"When I was wrestling, [the score] was 3-3. I was calm and thinking about one shot, I was working for one shot," Muzaffar explains, describing the 3rd period of his semifinal match against Johnny Hendricks of Oklahoma State. "And then, with 40 seconds to go, when I attacked, he was flipping around on mat. But they gave him a point for stalling. I didn't see the referee; he was standing behind me."
With about 20 seconds to go in the match, Abdurakhmanov says, his coach approached the scorers' table, thinking that the scorer had made an error by putting the point on Hendricks' side of the scoreboard. To his surprise, the point had actually been given to Hendricks.
"With 20 seconds to go, my coach goes, 'Muz, you're losing.' I was kind of shocked a little bit, you know, 'Why am I losing? It was 3-3.' My coach said, 'I thought they gave you a point because you were attacking and he was flipping on the mat.'" The point actually went to Hendricks?
So the referee awarded a stalling point to Hendricks even though Abdurakhmanov was in on Hendricks' leg?
"Yeah," answers Abdurakhmanov. He continues. "There's nothing you can do. You can't argue the referee's decision." Hendricks went on to win his next match over Michigan's Ryan Churella by a score of 9-8 and be crowned National Champion.
Abdurakhmanov defeated Iowa State's Trent Paulson 7-2 in his next bout, and then he received a victory via medical forfeit over Deonte Penn of Edinboro to finish in third place at 165. It was his senior year of college, and it was the last time he wrestled.
All of that will change on Saturday. For the first time since that frustrating NCAA Tournament experience, Muzaffar will be wrestling at the 145-pound weight class in the RPW Regional Qualifier, which will be held in Philadelphia on Nov. 11th.
"I want to compete," Abdurakhmanov states. "The last time I competed was at the NCAA's. I miss it. I like to compete."
A former Junior National Champion in his native Uzbekistan, Muzaffar came to the United States to wrestle at Colby College, a junior college in Kansas. He credits his former coaches there, Eric Toraya and Steve Lampe, with much of his success. After having success at that level, he went to American University, where he credits much of his success to his head coach there, Mark Cody.
Muzaffar AbdurakhmanovMuzaffar himself is waiting to become a citizen of the United States, a process which he estimates could take "6 or 7 years." Already 26, Abdurakhamanov will likely be competing under the flag of his native Uzbekistan when he gets back to regularly wrestling in international competitions, something he plans to do starting with the RPW Qualifier in Philadelphia.
Muzaffar has experienced great success, both in freestyle and folkstyle wrestling. But will his style translate well to Real Pro Wrestling's format?
"I hope so. I don't know," he states candidly. "In wrestling, you never know. Anything can happen. I can't say 'I'm going to beat this guy, or I'm going to beat that guy, or my style is going to work,' because I've never wrestled Real Pro Wrestling. So I don't know. It isn't exactly freestyle. It's like something a little bit freestyle, a little bit Greco, you know?"
"We'll see this weekend."
We certainly will. And maybe by the end of the weekend, the memory of that match against Hendricks will start to fade just a little bit.
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