PennStateFor10Straight

Very interesting. Because I think Ono would pretty comfortably beat Blaze.

It was just a dumb strategy for Blaze. He was never going to beat Seidel in rideouts. Seidel is IMO the best in the sport at riding & Blaze is maybe average? He would’ve been much better off with an additional 2:00 to push the pace. He had a better chance of scoring a point from Seidel getting hit stalling than he did escaping. I don’t need to see Ono in a folk style match. I’ve seen how quick he is and how great he is at finishing. That doesn’t change. I’ve seen him dominate senior level freestyle. You saw the same stuff from Messenbrink when he was an under the radar transfer from Cal Baptist. i’ll concede, maybe Ono will be poor on bottom. Good freaking luck neutralizing him on his feet for 5:00 or 7:00 to where that matters.

I feel like you ignored most (all?) of my post just to make your point lol. Blaze has had no offense all year against the top 133s. He has incredible defense. He has good counters. But the ability to get in on shots has been virtually non-existent and the ability to finish shots has been totally non-existent. if that’s who you are, then yeah, you’re prone to being ridden out (side note: I told my buddy “dumb decision” when Blaze chose bottom. I knew he wasn’t getting out. Seidel is the biggest hammer on top in the sport this season). Does anything you’ve seen from Ono suggest he’s going to struggle similarly to get to his offense? If he does, I’d be surprised. I think Ono offensively is like Messenbrink level. You could ragdoll ride Messenbrink for 2:00 and still lose 12-6 because of what took place in the other 5:00.

I think someone with Ono’s skill-set, athleticism and build has the potential to be exceptional on bottom. All he’s lacking is experience. A year in that Penn State room is worth 5-6 years in a high school program. But setting that aside for a moment, when is the last time a top 5 wrestler at any non-285 weight class (let alone a lower weight class like 133 or 141) has lost purely because they weren’t good on bottom? I guess you could argue Marcus Blaze in his last 2 against Davino, but I’d blame Blaze’s inability to get to his offense rather than his being slightly less proficient in rideouts. The 3 point TD has kind of removed the need to be great on bottom. Ono gets a minimum of 5 minutes per match on his feet. If he’s so bad on bottom that he’d choose neutral, you can make that 7 minutes. If someone can withstand his offense for 7 minutes without giving up a TD or stall(s), then good on them. I don’t see many (anyone?) doing that.