the weakest weight in the tourney but I'm going to need someone to beat Dake to actually pick against him. Gold - Dake Silver - Hasanov Bronze - Teymouri Bronze - Usserbayev 86kg - Covered in depth above, ridiculous bracket, going to be a lot of big time nations out in the cold for qualification including, in all likelihood, both the USA and Cuba, Azerbaijan, Georgia, etc... Gold - Yazdanichirati Silver - Erdin(cannot believe this guy has a shot at being a two time world silver) Bronze - Punia Bronze - Naifonov 97kg - Toughest bracket Snyder has ever had, easiest Sadulaev has ever had(basically a reversal of last year's bracket). It's not a gimme that we get Snyder-Sadulaev III but hell if I can pick against it. Gold - Sadulaev Silver - Snyder Bronze - Nurov Bronze - Hushtyn
This is really sad. I kind of wondered what would happen when I saw he drew Israel in the first round, but I thought maybe no one would care because no one gives a fuck about wrestling in Lebanon. I'm assuming Iran was very actively involved in his withdrawal.
It has nothing to do with the wrestling federations though. It's coming straight from the Iranian government. I'm assuming they are the ones behind Dom's withdrawal as well.
Are you telling me he chose to wrestle for Lebanon and didn't have the slightest inkling that this could happen? I wonder which country he'll try to wrestle for in the Olympics
Iran makes its athletes in at least judo and wrestling (maybe other sports) forfeit against Israel so they don't lose to them. I guess Iran has heavy influence in Lebanon. They hate Jews, like stevis does.
Iran does not recognize Israel's right to exist, so the government intervenes and forces the Iranian sports federations to instruct their athletes forfeit or throw matches to avoid facing Israel in competition. The federation and the wrestlers themselves hate the rule and just want to wrestle, but the order comes from high up. It happens at all levels, not just the senior level. They even do it at junior and cadet worlds, and Iranian kids have been spotted on camera crying hysterically as they're told their dreams will not be realized. Alireza Karimi, who is facing J'den Cox for a gold medal tonight, had it happen to him. At U23's a couple years ago Sammy Brooks was facing Uri Kalashnikov of Israel (the same guy Abounader was supposed to face tomorrow). Sammy Brooks was a heavy favorite. While they were wrestling their match, Ali Karimi was wrestling Zhabrailov of Russia (whom he just beat handily in the semis yesterday to make the finals) and he was winning with 90 seconds left. The winners on the two mats were to wrestle each other in the semifinals. Brooks and Karimi were winning mid-match, when Kalashnikov caught Sammy and pinned him. The Iranian coach, witnessing what had just happened, began SHOUTING mat-side for Alireza to purposely lose to avoid wrestling the Israeli in the next round. Alireza does not hear or acknowledge his coach, so his coach throws a brick when there's absolutely zero action to challenge, entirely just to get Alireza's attention to tell him what has happened on the other mat. When they take back the brick, Alireza allows Zhabrailov to take him down and lace him until the match is over with almost no resistance, and is visibly upset with his coach afterwards. Because it was so obvious Karimi was suspended from competing for 6 months and I believe his coach was suspended for 2 years. It has been intimated that the penalty for disobeying the government's order is imprisonment or even death, with similar punishment to the offender's families. In this case I'm assuming (just me, haven't read this anywhere) that the same Iranian watchdogs who police these tournaments for their own wrestlers intervened and forced Abounader to withdraw.
This should explain it well Iranian Judo Champion Who Defied Order to Avoid Bout With Israeli Now in Hiding Spoiler In order to get to the 2020 Olympics, Saeid Mollaei, who refused to forfeit a match to keep from facing Israel's Sagi Muki, will likely have to join the International Olympic Committee’s team for refugees The Associated Press 16.09.2019 | 18:59 Saeid Mollaei has been in hiding since he left the Iranian judo team last month, saying he had been ordered to withdraw from the world championships on political grounds. Now he’s training for next year’s Olympics without a guarantee he can compete. Mollaei was the defending world champion, and Israel’s Sagi Muki his biggest rival for the gold medal. There was one problem — Iran has a policy of boycotting all competitions against Israelis, even if that means an athlete’s training was all for nothing. Mollaei told The Associated Press he was ordered to lose a preliminary bout against a Russian in order to cover up the reason for his withdrawal. When he refused and won, he received more intimidating calls from senior officials. “Even the clothes you can see on me (are gifts). I had nothing when arrived in Germany. I just decided to come and I came,” he said. “I had a lot of gifts from friends and this is how I live now, with the help of a few friends and the IJF. I’m still waiting to see what will happen later, how I can compete, but obviously from the very beginning of my arrival here in Germany I started my training. Where and how I will compete later, I don’t know yet.” Mollaei said he has not asked for asylum in Germany. Instead, he is living on a visa issued when he competed in German club events, and is cautious about security. Powerfully built, with broad shoulders, Mollaei speaks softly and chooses his words carefully. “Even when I want to contact my family I do it through a friend in Tehran because my family is under surveillance and I can’t talk about many issues,” he said. “I don’t have much contact with any of my friends.” Mollaei told the AP he had been given similar orders to avoid Israeli competitors on three previous occasions. The last time was in February, when he failed to appear for the medal ceremony at a competition in France because it would mean sharing the podium with Muki. “Almost all Iranian athletes have received such orders when it is linked to Israeli athletes,” he said. Iranian officials have said Mollaei was somehow manipulated into leaving the team, and that he would be welcomed if he returned home. He is skeptical, pointing to an Iranian letter to the IJF in May pledging to comply with Olympic non-discrimination rules. At the time, it was hailed as a signal Iran would end its sports boycott of Israel. “I can assure you that they didn’t comply with the Olympic Charter. So how can we trust them?” Mollaei said of Iran’s sports officials. Mollaei’s break with the Iranian authorities comes at a time when activists are using sports to defy government demands. Female Iranian activists have campaigned for years to be allowed to attend sports stadiums, particularly for men’s soccer games, and staged protests at last year’s World Cup in Russia. Last week, Iranian news outlets reported 29-year-old soccer fan Sahar Khodayari had died after setting herself on fire upon learning she could spend six months in prison for trying to sneak into a game. Mollaei expressed sympathy for Khodayari and other female campaigners. “I wondered why this happened, why Iranian women can’t freely live like other girls, and enjoy sports and enjoy watching sports,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going on, and why such difficulties should only happen to Iranians and the Iranian sport community. “I don’t know what to say. I’m just sad and disappointed. I just hope that one day the girls and athletes in my country can live freely and can enjoy life.”
Myles Amine, wrestling for San Marino, beats former world medalist Ali Shabanau in his first match. Decent win
And Yazdani the greatest with the fall. Damn that dude is great. Ought to put into perspective how great DT was last year
Meanwhile, thanks to the amazing fuckery of the UWW process, the other semi has a Swiss wrestler vs Punia. Switzerland and San Marino have qualified for the Olympics as Amine will face Yazdani in the bottom half. He went through some dudes though
61kg: Ehsanpoor IRI-Idrisov RUS Lomtadze GEO-Aware IND 79kg: Dake USA-Kurbanov UZB Hasanov AZE-Salkazanov SVK 86kg: HYC IRI-Amine SMR Punia IND-Reichmuth Switzerland (Don't even know the country code, fuck UWW) 97kg: Snyder USA-Sharifov AZE Sadulaev RUS-Yergali KAZ
If Dom Abounader wasn't forced to withdraw, there's a good chance that we would have seen two michigan teammates in the semis this morning. Plus Micic finished 5th. Not bad for the 2018 Wolverines All Americans.
Saying Amine went through some dudes is an understatement. Every single guy he faced was a legit threat to medal. Shabanov is a hammer. Shabanov is a 4x world bronze (including the last two years) and Euro Games silver Torreblanca has wrestled David Taylor harder than anyone, and nearly beat him at the Yarygin and Pan Ams last year Takatani is a world silver Dudarov just took bronze at the Euro Games with a world's-like bracket (Amine also took bronze in both their coming out parties)
Dake-Kurbanov was a physical match. Dake is not at his best this year and his conditioning isn't up to standard but is so much better than the field that he's getting it done. Gets Hasanov in the finals for the second year in a row.
Not sure why Sharifov went on the clock there and not Snyder but i'll take it. 1-0 Snyder at the break.
With 5 weights in the books, Russia has 4 golds and a bronze. They are in the finals in two other weights, in repechage in two others, and eliminated at 125kg where their #1 Khizriev didn't wrestle due to injury. They could realistically finish with 6 golds and 3 bronze.