Ono vs Spencer Feb 26th

[BarSeries]

20 minutes ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Who is Ono rolling with in the PSU room?

Josh Rodriguez?

[CHROMEBIRD]

Ah yes, who wouldn't travel halfway around the world to train with Josh?

[Truzzcat]

Looked like in some clips Ono was training with Rodriguez and Nick lee. Spencer is training with Otoguru 2021 olympic champ, sounds like that started prior to the olympics but he went to the same school ono does. If spencer is dialed mentally, I think it's a great match that if he can get going on top, he can win although I would favor Ono. If his mental is similar to what it was in the Olympic finals, I think ono may push for a tech he is just that good. As to the weight I think it is probably a none factor or if anything hurts ono a bit.

[shiraz321]

4 minutes ago, Truzzcat said:

Looked like in some clips Ono was training with Rodriguez and Nick lee. Spencer is training with Otoguru 2021 olympic champ, sounds like that started prior to the olympics but he went to the same school ono does. If spencer is dialed mentally, I think it's a great match that if he can get going on top, he can win although I would favor Ono. If his mental is similar to what it was in the Olympic finals, I think ono may push for a tech he is just that good. As to the weight I think it is probably a none factor or if anything hurts ono a bit.

He's training with Otoguro's brother I believe, not Otoguro

[GrandOlm]

My read on Spencer is that if he continues with Freestyle in the long run and stays mostly healthy, he'll be in that Bruce Baumgartner tier: 

Possibly the best all around wrestler at his weight but with no seperation and has losses in him against the other medalists.

I think the Zhou matches prove already that he's not going to destroy the field. So I don't really think that close win/loss to Ono would reveal much of anything. 

[D3 for LU]

8 hours ago, GrandOlm said:

My read on Spencer is that if he continues with Freestyle in the long run and stays mostly healthy, he'll be in that Bruce Baumgartner tier: 

Possibly the best all around wrestler at his weight but with no seperation and has losses in him against the other medalists.

I think the Zhou matches prove already that he's not going to destroy the field. So I don't really think that close win/loss to Ono would reveal much of anything. 

An interesting take... I'll be watching that to see if that will become true. (We haven't had quite another FS like Bruce B w/ the longevity (AND medals) like him... recent wrestlers approaching but shorter, longevity-wise.)

D3

[Truzzcat]

1 hour ago, D3 for LU said:

An interesting take... I'll be watching that to see if that will become true. (We haven't had quite another FS like Bruce B w/ the longevity (AND medals) like him... recent wrestlers approaching but shorter, longevity-wise.)

D3

Snyder I think compares to Bruce very well. 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

2 minutes ago, Truzzcat said:

Snyder I think compares to Bruce very well. 

Bruce was probably the best at his weight over the course of his career.  Snyder is not.

Edited Tuesday at 04:33 PM by Interviewed_at_Weehawken

[MPhillips]

Career results college through international.

Snyder - College/International            Baumgartner - College/International   

30 Gold, 5 Silver, 7 Bronze                    14 Gold, 7 Silver, 4 Bronze (Not sure if Bruce had conference tourneys)

 

Not looking for a pissing contest, just throwing it out there...

[Truzzcat]

Looking for more opinions on this match. I think Nolf giving his thoughts that spencer wins easily has changed a lot of people's perspectives. I feel foolish questioning nolf in the slightest, the guy is a genius. However, one of his main points of contention was that people had not seen Ono before so now that he can be scouted spencer can shut him down. I just dont think Ono is as one dimensional as Nolf made him out to be. He does work a lot out of over collar snaps to a low ankle attack, but he also hit Marcus with a nasty ankle pick, and head pinched just about everyone at senior worlds. I also think it will be interesting that ono despite shooting a lot of low ankle attacks, shoots primarily head outside. Spencer may be the best I have ever seen at defending head inside singles. Ono also shoots into his underhook similarly to Hidlay and was able to get pushouts on blaze and uguaev who are both super stingy. None of those guys are spencer lee though so maybe he can shut all that down. Where spencer can do really well here, I believe is if he can re-attack off of Ono snap low level series. If he can hold his ties and keep his feet moving, I think he is going to have opportunities there, and obviously it just takes one chance on top for Spencer. For me I am leaning Ono, but I do not think the match is close. I think spencer either can shut down ono and he strings together some counterattacks and turns him and wins pretty decisively, or he cannot and ono runs away with it. 

[CHROMEBIRD]

2 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

Looking for more opinions on this match. I think Nolf giving his thoughts that spencer wins easily has changed a lot of people's perspectives. I feel foolish questioning nolf in the slightest, the guy is a genius. However, one of his main points of contention was that people had not seen Ono before so now that he can be scouted spencer can shut him down. I just dont think Ono is as one dimensional as Nolf made him out to be. He does work a lot out of over collar snaps to a low ankle attack, but he also hit Marcus with a nasty ankle pick, and head pinched just about everyone at senior worlds. I also think it will be interesting that ono despite shooting a lot of low ankle attacks, shoots primarily head outside. Spencer may be the best I have ever seen at defending head inside singles. Ono also shoots into his underhook similarly to Hidlay and was able to get pushouts on blaze and uguaev who are both super stingy. None of those guys are spencer lee though so maybe he can shut all that down. Where spencer can do really well here, I believe is if he can re-attack off of Ono snap low level series. If he can hold his ties and keep his feet moving, I think he is going to have opportunities there, and obviously it just takes one chance on top for Spencer. For me I am leaning Ono, but I do not think the match is close. I think spencer either can shut down ono and he strings together some counterattacks and turns him and wins pretty decisively, or he cannot and ono runs away with it. 

Great analysis. Your last sentence gets to the crux of it for me. I like Spencer's chances if he can score early and put things more or less out of reach in the first period, mostly because I'm still a little skeptical of his gas tank.  If Ono can survive Spencer's first period/early second period offense and scramble tough, he can win it on speed and conditioning esp if one is put on the shot clock and has to GO late in the match.

[The Kid]

3 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Career results college through international.

Snyder - College/International            Baumgartner - College/International   

30 Gold, 5 Silver, 7 Bronze                    14 Gold, 7 Silver, 4 Bronze (Not sure if Bruce had conference tourneys)

 

Not looking for a pissing contest, just throwing it out there...

Snyder getting pinned with an elementary move in the finals against Sadulaev was really bizarre. 

 

Bruce never had a melt down like that on the international scence.

Kyle's best days are over.  He too one dimensional. He never improved in par Terre.  Did he ever gut wrench anyone?

 

Edited Wednesday at 12:37 AM by The Kid

[The Kid]

3 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

Looking for more opinions on this match. I think Nolf giving his thoughts that spencer wins easily has changed a lot of people's perspectives. I feel foolish questioning nolf in the slightest, the guy is a genius. However, one of his main points of contention was that people had not seen Ono before so now that he can be scouted spencer can shut him down. I just dont think Ono is as one dimensional as Nolf made him out to be. He does work a lot out of over collar snaps to a low ankle attack, but he also hit Marcus with a nasty ankle pick, and head pinched just about everyone at senior worlds. I also think it will be interesting that ono despite shooting a lot of low ankle attacks, shoots primarily head outside. Spencer may be the best I have ever seen at defending head inside singles. Ono also shoots into his underhook similarly to Hidlay and was able to get pushouts on blaze and uguaev who are both super stingy. None of those guys are spencer lee though so maybe he can shut all that down. Where spencer can do really well here, I believe is if he can re-attack off of Ono snap low level series. If he can hold his ties and keep his feet moving, I think he is going to have opportunities there, and obviously it just takes one chance on top for Spencer. For me I am leaning Ono, but I do not think the match is close. I think spencer either can shut down ono and he strings together some counterattacks and turns him and wins pretty decisively, or he cannot and ono runs away with it. 

What does Nolf know about freestyle except for getting dominated by Dake?

Even Cael knew he had to recruit over Nolf for the nlwc.

And Nolf retires without ever making it.  Kinda like Bo.

[MPhillips]

58 minutes ago, The Kid said:

Bruce never had a melt down like that on the international scence.

Kyle's best days are over.  He too one dimensional. He never improved in par Terre.  Did he ever gut wrench anyone?

 

4 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Not looking for a pissing contest

I'm well aware of who they are and what they've done...

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

15 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

Looking for more opinions on this match. I think Nolf giving his thoughts that spencer wins easily has changed a lot of people's perspectives. I feel foolish questioning nolf in the slightest, the guy is a genius. However, one of his main points of contention was that people had not seen Ono before so now that he can be scouted spencer can shut him down. I just dont think Ono is as one dimensional as Nolf made him out to be. 

The first person I heard say this was Illinois RTC coach Medlin, shortly after Worlds.  So Nolf is not alone in thinking this.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

12 hours ago, The Kid said:

 

Kyle's best days are over.  He too one dimensional. He never improved in par Terre.  Did he ever gut wrench anyone?

 

It doesn't seem like we see a lot of gut wrenches or laces from NLWC guys, or Cael himself.  It doesn't seem to be a major focus for them, based on what they have demonstrated in international competition.  

[Rassling2]

On 2/21/2025 at 10:08 AM, BarSeries said:

I think this match ends in a tech, but I'm not sure who comes out on top. I'm leaning Ono.

Spencer is vulnerable to a single leg take down and no one performs it better and more convincingly than Ono. Could be over quickly. I’m going with the Japanese wrestler via tech.

Edited Wednesday at 01:03 PM by Rassling2

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

Keep in mind these two guys have trained together...

[Rassling2]

1 hour ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Keep in mind these two guys have trained together...

Yea but there’s a difference between an on stage Ono and an off stage Ono. 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

16 minutes ago, Rassling2 said:

Yea but there’s a difference between an on stage Ono and an off stage Ono. 

lol ok, bc you've rolled with him?

He's an outstanding young wrestler, but saying there's a difference between how he rolls in practice is most likely an absurd statement with no evidence to back it.  Like how different was it when he was teched in Japan's OTT process?

Edited Wednesday at 03:09 PM by Interviewed_at_Weehawken

[CHROMEBIRD]

5 hours ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Keep in mind these two guys have trained together...

Wasn't this when Spencer was still banged up? I mean who knows how much of a feel either got for the other. I get that Ono may be scouted by now for his unorthodox setups and what not, but it's hard to gameplan for his speed & strength. 

[BarSeries]

7 minutes ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

Wasn't this when Spencer was still banged up? I mean who knows how much of a feel either got for the other. I get that Ono may be scouted by now for his unorthodox setups and what not, but it's hard to gameplan for his speed & strength. 

I think this whole "Ono hadn't been scouted before this summer and just dominated everyone but now people will have him figured out" has been blown way out of proportion. Dude is a monster!!!

[BruceyB]

34 minutes ago, BarSeries said:

I think this whole "Ono hadn't been scouted before this summer and just dominated everyone but now people will have him figured out" has been blown way out of proportion. Dude is a monster!!!

There is obviously a difference between seeing what he can do and stopping it, but literally in his post tournament interview, Ono said it was going to be harder to win his second world title because he was going to be scouted. He was hardly a favorite going into worlds at 61kg. We knew he was tough after beating Blaze, but no one knew he was going to demolish the field of former world/olympic champions like he did. I lean toward picking Ono, but I'm not going to discredit how amazing Spencer is. 

[Truzzcat]

I do think it's worth noting Ono does the same snap to low ankle series that Haji aliyev does just with a bit different head positioning. I would argue ono is even faster and stronger than Haji and Haji won 3 straight 61kg world titles.

[fishbane]

On 2/22/2025 at 2:33 PM, CHROMEBIRD said:

Who is Ono rolling with in the PSU room? I assume Ono made plans to train at PSU to be near Cael & Casey, and maybe practice with Gilman. But Gilman's gone and Cael, Casey, and Nick are busy with the college season. I'm not sure what he's getting out of training at Penn State that he doesn't get in Japan, aside from maybe getting some folkstyley feels and dodging projectiles coming his way.

I don't think Ono would have expected Gilman to be there when he made the trip.  Flo put out a video of him wrestling with Jordan Conaway up the other day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKoGJw8LGSQ