Zain with a pretty sad showing against Amouzad, never even came close to threatening him. 65kg medal drought at the Olympics will continue, even if Amouzad makes the finals. American betting markets were so out of whack, he was the 3rd favorite and that was patently insane.
Azarpira was up 3-0 on Tazhudinov late… lost 4-3. Snyder got tossed for 4 in his first match, what’s new, but came back.
Tazhudinov fucked him up so bad last year he was definitely afraid of going all out. Completes the worst US men’s freestyle performance since 2008(at least one gold though) and first time without gold since Lyndon Johnson was president
I mean, they definitely need to re-think some things. Opponents pretty well figured out those guys. Snyder being the exact same wrestler he was at 19 is kind of hilarious though, not one bit of difference in style or performance.
Yeah, it either was immediately or not at all. Sidakov was there in the crowd going wild for Zhamalov
Another all time legend leaves it on the mat, after his 3rd Olympic medal, to go with 10 total world or Olympic medals and 12 European championships, Taha Akgül called it quits. An absolutely legendary career, maybe the best ever at super heavyweight. Certainly the best for his country
Just like USA basketball but with an entirely different result, seems like change of guard is coming. Can Lee stay the best with all these youngins coming up, I’d bet on him if his knees hold up Mendez, Vito and others I could be forgetting seem like they’ll surpass Zain Dake is done at the Olympics I’d bet Brooks is on next Olympic team but is he 86 or 97 and what does Snyder do Parris can’t be the guy, does Gable come back? Interesting time
8 fucking golds out of 18 with another silver, incredible performance. And the men basically only the lighter weights Kiyooka was 25:1 here and that’s just disrespectful for any Japanese lightweight at the Olympics
I made a lot on that one, got Geno and Takatani to beat to Dake and Higuchi to win gold, though would have been happy to lose that one. Everything else was rough
Cael Dake Stieber Yianni Brooks/Starocci tied, maybe Starocci slightly ahead Cael - Obvious reasons Dake - 4 different weight classes, elite competition, and all the wins over David Taylor make this is an easy #2 for me Stieber - Sustained dominance, elite wins (and losses) Yianni - If it weren't for that Austin Gomez loss to kick off his senior season, he might get some consideration to be on that Stieber level, but it weighs heavily in my mind. Brooks - Really only had to get past Keckeisen, Hidlay, and Amine, had no other legitimate challengers in his 4 years, also wrestled a lot less matches than the previous 4 guys, a couple bad losses. Starocci - Beat some really good guys but everyone elses best win was better than his best wins, imo (considering Griffith and Mekhi weren't quite on the same level they were when they won titles). Still has time to go though and can move up the list.
A bit surprised that RBY would leave, I thought he was switching focus to MMA after the Olympics. I guess this signals that that’s not the case
Today I learned Geno Petriashvili has a little brother who wrestles and apparently he's pretty good. Wrestling at 92kg at Cadet Worlds.
I think Cael is in a class of his own, so if we're doing gaps, for me it would probably be: Cael (159-0) Dake (137-4) Yianni (66-1)/Stieber (119-3) Brooks (89-3) Starocci (78-4) I had Lee on there because I think peak, healthy Spencer Lee might be as high as 3 on that list. When he's on, he's dominant in a way that you only really saw from Cael. I shouldn't have written "Rank these 4 timers" at the beginning, I should have said "rank these guys as college wrestlers," because the whole conversation started (in texts with friends) because we wanted to see where Lee would rank amongst the actual 4 timers, and we can all agree that it's kind of fluky that he isn't one. I couldn't disagree more with this. Freestyle scoring sucks, par terre sucks, and it makes mat wrestling irrelevant, which also sucks. The rules neuter creativity imo. That said, folkstyle definitely hurts us internationally. I think it was Dake's semifinal when he instinctively looked for a funk roll as defense to a shot, realized he couldn't complete said roll and ultimately ended. That doesn't fly in freestyle, because a proper funk will expose your back, so he stopped, but was then in a worse position and he ultimately lost the takedown because of it. FE: Moves like this can't exist in freestyle, and that makes me sad. Spoiler
My buddy who's a 2x PA state champ and current D1 college coach ranked them this way: "Brooks and Starocci over Dake. They are different. Steiber Yianni are close with slight edge to Yianni. Granted, I’m biased because I got to watch him so much." Which translates to: Cael Brooks/Starocci Dake Yianni Stieber He said he'd have Lee #2 if he'd won this year.
Firm freestyle is superior here, mat wrestling fucking sucks. Just riding for minutes at a time without a score is the worst thing in wrestling, boring and pointless. Decide it on the feet or if you’re good enough to score in par terre. And if not, they stand it right back up. Not watch a PSU wrestler hold someone down for 3 minutes, no thanks
For me it's about dominanace and competition. Stieber was getting his titles over Jordan Oliver, Tony Ramos, Zane Retherford, Mitchell Port, Devin Carter, etc. Yianni had to beat Joey McKenna, Austin Gomez, Sammy Sasso, Jaydin Eierman, Ridge Lovett, Bryce Meredith, etc. That to me is not even relatively close. Also Yianni's losses to Eierman and Gomez are worse than Stieber's losses to JO, Zane, and Chris Dardannes by quite a bit as well, imo.
All fair points, you've gotten me to move him up from where I had him on my initial list. Also love that you dropped Devin Carter in there.
I have no problem with his opinion but very strongly disagree Free is very far from perfect, folk just sucks for me
I think we’re agreeing? I’m very much anti-folk style these days, doesn’t help us to have our best wrestling in a way that doesn’t prepare them for the world styles.
Bassett getting smoked liked that was a bit of shock, Japan just has an unlimited supply of 65kg superstars apparently
Rademacher has made it through an absolute murderers row of juniors in his bracket to make his semifinal. His reward? A senior world champ.