This year I'll choose to be optimistic and wish the young scrappers a successful and healthy tournament. Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling are challenging, but fun and for many the dream of an Olympic gold medal starts on those mats. Compete hard, play fair and always be a good sport. Otherwise, kick ass and have fun.
On a personal note, this past Wednesday I tricked my girlfriend into getting engaged. She's not familiar with the wrestling world, but has been a quick study and allows me to wear my Abdulrashid Sadulaev T-shirt on lunch dates with her friends. That's pretty cool, and sufficient enough a reason to lock her down for the rest of my life, but she's also intelligent, generous and kind.
Anyway, we will be celebrating the union over vacation, which means I won't be filing a mailbag next week. However, I'll be certain to get an impressive tan whilst holding a fruity cocktail and post plenty of European themed photos to my Instagram.
To your questions …
The FARGODOME in Fargo, North Dakota serves as the venue for the Cadet & Junior National Championships every summer (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)-- Mike C.
Foley: Some, but no one tournament defined how we viewed an athlete. I was at Columbia University in Manhattan so there were a number of considerations to make including if they qualified for financial aid, how they performed in school and how their coach felt about their contribution to the team.
Fargo is a big deal and success there is indicative of talent and/or hard work. Still, as a coach you wouldn't throw too many resources at an athlete based on one week of wrestling in the summer. State tournaments and national events (Ironman, Beast of the East) are more indicative of folkstyle success.
Q: Other than the official World Wrestling Championships ticket exchange is there another place to look for tickets? Also, if you had to choose between attending Day 5 or Day 6, which would you choose?
-- Jeff M.
Foley: I'd choose the day with Jordan Burroughs. Pay to see greatness. You won't be telling your grandkids about how you saw a bronze medalist in Las Vegas, but you will tell them about how you saw one of the world's greatest wrestlers ever win a World title.
The ticket exchange really is your best option, but I'd still cruise Stubhub to see what's available, and maybe even see if there are scalpers outside. Could be a thing.
Q: Please bring up the FloWrestling bro culture attacking the high school kid who posted their video. They do the same thing yet call out a single high school kid. Are they worried at Flo that membership is down? Not living up to their funders? What gives?
-- Peter W.
Foley: Well … I don't want to get into a "thing" with Flo right now, but because you brought it up and I have something nice to say, I will capitulate to your demands.
Flo has seen a big turnaround over the past few years in terms of production value and quality of coverage. Their social media operation is fully evolved and they tend to allow more people, not fewer, watch the sport that they love. Flo Radio Live is pretty entertaining, taking from a model of First Take and other morning shows that have ramped-up ratings on sports channels around cable.
The incident you mentioned is actually really interesting to consider. A high school wrestler took an iPhone video of Flo's impressive trailer for Fargo. He then posted that video on his Twitter and thus sparked a debate about stealing content (The wrestler failed to air the end cap of "Flo" and wasn't promoting their service.)
Flo employees barked at the student and claimed he was continually taking their content without permission. In a black and white world they are correct -- creative content (music, movies, books) shouldn't be taken for free. However, the issue is thornier with Flo because Flo started their business with little to no regard for ownership rights. That culture is what attracted many to the sport, since most of the time the tournaments they chose to cover would not have been seen otherwise. Flo began to rub organizations the wrong way when coverage was secured and they came through to film and post anyways.
The developing tension with the wrestling community comes from Flo's ideological shift from scrappy startup to a multimillion million dollar company with 50-plus employees. The changes have included an increase in fees to users, and the aforementioned pushback when their content is ripped.
The "bro" culture isn't as much to blame here as the culture of corporations looking to protect their assets. Flo (2015) acquires much of their content through purchasing access. That's good for wrestling. As for fighting back against illegal pirating? I'm sure that they will start to realize there are some battles worth waging, and others that are better to ignore.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
The Stache goes big!
OMG -- Mission Impossible Rogue Nation
Q: What happened to Chad Mendes against Conor McGregor at UFC 189? I realize he fought on two weeks' notice, but he was absolutely spent in the second round. Did he take a hit in the first round that affected him? Or was it just the short training camp that hurt him?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Man, I should NOT make prognostications. There is an article on Fightland (mind you a publication funded by the UFC) that makes the argument for McGregor's opening round of body shots contributing to Mendes' lack of gas.
I'd tentatively agree, though I think a 10-day "camp" was much more responsible for his lack of gas. The reason everyone thought Mendes was in shape was that he was in shape, but "shape" is more indicative of how many abs he can flare and less about his ability to stand in a cage and pummel another human for 25 minutes.
And still, he kinda-probably-almost definitely should have won the fight! Conor McGregor is absolutely atrocious on the mat. Terrible is not a strong enough word to describe the utter incompetence he showed on the mat. The UFC knows they have a PPV homerun with McGregor and will juice up any fight he takes with Aldo. I'd expect north of 800k PPV buys.
But also be warned that whoever does win that fight will likely meet Frankie Edgar shortly thereafter. If McGregor is that winner he'll be put away fast by someone who is a both a better pure boxer and jiu-jitsu fighter than McGregor. Also, a guy known to never give up.
Q: This marks the third year in a row that a wrestler has received an ESPY nomination for Male College Athlete of the Year (Kyle Dake '13, David Taylor '14, Logan Stieber '15). What are the chances that Logan Stieber wins this year?
-- Shohei T.
Foley: Unfortunately Stieber lost to Marcus Mariotta, which is a completely legit place to go with that award. Wrestling is all type of awesome, but give credit where it's due. I heard about this guy all season and 1) I don't know much about football and 2) he plays football in Oregon, which is a 6.5 hour flight from NYC.
Congratulations to Logan Stieber on being nominated. Quite the honor.
Q: Obe Blanc just returned from a two-year suspension for testing positive for a prohibited substance. Do you see him as a frontrunner to make the U.S. Olympic Team in 2016 at 57 kilos?
-- Mike C.
Foley: No. The 57-kilo weight class is Tony Ramos' spot for as long as he wants to wrestle. He's becoming world class and I believe that on his current trajectory he could be a threat to medal in Rio. Blanc's time off will affect almost everything about his career, though I do hope that he finds success on the mats and as a coach. I've heard great things about the latter.
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