Saitiev RIP

[STLBOY]

Terrible news, one of the best if not the best to ever do it

[Phantom]

Wow...just wow

[Doublehalf]

Any idea how he passed? So young at 50...

[Hammerlock3]

17 minutes ago, Doublehalf said:

Any idea how he passed? So young at 50...

yeah i'm quite curious

[PAFAN01]

Search said it was an heart attack.

 

[PAFAN01]

From Reddit:

Buvaisar is as legendary as it gets in wrestling and his wrestling prowess is borderline mythical in quality.

Guy comes in scrawny, hits everyone with a bunch of bull*I poop my pants, don't laugh at me* moves you’d never even think to teach your wrestlers, he wins 3 Olympic golds and a bunch of world medals using that, refuses to elaborate, leaves.

Legend. Greatest 74kg of all time. Possibly the best wrestler ever?

[jackwebster]

1 hour ago, PAFAN01 said:

Frmgend. Greatest 74kg of all time. Possibly the best wrestler ever?

For me, he was the best ever in part bc of the access I had to his journey.  He was in his prime right as video became available to anyone with a computer. I would wade through page after page Cyrillic binging on anything I could find (stumbling across a lot of mujahaddin vids in the process btw). Through him I learned about so many greats: Aldatov, Gatsalov, Dudaev, Batirov, Kudukov, etc etc.  I also credit Flo. They went over there essentially as fans and just sent us back the vids. . . initially it was just free (well, sorta. They were ripping off the athletes, I suppose).

Other than the Fundora stomping, here's my favorite : 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by jackwebster

[Hammerlock3]

1 hour ago, PAFAN01 said:

Search said it was an heart attack.

 

wouldn't there have to be some sort of complication for a 50 year old who was also an elite athlete to die of a heart attack?

[PortaJohn]

1 hour ago, PAFAN01 said:

Possibly the best wrestler ever?

YES

[PortaJohn]

 

[pokemonster]

48 minutes ago, jackwebster said:

Other than the Fundora stomping, here's my favorite : 

 

That 2 minute mark had me verbally yell "Ow!" just watching. 

Such a shame, wonder what could've caused a heart attack for a 50 year old healthy man.

[AnklePicker]

The GOAT and he was so damn fun to watch.  Had an arsenal. I remember seeing him at Madison square garden. He’d look like a feeble praying mantis out there.  Elbows in, arms like noodles, dangling.  But my god.  Freestyle master.  Could wrestle from anywhere.  I heard he had chronic lung disease.  Not sure about that however.  Sad day. 

[scourge165]

1 hour ago, Hammerlock3 said:

wouldn't there have to be some sort of complication for a 50 year old who was also an elite athlete to die of a heart attack?

Depends on what you mean.

There are a shockingly number of undiagnosed heart issues. I know a guy, he said he used to ask people if it was normal for your heart to start beating really fast for like 30 seconds a minute and then slow down. It'd happened to me. 

He had a heart attack in his mid 30s. He had some...irregular heart beat that didn't get picked up when they were just doing routine tests. He was fine, but...it wasn't good. 

I went in after that, had a stress test that...I had to push for and about 15 minutes in and they're just light jogging, but it started going WILD for about 10-15 seconds. 

But that's how long it took for them to find it to give me something to prevent that from happening. 

 

I've seen family members smoke 2 packs a day, eat like *I poop my pants, don't laugh at me*, live into their late 80s, 90s. Other people I know, they ran everyday, they were in great shape and they died at 48 of a heart attack. 

[scourge165]

1 hour ago, jackwebster said:

For me, he was the best ever in part bc of the access I had to his journey.  He was in his prime right as video became available to anyone with a computer. I would wade through page after page Cyrillic binging on anything I could find (stumbling across a lot of mujahaddin vids in the process btw). Through him I learned about so many greats: Aldatov, Gatsalov, Dudaev, Batirov, Kudukov, etc etc.  I also credit Flo. They went over there essentially as fans and just sent us back the vids. . . initially it was just free (well, sorta. They were ripping off the athletes, I suppose).

Other than the Fundora stomping, here's my favorite : 

 

If you want to be the greatest ever...and I've argued I think Sadulaev can become the greatest ever yet, this is the guy you've got to pass up. 

This is the standard...(and his Brother was pretty damn good as well). 

[scourge165]

1 hour ago, AnklePicker said:

The GOAT and he was so damn fun to watch.  Had an arsenal. I remember seeing him at Madison square garden. He’d look like a feeble praying mantis out there.  Elbows in, arms like noodles, dangling.  But my god.  Freestyle master.  Could wrestle from anywhere.  I heard he had chronic lung disease.  Not sure about that however.  Sad day. 

It is a sad day...but your description of him...is accurate. Now I never saw him Wrestle in person, but you take Kyle Dake or Jordan Burroughs and you take Saitiev and you line all three up and say, "who is the better Wrestler, take a guess."

100 of 100 people are taking Saitiev 3rd.

But watching him was like watching art. The cartwheels defending shots, the grip that had to be preternatural given how he hung onto that leg and sucked it in and finished. All of it...he was amazing. 

[bnwtwg]

RIP to the greatest freestyle wrestler of all time

[gimpeltf]

2 hours ago, scourge165 said:

100 of 100 people are taking Saitiev 3rd.

Maybe of 100 Americans

[GrandOlm]

Not sure why everyone ignores Medved (who also died not that long ago).

He has one more world medal than Saitiev despite the disadvantage of being the bygone era wrestler and he went undefeated in the last 7 years of his career.

[jackwebster]

11 hours ago, scourge165 said:

If you want to be the greatest ever...this is the guy you've got to pass up. 

True, and not least because he won under 4 (?) different rule sets. But, I just want to clarify that my admiration is primarily aesthetic. He could wrestled any style. In the match I posted above, there wasn't  a lot of the techniques that we have come to identify with him, e.g. west point gut, foot sweep, limp arm from the guy's undertook, etc. Instead, he won with grit. 

His best sequence for me was actually in his loss to Slay. Immediately, after that first takedown, Saitiev doesn't stop. He traps Slys arms and uses a leg elevator to expose Slay. Slay's trying to let go, and the dude won't let him. The look on Slay's face is panic. . . like I am grabbed him but now I'm thinking that wasn't such a good idea.

Same look on Pat Smith's face when he was threw legs and found himself hanging helplessly on Saitiev's back, only to get repeatedly thrown for three.

Edited 5 hours ago by jackwebster