uncle bernard

He actually reminds me of a 97kg Andonian with his stance, unorthodox counters, and how good he is at going blast double to body lock.

The real reason the Boltukaev comparision is ludicrous is that Boltukaev had been around for a while before being incredible in the lead up to the Olympics. We had a large control group of results. Tazhudinov is a 20 year old phenom. Trust me, the Russians knew who he was. The reason we didn't is that he just started competing in the last year. I'm guessing we never saw him at age-level tournaments for one of two reasons 1) He was sitting out the waiting period after transferring to Bahrain or 2) Bahrain doesn't send guys to age-level worlds.

Chances are low and draw dependent, just like basically every contender at this weight class every year. Probably 15 guys good enough to medal.

This was definitely the ballad of the average American voter. Title: "Rich Men North of Richmond" Content: *Complains about people who are slightly poorer and fatter than he is.* Some good ideas that get muddled by the cultural politics those "Rich Men" have spent the last 50 years feeding to them to distract them from the fact they're getting their pockets picked. The "Welfare Queen" is one of the stupidest, most insidious ideas in the American public imagination.

The firing of Fitzgerald tells you how serious this is. He was basically the king of Evanston.

the government forgives loans all the time and you don't see conservatives shitting their pants over it then. in fact, that (and tax cuts for the rich and corps) are the backbone of their entire economic model. for example, rokfin had a $70k PPP loan forgiven. are you going to tell martin to pay that back to the taxpayers? have fun complaining for the next 30 years when entire generations aren't able to afford homes, kids, take care of their elderly parents, etc...

Yes, but people misunderstand who the real beneficiaries of that are. It's legacy students, who are overwhelmingly white. Sure, there might be some black students who are less qualified than some of the asian applicants rejected, but that is a small number compared to the amount of white legacy students who get in over better qualified applicants. I'm fine with a totally blind admissions process, but that has to include legacy admissions. If it doesn't, you're singling out a small number of minority students (who are still clearly brilliant btw) while ignoring the rich white kids *who are actually stealing the spots.* Plus, the idea that admissions is a purely objective process is stupid to begin with. Who's to say that a student from an impoverished background at lower quality schools (regardless of race) isn't a more impressive applicant than a student with higher grades/scores, but has had every resource and opportunity handed to them?

I believe Harvard was keeping them out because they would be overrepresented proportionally if it went solely off merit.

All the white people celebrating this are going to be pissed when they realize they're still not going to get into those schools anyway because they're not the highest performing students. This case was about discrimination against asian students. Meanwhile, you don't see the same people screaming about legacy admissions which are even more unfair than affirmative action ever was. Why? Because it benefits mostly white students.

There is a lot of revisionist history about Brands and Assad as recruits. Brands was barely a top 100 recruit. If his name wasn't Brands, he wouldn't have gotten the publicity he got as a recruit. He has far exceeded expectations. Assad ended up in the 20-30 range. He was ranked in the 80's for most of his career, but went on an absolute heater at cadet trials after his junior year and shot up to #1 in the country at his weight. He then went on to lose several times his senior year, including to a completely unranked guy. When you took in his whole body of work, he was a Max Murin tier recruit. He's really struggled with injuries at Iowa. He's had flashes of AA level production, but has never been that consistently.

We're looking at Giuliani Syndrome right here. He's doing all this work to prop up a future presidential run, but the more people hear him talk, the less they'll like him. Meatball Ron has no juice. Sad!

No actually your logic would make many basic moves illegal. There are moves that are illegal because they put wrestlers in dangerous positions that aren't defensible. Getting snapped in a front headlock position isn't one of them. You should be arguing that half nelsons are illegal. If my opponent doesn't turn - like Shilson doesn't defend herself - I will rip their arm off. That should be illegal. It's true that you rarely see something like that because it's incredibly difficult to snap someone so effectively. Mortimer is being punished for being good at the move. Here's a fact: If Shilson doesn't go out, nobody would have given that sequence a second thought, including the officials who didn't stop it until they realized she was out.

Every time a rules debate goes big on social media, I'm unfortunately reminded how ignorant the average wrestling fan is. We saw it with the cutback debate after Dapper Dan. 90% of fans don't understand the rules beyond the rudimentary basics, but speak on them as authoritative experts. Because they're defenseless in that scenario. You can't be serious. Shilson has a responsibility to protect herself and she didn't. That's not Mortimer's fault. When I snap someone or throw an underhook by, I don't do it half-speed on the off chance my opponent doesn't react and flies face first into the mat. The reality is that this was a freak accident resulting from clean technique. Shilson's concussion history is a major player here. It sucks, but it's on her. She didn't protect herself in a standard wrestling position.

you're overreacting to a coaching queue. i also hear people say "punch a crossface." i can't believe there are actual wrestling fans who thing a front headlock snap is dirty. honest question: did you actually wrestle?

this was the worst DQ i've ever seen. every coach i've ever had taught to "bounce" the opponent's head of the mat to clear elbows. in practice, this is not literal. it's a coaching queue that just means to snap and retract the elbows to clear when your opponent has to react to the snap. it is not mortimer's fault that shilson did not react and got her face bounced of the mat. there was nothing dirty there whatsoever. i saw another "headbutt" DQ that was just as bad at the same tournament. nothing more than sexism/treating women wrestler's like they're children made of glass. zero percent chance a men's match is officiated this way. https://twitter.com/MrPatMineo/status/1647356658887057412?s=20

So many people bending over backwards to not understand a very easy to understand thing.

His comments on his health were a great balance of candid and respectful to his opponents. He hated seeing people credit his loss to him being hurt instead of Ramos wrestling a great match. Pointed out he won on two torn ACL's and had already beaten Ramos before. He just got beat. Then he also admitted that he isn't healthy, he can't do everything he wants to do to be ready, and that is going to be the battle moving forward in his career. I think the freestyle schedule is going to be a lot easier for him to manage since he can't train like a normal 24 year old. Also some very interesting, and not surprising comments, on the unprecedented pressure he's been under. When he *only* beats a top 10 guy by 8 points people freak out that something is wrong. No other wrestler in recent memory, or ever, has had to deal with that kind of scrutiny and it was clearly hard to deal with.

He's bigger than you think. Walks around at 150 now.

i don't think there's any point where he's both close enough and not on top of murin

his back isn't close enough to the mat

Fwiw, a couple of the usual insiders on HR are also saying he's dealing with another serious injury. They are often smug and annoying, but their info is usually solid. Idk about hurting it this tournament though. About a month ago, Pat Mineo tweeted that he had reinjured himself in practice. This was right after he had pinned a bunch of top guys in a row. He started wearing a second knee sleeve and his performance was definitely shakier after that. I can't help but wonder what happens if Terry doesn't make him go under Noto. We saw this exact thing with Gilman of all people. He got turned by Picc in the quarters. In the semis against Cruz, he wrestled extremely tight and conservative and lost. Same with Spencer. He looked very uncomfortable all match out there. He just wanted to survive.

this feels like a match where one guy is wrestling a better version of himself and it ends up being one sided. that's what we saw the first time.

I believe this was allowed because they changed the rule following the Suriano fiasco. Cael knew Suriano was not wrestling, but he wanted to keep Picc in Gilman's quarter so he left him in until it was too late.

This should ease your concern