Who is the Greco GOAT?

[peanut]

I don’t know anything about Greco but it seems like Karelin and Lopez are the in the GOAT discussion. Also, I voted, but my vote is meaningless. 

Edited August 6 by peanut

[WrestlingRasta]

I said this to a friend earlier:

This is not a discussion anymore.  The GOAT discussion is over.  From now on, everything else is: Who is the Lopez of this era.  Or.....Who is the Lopez of that weight....or....Who is the Lopez of basketball.

The man won his fourth Olympics, and didn't wrestle again until he won his fifth Olympics.  No one actually scored on him in either one (I haven't gone back to look at scores for the first three). He could have 8-0 everyone in the field, but he didn't want to.   He didn't want to humiliate anyone, he just wanted to 3-1 his way to the unquestionable greatest ever.

Even Micheal Jordan took a break, came back......and got beat.   (He didn't even make the finals).

[scribers]

Karelin was a frightening monster 

[de4856]

Both are super impressive Karelin had 9 World Golds and 3 Olympic Golds. While Lopez had 5 World Golds and 5 Olympic Golds. Plus 3 World Silvers while Karelin had 1 Olympic Silver. 

[billyhoyle]

Just now, de4856 said:

Both are super impressive Karelin had 9 World Golds and 3 Olympic Golds. While Lopez had 5 World Golds and 5 Olympic Golds. Plus 3 World Silvers while Karelin had 1 Olympic Silver. 

Lopez has those silvers by choice, because he lives in a country with few resources for athletes. He is unquestionably the greatest wrestler ever. 

[UsedToBe103]

14 minutes ago, scribers said:

Karelin was a frightening monster 

Agreed.  Lopez may be "unbeatable" in some minds, but I doubt he scares his opponents the way Karelin did.  Karelin's reverse lift was ruthless.

[de4856]

Just now, billyhoyle said:

Lopez has those silvers by choice, because he lives in a country with few resources for athletes. He is unquestionably the greatest wrestler ever. 

What do you mean by choice? And yes I agree that Cuba has very limited resources, but there have been other wrestlers that faced similar situations. Were they as successful as Lopez, obviously not, otherwise we would probably be discussing them now. But I would say that the Karelin Lopez debate is worthy of argument. 

[GrandOlm]

Karelin by a mile. 13 years undefeated and never really lost a match in pure wrestling terms. Lopez lost many times.  Karelin was also a prolific piner, utterly dominant,  and actually exemplified the ideal of greco by having a game built around lifts and throws. 

But recency bias is strong and Karelin is starting to fade with the 90s. People can't even name wrestlers from the 70s even though they more accolades than modern wrestlers in some style.  

[TylerDurden]

1 hour ago, de4856 said:

What do you mean by choice? And yes I agree that Cuba has very limited resources, but there have been other wrestlers that faced similar situations. Were they as successful as Lopez, obviously not, otherwise we would probably be discussing them now. But I would say that the Karelin Lopez debate is worthy of argument. 

I believe he's referencing the allegations that Lopez threw matches for financial gain. 

[denger]

2 hours ago, scribers said:

Karelin was a frightening monster 

Lopez is a very polite and gentle monster.

Even though nobody in the world has threatened his greatness since 2015, he chooses to only come out when the stakes are highest, and when he does come out he chooses to only gut wrench another 300lb world class athlete once. 

[scribers]

I went looking through Lopez’s results in wiki And his lack of results between Olympics blows my mind 

[billyhoyle]

1 hour ago, de4856 said:

What do you mean by choice? And yes I agree that Cuba has very limited resources, but there have been other wrestlers that faced similar situations. Were they as successful as Lopez, obviously not, otherwise we would probably be discussing them now. But I would say that the Karelin Lopez debate is worthy of argument. 

 

44 minutes ago, TylerDurden said:

I believe he's referencing the allegations that Lopez threw matches for financial gain. 

^^^^

There’s a reason he doesn’t lose at the Olympics. 

[peanut]

4 minutes ago, scribers said:

I went looking through Lopez’s results in wiki And his lack of results between Olympics blows my mind 

These are the results I can find for Lopez since 2016:

2024- Olympic gold (4-0)

2021- Olympic gold (4-0)

2019- Pan Am gold (3-0)

2016- Olympic gold (3-0)