Definitely prefer Abdullaev to Harutunyan, but don't think it matters either way. Spencer-Higuchi for all the marbles
Kurugliev hit HYC with an absolutely beautiful arm spin but other than that Yazdani controlled the first period entirely. 6-4 HYC heading into break
Yazdani looks great, post surgery. Best gas tank I’ve seen from him in a while too. We’re going to get Brooks- Yazdani and I have no idea what to expect
Spencer-Abdullaev Higuchi-Aman Brooks-Ramazanov HYC-Amine Spencer-Higuchi and Brooks-HYC both gonna happen.
Couple random thoughts: If Abdullaev somehow beats Spencer Lee and then wins the gold medal match, Micic's 2023 championship run gets even more ridiculous--would go from 3 consecutive gold medalists to 4 (Abdullaev, Abakarov, Higuchi, Uguev). HYC is insane. He's lost 5 matches in the last 8.5 years and ALL of them are to David Taylor. Spencer is still the King without a Crown imo, but Higuchi looks very tough to beat right now. Brooks-HYC is going to be an absolute fucking war.
Was just going to ask that. Thankfully I should be in my office in front of a computer this afternoon.
Peacocks coverage of all sports is great, they fucking suck with wrestling. These matches are so hard to find if you don’t watch live.
That’s when that session starts. I think those matches come after a bunch of consolation stuff so we might be closer to 2pm or later on it iirc from the last couple days.
I think it will actually be Lee 2nd, Brooks 3rd, and Helen 5th so should all be in the first hour or so. But it’s a bit unclear Dake got the best draw he could have, if you could have ranked the contenders, 2nd -5th could have been Kadimagomedov, Zhamalov, Salkazanov, and Valiev and they are all in the same quarter bracket in the bottom half. Parris drew the best unseeded wrestler but still needs to be beating him, then a likely semi vs Petriashvili
Correct across the board. Not sure if the next round starts at 11:00 or 11:15, I've seen both, but Spencer will be 2nd after Higuchi-Aman. Dake's draw is great. The unseeded guys he wanted to avoid in his quad were Russian transfers Zhamalov, Kadimagomedov, and Valiev. Zhamalov and Kadimagomedov got drawn into eachother in a PRELIM, with the winner getting Salkazanov in the first round, which is crazy, because if Dake is #1, those guys are probably 2-4 at the weight, and two of them will be gone after the first round. Valiev got drawn into the opposite side of Dake as well and has #2 seeded Bayramov in the first round, with the winner getting Salkazanov/Kadi/Zhamalov. Insane. Viktor Rassadin, yet another Russian transfer, is also on the opposite side of Dake. Dake gets an easy one rd 1, then faces Emami/Chamizo winner, then likely Takatani/Tsabolov (you guessed it, Russian transfer) winner in semis. Parris got one of the two unseeded guys you didn't want to get in Munkhtur of Mongolia, with the other being Batirmurzaev of KAZ. However, I don't believe Parris has ever wrestled Munkhtur, and when he wrestled Batirmurzaev this summer, he pinned him in about 30 seconds. So you can argue he got the worst possible draw, but as the #6 seed with all the top, top contenders being seeded, Mason knew his road going in. We knew he was going to have to beat Meshvilidishvili of AZE in the quarters and Geno Petriashvili in the semis. He should beat Munkhtur in the first rd, and if he doesn't, he wasn't beating Petriashvili/Zare/Akgul anyway.
Thinking out loud here, when was the last time Spencer Lee was a true underdog in a wrestling match? Not talking about betting odds because he was a dog a few times his freshman year, but an actual underdog to win a match? Assuming he beats Abdullaev here, I think he's maybe a dog to beat Higuchi? I think he gets it done, but Higuchi is so, so good.
Yeah, he’s been a man on a mission since he blew it in the lead up to Tokyo. Micics world championship honestly only gets better with more looks, brutal he had to miss out
He’s been such a heavy betting favorite on the American online sportsbooks, those are very skewed to the US athletes though. I think Higuchi is a clear, if slight, favorite over either potential opponent.