ILLINIWrestlingBlog

Flat on his belly a couple of times, he was able to work up and roll over that Iranian for takedowns. Pretty amazing match!

Great match. Zahid with a gas tank? Watch out, World.

Time for Zahid to fake an injury.

Chance with the 7-2 win. Next up on Mat C is Ermak Kardanov from the ILLINI RTC wrestling for Slovakia. He gets India in this match.

Chance is a monster. Wish IMAR never got injured, and we had a few years of that rivalry.

Zane would like to have that back. He had the only takedown in a 2-3 loss, while the Azeri Euro Championships Gold had two pushouts and a shot clock. I would just note that the one takedown in the match was so beautiful and effortless, if Zane had done that to Gilman, everybody would say Gilman was not Gilman. Will Rzazade make the Finals? Very long odds. Even though he's this year's Euro Gold at 57 kg, the 61 kg Euro Gold and the last World Champion at 57 kg (Abakarov) is still in it, along with dark horse Aman Aman of India and World and Olympic champ Uguev of Z. They're all on Rzazade's side of the bracket, too. So, he'll need to beat two of them. But don't feel sorry for Zane. Feel sorry for me. After the match, I started drinking. I'm two beers in and my wife has already thrown me out of the house for complaining about the pancakes. I just wish she'd thrown me out before I took the call from my boss, who wanted me to come in to work tomorrow, and I slurred at him, "**** off." He said, "You're fired," and I said, "Fine, see if you can find a better french fry guy in Myrtle Beach." Now, I'm resorting to free internet at the library.

Feel for Zane. He can beat that guy. The Azerbaijaini is Euro Gold from this year, but, man, Zane wants to run that one back.

Sidakov escapes, but just barely. Kentchandze of Georgia almost had that takedown at the end.

Sidakov looks emaciated. Down by criteria at the break. Will he have gas? What gas doing?

Anybody know if the wrestlers who make the finals (or repechage) have to make weight the next day? If so, is there an allowance? Also, the camera operators at the World Championships have an almost unerring ability to switch from a stupid overhead shot of the wrestlers to a side shot right when something is happening, so we can't tell what has happened.

After watching only the morning session, and making assumptions based on that, who here thinks Gable Steveson and WWE are having second thoughts. Zare looked good in one match, but in that one match his opponent was, like Cheech & Chong, running on fumes. Akgul looked reasonable. Petro okay but vulnerable.

Why would you have them do that?

From your mouth to Deng's brain. Wow. A little close there.

Higuchi missed weight at an event in the past, so he always puts his weight on a Tweet to settle down his fans.

He got to the right place on the mat in the right tie and exploded. Then, with the leglaces, he took his time to set up the right technique, and exploded. Very nice match!

He was a pro just now. Smart and efficient.

Taylor had a :15 pin. Morocco has apparently never seen David Taylor, Ed Ruth or Sammy Sasso wrestle. Can't hang out on the leg!

Okay, that was quick. Petro now up 9-2.

Petro losing two - one at the break versus Cambodia. First, right on, Cambodia. Second, right on CAMBODIA!

Mason with the quickest (and I think only tech) amongst the top contenders. Akgul and Zare had full six-minute matches. Petro still to wrestle. Question for the board: What is 125 kg in light years? Second question: If you have two heavyweights who weigh exactly 125 kg, but one is from the USA and one is from Mexico, who has the most energy?

I was just going to post about those two things. Quick tech. Bad video. Is this the enshittification of UWW video? They go to a pay service and everything goes to hell? That was just one example, so I hope it was the anomaly.

My take on the first part of Zane's draw is here at The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond. It is true that he's in the more difficult half of the bracket, but I have him easily favored to get into the quarters, and after that, it's a crapshoot. His first-round opponent will be tougher than either guy he could meet in the second round. Still, I think the Azerbaijani is too young and wild-eyed and prone to mistakes. Moreover, he's a bit of a one-trick pony who had big wins but has since been scouted. It will not be so easy for some of the other favorites. In fact, I almost want to pick Rei Higuchi as my upset special for the entire tournament. He has a tough opponent in round one, then the #1 seed in round two. I think he gets past the first round because his opponent will be sucking almost as much weight as he is. In the second round, though, he has the Chinese #1 seed who doesn't appear to be cutting hard. That could get him, especially since the Chinese kid will have a two minute 10-0 tech fall in the first round. The Russian has the returning World Bronze in the second round. Last year's champion, Abakarov, has my dark horse Aman Aman of India in round two. These folks'll be beat on severely before they get a chance to meet Zane. Finally, this doesn't relate to 57kg, but to explain one-half of the graphic below, Ermak Kardanov is with the IRTC, and he wrestles for Slovakia. He has the best (as in easiest) first couple of rounds in the entire tournament! Of course, as the #8 seed, his quarter-final will be tough to say the least.

Poor Richard's Almanac? Yes. He will have three super tough matches to win Gold. If he were in, say, Darian Cruz's spot in the top half of the bracket, it would be two super tough matches to win the Gold. I do like Zane to win his first two matches because they are both lanky long-drink-of-water fellows that he has had lots of success with (e.g., Zandanbud, Suriano, Gilman, Stechele). Then, it is Abakarov, who he's familiar with, and who he beat in a practice match. Then, either Uguev of Russia or Aman of India to get to the Finals. The key for Zane is to get on a roll. This draw sets him up for that. By the way, Zane's first match is against an Azer wrestler that almost came to blows in a loss to Austin DeSanto up at 61 kg pretty recently.

Sure, @bnwtwg, the smaller fellow is two-time World Medalist at 57kg from Mongolia, Erdenebatyn Bekhbayar, who's been training with the IRTC and working specifically with Zane. The tall fellow is another IRTC athlete, Ermak Kardanov, the former Russian who is now wrestling for Slovakia and recently won a Euro Championship Bronze at 92kg. Both Zane and Ermak wrestle on Sunday at 3:30 am (Central). So excite!

Haha! NattoSumo and his like are modern day pirates, and the authorities are after them. I finally found him on Rumble here and watched today's matches in the upper division, all 20 of them. It was like watching a whole season of the Chicago Bears in 30 minutes. My favorite guys: LOSS, LOSS, LOSS, LOSS, WIN, LOSS, WIN, WIN, LOSS, LOSS, LOSS, LOSS, LOSS, LOSS, WIN, WIN, LOSS, WIN, WIN, WIN. That win streak of my favorite wrestlers at the end is what keeps me coming back, just like that one perfect drive during a bad day of golf. I had to give Rumble a working email account, a birth date and a username. They verified the email account to complete the signup. Hakkeyoi!