Smith loses dramatic bronze-medal match to place fifth

LAS VEGAS -- It was a bizarre scene on Tuesday night at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. After the conclusion of the second bronze-medal match in Greco-Roman at 130 kilos, the losing wrestler was waving to the crowd as the fans gave him a standing ovation and chanted his name. The winning wrestler struggled to get up from the mat and was completely exhausted, looking defeated.

Robby Smith battles for position against Bilyal Makhov (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)

American Greco-Roman heavyweight Robby Smith lost on the scoreboard, 10-8, to Russian Bilyal Makhov for the bronze medal, but earned the admiration of fans watching.

"I'm proud to be an American," Smith said following the match as he fought back the tears. "Very proud. Felt loved. That's probably the biggest thing that hurts. I wanted to win for the USA. Plain and simple."

U.S. Greco-Roman coach Matt Lindland, a 2000 Olympic silver medalist, has wrestled and coached all over the world for three decades and has never seen anything like it.

"I have not seen the guy that got the bronze crawl off the mat while the guy that got the fifth got the standing ovation," said Lindland.

Mokhov, a three-time World champion in freestyle and now a two-time World bronze medalist in Greco-Roman, appeared to be on his way to an easy technical fall over Smith. In the first period Mokhov scored a takeown, four-point throw and pushout to jump out to a 7-0, one point shy of a technical fall.

In the closing seconds of the opening period it appeared that Mokhov might finish the match with a pushout until Smith launched the giant Russian on the edge of the mat. Even though the move was only worth two points, it changed the momentum of the match.

Robby Smith acknowledges the crowd after losing in the bronze-medal match (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)

Smith inched closer with a takedown in the second period before Makhov earned a reversal and an additional point for a failed challenge by the U.S. coaches. With the score 9-4 in favor of Makhov, Smith remained offensive, pushing the action and eventually locking up a throw and tossing Makhov for four points to make the score 9-8 with 1:20 remaining. Smith, down a point, continued to press forward. With 40 seconds on the clock Makhov scored a pushout point to make it 10-8. Smith remained the aggressor the rest of the match but was unable to score as time ran out.

"I was the one still standing on my feet at the end," said Smith. "I was better conditioned. It was a great match."

Smith said he fed off the crowd.

"This crowd today was awesome," said Smith. "They had me rolling, man. They had me rolling."

It marks the second time Smith has been fifth in the world, but the first time he has wrestled in the bronze-medal match. In 2013, Smith placed seventh at the World Championships, but moved up to fifth place after the champion Amir Aziz Ali Akbari of Iran tested positive for anabolic steroids.

Seven of eight U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers competed on Monday and Tuesday. The U.S. compiled a 7-8 record on Tuesday with no medalists. Andy Bisek, who won a bronze medal at 74 kilos on Monday, remains the only medalist for Team USA in 2015. Jordan Holm (85 kilos) will compete on Wednesday and is the final U.S. Greco-Roman wrestler to compete in Las Vegas.

Matt Lindland (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)

Lindland believes the future is bright for the U.S. Greco-Roman program.

"We're just getting started," said Lindland, who became the U.S. Greco-Roman coach in June of 2014. "We've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of building to do. But we're putting one foot in front of the other â€¦ getting some momentum going."

Medalists were crowned in four Greco-Roman weight classes on Tuesday night: 59 kilos, 71 kilos, 80 kilos and 130 kilos.

The biggest upset of this year's event so far came in the gold-medal match at 130 kilos, where Riza Kayaalp of Turkey edged Mijain Lopez of Cuba, 1-0. Lopez, a two-time Olympic champion and five-time World champion, had not lost a match since 2011 when Kayaalp beat him in the gold-medal match at the World Championships in Istanbul.

Medalists at 130 kilos (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)

Kayaalp's lone point -- which proved to be the difference -- came from a second passivity call against Lopez in the second period.

"I prepared to wrestle non-stop for six minutes and push the pace throughout that time," said Kayaalp.

The other gold medalists crowned on Tuesday were Ismael Borrero of Cuba (59 kilos), Rasul Chunayev of Azerbaijan (71 kilos) and Selcuk Cebi of Turkey (80 kilos).

It was Cebi's third World title, and the first for both Borrero and Chunayev.

In addition to Jordan Holm, Alyssa Lampe, Whitney Conder and Elena Pirozhkova will compete for Team USA on Wednesday at the World Championships.

Day 2 (Tuesday) Medalists

59 kilos:
Gold: Ismael Borrero (Cuba)
Silver: Rovshan Bayramov (Azerbaijan)
Bronze: Won Chol Yun (North Korea)
Bronze: Almat Kebispayev (Kazakhstan)

71 kilos:
Gold: Rasul Chunayev (Azerbaijan)
Silver: Armen Vardanyan (Ukraine)
Bronze: Adam Kurak (Russia)
Bronze: Zakarias Tallroth (Sweden)

80 kilos:
Gold: Selcuk Cebi (Turkey)
Silver: Viktor Sasunkouski (Belarus)
Bronze: Yousef Ghaderian (Iran)
Bronze: Lasha Gobadze (Georgia)

130 kilos:
Gold: Riza Kayaalp (Turkey)
Silver: Mijain Lopez (Cuba)
Bronze: Oleksandr Chernetskyy (Ukraine)
Bronze: Bilyal Makhov (Russia)

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Smith loses dramatic bronze-medal match to place fifth

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