Men's freestyle GOAT

[peanut]

[ionel]

Your poll seems inaccurate.  Burroughs didn't get all Gold correct, he had some non gold world/Olympic? 

[peanut]

17 minutes ago, ionel said:

Your poll seems inaccurate.  Burroughs didn't get all Gold correct, he had some non gold world/Olympic? 

Burroughs has ten world-level medals, and seven world-level golds. Six golds are world golds and one gold is Olympic. 

[ionel]

7 minutes ago, peanut said:

Burroughs has ten world-level medals, and seven world-level golds. Six golds are world golds and one gold is Olympic. 

and 2016? 2020?

[Lleynor]

Burroughs has only one Oly Medal. That hurts him, in my book. 
 

Let’s be real. It Saitiev or Medved. Saitiev is the best, by far, in the last 30 years. 

[GrandOlm]

I think Medved going 7 years unbeaten and getting the best of a rivalry with another legend (Ivanitsky) puts him at the top for me. 

[MPhillips]

14 hours ago, ionel said:

and 2016? 2020?

2016

"I left my wife at home with two kids in Nebraska for long periods of time to go to training camps and tournaments in foreign countries, but she did that joyfully, not begrudgingly, because she knew on days like these I always performed. Now I feel like I let her down and I let my family down."

2020

COVID

[mspart]

On 9/19/2025 at 6:21 PM, Lleynor said:

Burroughs has only one Oly Medal. That hurts him, in my book. 
 

Let’s be real. It Saitiev or Medved. Saitiev is the best, by far, in the last 30 years. 

Saitiev did not medal in 2000 Olys.   So what?

mspart

[mspart]

I thnk Burroughs deserves to be mentioned due to his dominance.   I don't know most of those names but have watched Saitiev and that guy was unreal.  If Medved was better, he was unrealer.  

mspart

[Scouts Honor]

um, Bruce? 

[11986]

regarding Beloglazov and Fadzaev, I think they would have been favored for additional Golds at the '84 games but of course the USSR boycotted. Fadzaev also went up a weight one year and lost in world finals to Kenny Monday, dropped back down and won worlds two more times and another Olympics. 

here's Beloglazov rag dolling Barry Davis in the world finals one year. 

 

[Scouts Honor]

wrong

Edited Wednesday at 07:44 PM by Scouts Honor
wrong

[PortaJohn]

27 minutes ago, mspart said:

I thnk Burroughs deserves to be mentioned due to his dominance.   I don't know most of those names but have watched Saitiev and that guy was unreal.  If Medved was better, he was unrealer.  

mspart

Hard to judge because of the era Medved wrestled in and after watching some of his clips I don't know if he'd even make Russias national team.  With these GOAT list I always approach it with the Babe Ruth effect. Have to judge them based on the era they wrestled in.  

[GrandOlm]

6 hours ago, Scouts Honor said:

um, Bruce? 

Why? 

He lost a lot and doesn't have the gold medals to compare to people on this list. 

[nhs67]

I went the Tank.

He would have 2-3 more were it not for hypocritical politics controlling how our sport allows (or doesn't allow) people to wrestle.

[Scouts Honor]

lets talk about the russians for a second and compare to the US

back in those days.. the russians should have dominated.

americans were lucky to spend about 1/4 of their time honing their skills

the russians.. that was their job... and it was their life if they didn't do it.

now the americans have the money and time.. but it's still not their life.

 

so as for Bruce... 13 medals? that's pretty amazing in my book.

[reversaloffortune]

John Smith is still better than Burroughs

[ionel]

On 9/24/2025 at 1:56 PM, PortaJohn said:

Hard to judge because of the era Medved wrestled in and after watching some of his clips I don't know if he'd even make Russias national team.  With these GOAT list I always approach it with the Babe Ruth effect. Have to judge them based on the era they wrestled in.  

Maybe you need to review the meaning of AT.  And for others and OP ... if you didn't gold ever time in your era them maybe you don't satisfy the AT requirement.  

Edited 17 hours ago by ionel

[mspart]

7 hours ago, reversaloffortune said:

John Smith is still better than Burroughs

I don't disagree.   Smith had quite the run. 

mspart

[mspart]

On 9/24/2025 at 12:56 PM, PortaJohn said:

Hard to judge because of the era Medved wrestled in and after watching some of his clips I don't know if he'd even make Russias national team.  With these GOAT list I always approach it with the Babe Ruth effect. Have to judge them based on the era they wrestled in.  

I feel that people with those gifts would have capitalized no matter then era.   The fact the sport wasn't as finely honed then as it is now doesn't mean Medved couldn't have excelled today with his apparent gifts and work ethic.   But in the end you do have to judge how they fared against the competition of the day they were in. 

mspart

[PortaJohn]

15 hours ago, ionel said:

Maybe you need to review the meaning of AT.  And for others and OP ... if you didn't gold ever time in your era them maybe you don't satisfy the AT requirement.  

That's fair.  But level of competition needs to be factored in.  I picked Satiev but if Medved is crowned the GOAT it's far from controversial 

 

14 hours ago, mspart said:

I feel that people with those gifts would have capitalized no matter then era.   The fact the sport wasn't as finely honed then as it is now doesn't mean Medved couldn't have excelled today with his apparent gifts and work ethic.   But in the end you do have to judge how they fared against the competition of the day they were in. 

mspart

Very true.  The Schultz brothers were some of the most gifted wrestlers ever & started in High School.  With the current state of wrestling it's fun to imagine the ceiling they could've reached.

[Booger]

Sergei Beloglazov was such a wizard at technique... also, he did go up a weight at the worlds (62Kg at the Worlds in Edmonton in'82) and won it.

His only time that he DIDN'T win the Worlds was a silver at San Diego in '79 @ his usual wt cl. of 57Kg.

There he lost the gold medal to Japan's Hideaki Tomiyama.

[fishbane]

On 9/24/2025 at 3:43 PM, 11986 said:

regarding Beloglazov and Fadzaev, I think they would have been favored for additional Golds at the '84 games but of course the USSR boycotted. Fadzaev also went up a weight one year and lost in world finals to Kenny Monday, dropped back down and won worlds two more times and another Olympics. 

They both would have been favorites to win in 1984 as they both won Worlds in 1983 and 1985 and the Friendship games in 1984.  However the 1980 boycott arguably helped Beloglazov whilst Fadzaev was not wrestling on the senior level yet.  Beloglasov lost to Tomiyama in the 1979 world final and Japan boycotted the 1980 games.  Beloglazov would win worlds in 1981 with Tomiyama finishing 3rd (I don't know if they met).  Probably sometime between worlds 1979 and 1981 Beloglazov passed Tomiyama.  If they met between worlds 1979 and the 1980 Olympics that would have determined the favorite, otherwise it would have been Tomiyama based on his win in 1979.

Both Beloglazov and Fadzaev went up in weight in the middle of their runs.  Beloglazov won worlds at 62kg in 1982 after winning the title in 1981.  Fadzaev lost in the world final to Kenny Monday at 74kg in 1989 after having won 5 titles at 68kg.  So Beloglazov successfully went up and Fadzaev did not, but if Fadzaev had stayed down he likely would have another title.  He won the next three world level titles at 68kg.

An interesting intersection of their careers happened in 1982.  This was the year Beloglazov went up to 62kg and won worlds and the year before Fadzaev won his first world title.  They were both at 62kg.  Beloglazov, 25 years old, won USSR Nationals and Fadzaev, 20 years old, finished 8th.  The next year Beloglasov went down to 57kg and Fadzaev up to 68kg where they both won worlds. 

Fadzaev retired at 30 years old which was 2 years younger than Beloglalzov. So perhaps Fadzaev left more on the table in retirement than Beloglazov.  Beloglazov failed to make a team until he was nearly 23 and retired at 32.  He would unretire for a single match with John Smith up a weight in 1989 which Smith won.  Fadzaev on the other hand made his first world team two years younger than Beloglasov.  He would unretire for the Olympics in 1996 when he was 34 years old where he failed to medal.

In domestic competition Beloglasov failed to win the USSR nationals 3 times 1983, 1985, and 1986 which did not prevent him from representing the USSR at Worlds.  He also finished 3rd behind two Soviets at the Grand Prix of Germany in 1984.  Fadzaev's only loss outside of worlds was in the Grand Prix of Germany in 1987 to another Soviet.

[11986]

@fishbane wasn't there a Canadian wrestler who beat Fadzaev once or twice? World Cup maybe?