boconnell

I would. I honestly think it's him or Blaze and it's near 50/50. I give Forest a slight edge over Blaze because I think his frame is bigger and will fill the weight better in 2 years. I think those two are a cut above everyone else.

But the restrictive government isn't new. It was always restrictive and always had wrestlers under their thumb and they still were very good. Something else changed. I also don't think it's just MMA. Aside from Romero going MMA after his wrestling career, I'm not seeing a bunch of Cubans pop up in MMA. Their slide as a FS power is deeper than MMA.

I think the new guys were far better than expected. 1st time reps 61 Jax was 5th and was close to both guys who beat him 65 Woods bronze 70 Duke 1-1. Loss to a multi-champ who didn't pull him in 74 Carr 5th with 2 super close losses to top 3 guys 79 Haines silver 92 Hidlay gold 125 Hendrickson was the only real disappointment of the 1st timers I don't think any nation could send 7 first time reps and perform like we did. The depth is seriously like 10Xs what it was 20 years ago. And the number of young guys who can compete on the world stage is staggering. Combine this with us being fantastic at u17 and u20, and I don't see how you could argue against a new golden age starting up.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Lihledahl catch Lee in the next 2 years. It's hard to keep pushing yourself and working against a failing body when you didn't win a medal. I think Forest has plenty of frame to mature into 65. I think he's at least 50% to be the rep. I think Carr and Messenbrink are pretty even and Duke is a wildcard. If Hidlay can effectively make 86 he seems like a nightmare matchup for Zahid. I don't see anyone that close to Snyder. Who knows at 125.

I agree. I think Snyder will be closer to what he is today in 2 years than Zahid will. Zahid is a guy who works off athleticism and he may not have peak athleticism much longer. Snyder seems like he'll be at least 95% of Snyder if he is healthy. Honestly I bet Varner could be like 80% of Varner today at 40 years old. That's just the nature of 97/125.

He scored a few points and the other guy scored a lot of points.

I am sure he eventually will. But right now his improvement curve is fantastic. Wrestling with guys like Bassett seems to be working really well. The video of those two play wrestling is awesome. I get the idea that he should move on. There is wisdom to that. I just think it's easy to ignore how well it's working right now when you say that.

How has his improvement been lately while wrestling with high schoolers? Has he been benefitting or has he been hurt by his lack of training partners?

I don't have a take. Takes are opinions. I don't have one here. Saying the score was the score is not a take. Saying the score wasn't the actual score isn't a take. You can value offense more than counter offense. That's a take. You can't say the actual score was 20-3. That's not a take. It's simply wrong and has been the whole time.

You can disagree all you want. It still doesn't change the actual scores. Hidlay was awesome. He was the obvious aggressor. I'd pick him by a wider margin in a rematch.

I don't think he has a shot at 86. Valencia is obviously too big for him. A year from now while sitting out until the finals that won't change.

You can go rescore the entire world championships for all the wrestlers based on who initiated action. That still won't change the score of any match. The actual score is not who initiated. The actual score is who scored.

You need to look at what fact means. He won on a score in the last 30 seconds. It was an incredible win. He's an incredible champion. You don't have to make stuff up to improve on what happened because what happened was incredible.

Do they score actual offensive points different than points?

u17 and u20 are developmental tournaments. The whole purpose of those tournaments is to prepare for Worlds. They won the tournament that those tournaments are preparing for. They are very happy and what happened at u17s doesn't take away from today even a tiny bit for them.

I'm sure they are okay with the way the 3 tournaments played out.

You're just making stuff up. It had nothing to do with wrestling IQ. Nothing in that match has anything to do with IQ or wrestling smart.

What are you watching? He did circle in. He was pointed towards the center with a front headlock and got cross dragged and pushed out. He did what he was supposed to and got beat by a wrestling move. He needs to wrestle better to win there. It has nothing to do with wrestling IQ.

Yep. I think it was 2 but you don't challenge that. If you lose the challenge you are behind. Just not worth it risk/reward.

What was low IQ about it? He just got beat.

Wow. Such a tough loss.

I'll take the 18 year old improving at an incredible rate to beat the guy he already beat twice.

I like that they tried one nostril and got no blood so they switched to the other one.

Classic.

What's the history with Snyder and Azarpira?