He's just young imo. The guys he faced all looked much bigger/older than him. I think he's 17 and he's out here wrestling 20 year olds. That's a big difference. Not too worried about him, still bullish on his HS/Collegiate/FS career.
It’s incredible how good the Japanese lightweights are across the board pretty much. Marcus Blaze just got beaten by a guy who is clearly the superior wrestler which is strange to even type out.
Josh Barr looks so much better than he did a year ago. Stud. going to compete for an ncaa title this year for sure. with that being said, kadiev is going to make him look way worse than he is in the final.
Even 5 years ago it was a few studs for Japan in the lighter weights… but now they are just deep and talented. Going to be some battles to even make world teams. It’s also really encouraging for the future of wrestling in the Olympics if more countries step up. Women’s is especially interesting with Latin America and India really joining the party.
We could dump $300K or $3M more into the football program and still lose by 2 TDs to OSU and Michigan. Not exactly a smart use of resources.
it takes some really special kind of shitbaggery to make aj ferrari a sympathetic figure but here we are
I don't know how you wouldn't side with AJ, despite the various charges, over a guy like Carter, who has never been in trouble. the takes in this thread are wild sometimes
I'm glad he's back. It was a shame for him to hang it up when he announced going to Okie. Him and Gilman both competing makes me happy
I thought I saw Gilman saying in an interview over the summer that he was training for trials, which led to speculation that DT was coming back, but in my 5 minute search I could not find it.
I had KOT winning this bracket over JB. I feel like there's a decent chance Marsteller is about to make me look really dumb. edit: yep
Keegan definitely not physically ready for 79kg, Marsteller way too strong. Blaze takes down Fix and will face Vito in the best of 3 tomorrow.
Ryan needs to suck up to every booster to drum up nil for Blaze but he’ll probably go the Dabo route Taylor our only hope to end this Penn State tyranny
Ben Davino majored Ande Gonzales 11-1 at Ohio State wrestle offs. Bouzakis beat Gonzales 7-6 last year FWIW. Gonzales wrestled AA Dylan Ragusin close twice last year, I believe he lost their two matches by a combined 2 points. I still don't think Bouzakis sits unless Davino is going to compete for a title, but encouraging result for sure.
Everyone at non-olympic worlds got bad brackets except james green. Vito has Uguev 2nd rd, then the Japanese kid who just beat Blaze at U20s in the semis Burroughs has Nokodhi, his biggest threat to a title, in the 1st round, then the Japanese kid who just beat Mesenbrink at U23s in the semis. Haven't seen the bottom half of the bracket anywhere yet, but assuming Russia is lurking down there. David Taylor has Sadulaev in semis (but an admittedly easy road to get to him) Green has a good bracket, has a very realistic chance of making it to Andreasyan in the semis. Sheriev is on the opposite side which is the big thing, as are Ramazanov and Aoyagi.
UWW at it's finest! They had to redraw the brackets because they forgot to use seeds apparently! David Taylor and Sadulaev now meet in rd 1! Shades of Taylor/HYC in 2018. Winner gets Ghasempour in the semis, who gets moved to the Taylor/Sadulaev side of the bracket. Disaster. Vito's draw gets a little easier. He gets a bye due to seeding, then likely India, then Tuskaev rd 3 before Uguev in the semis. Uguev gets Ono rd 1. Green's draw gets tougher for sure, but at least he's still on the opposite side of Sheriev. Andreasyan and Aoyagi also on opposite side. Green will have a losable match every time he's out there imo. Burroughs now gets Nokodhi in the QF instead of first round. Nokodhi needs to get past Kuramagomedov first, which he should do but is not a layup by any means. JB would likely see Takahashi/Kentchadze winner in semis. Magomaev of Russia should make the final.
it wasn’t particularly close, Taylor’s best chance of scoring came in the first exchange of the match but he couldn’t finish. After that it was all Sadulaev. DT definitely looked a half step slower and Sadulaev looks outstanding at 92kg. it was still closer than uguev-ono though. Ono should have won 10-0 but there was a bad call imo. Won 10-2 instead. Change of the guard there. Ono is goated. also gives some Marcus blaze perspective.
Ono being this good at his age really puts into perspective how crazy of a run Kiyooka is on right now as well.. ono just won u20s fairly easily, ran through Uguev, widely considered one of the best p4p wrestlers in the world, and is likely going to beat Vito (imo), the defending world champion at the weight class. All at 20 years of age. …and Kiyooka teched him 10-0 less than a year ago. Japanese wrestling is here to stay. also of note, Ono is spending 3 months training at PSU in early 2025.
And as I suspected, Ono techs Vito 12-0. Complete domination, scoring every way imaginable. Goated. He’s going to win a lot of world championships.
Aoyagi gets revenge on Sheriev from U23s last year and moves onto world finals where he's a big favorite. Japan is going to finish 2024 like this in freestyle if everything goes as expected from here on out: 57kg: GOLD 61kg: GOLD 65kg: GOLD 70kg: GOLD 74kg: SILVER 79kg: no medal 86kg: no medal 92kg: no medal 97kg: no medal 125kg: no medal
Nokodhi up 6-0 late, gets taken down and laced up to lose 10-8. Jordan Burroughs is eliminated and has likely wrestled his last match. Shame he didn't get the opportunity to leave his shoes on the mat.
Holy shit. Sadulaev gets a takedown with 5 seconds left in the match to win 3-3. Taylor pulled back into repechage.
Iranians and losing to Sadulaev when they had him beat, name a better combo. Very similar to Goleij at the last worlds
This is truly wild, they also have more top end depth at those weights than even the Russians right now. Otoguro went from one of, if not the, greatest Japanese freestylers ever to complete afterthought in a year. Will be interesting to see how many stay in for multiple cycles like Higuchi, as that has not be typical of Japanese men historically. Also, the old guard looked decidedly old for the US this run. Taylor probably just isn’t big enough for 92 anyway but all have looked a step or three slow.
Higuchi has already done 3 cycles and just won a gold medal. Hes still young, i would imagine he sticks it out for another quad? Japan Nationals are going to be wild the next 3 years. Kiyooka, Otoguro, and Ono might be the top 3 65kgs in the world right now, they’re all in the early-mid 20s, and only one of them can make it to LA.
Taylor beats Ghasempour 6-2 to win bronze, then motions for his feet twice, but instead just pulls up his socks. Eric Olanowski, who is doing the anouncements in the arena, said over the mic that he is retiring, and DT bowed a couple times, thanked the audience, cried a bit....but no shoes.