Cradle1

Throw in ringer, who damn well could be a world champ by then. Now imagine that Dake decides to go 189... could be four world champs in one weight. Plus zahid, hall, and Nickal.

Presumably it means winning a world title without giving up a single point?

Thinking he’s a little long in the tooth these days for international wrestling. I recall when I am very young upstart named Logan Stieber upset a veteran Opan Sat and Logan is retired now so....

Two months is a lifetime when coming back from injury, in terms of whether he will be in peak form.

Great summary, I’d also throw in better rules as a factor. Our guys always sucked at the clinches and in my opinion tended not to be very strong on the strategic aspects best of three period system. I also feel like the two point take down and push out tends to favor Americans. One famous example might be when Terry brands lost to Dabir. Brands wins that match with today’s scoring in place.

Ironically enough, water polo is one of the most brutal and difficult sports.

I understand that passions run high sometimes but you might want to switch to decaf

An un-scored upon defending champ who teched his way into the finals.

I think it’s all sort of speculation. I mean, how does being approximately #15 in the nation Wrestling up two weight classes compare to being 4th at your true weight? No idea.

Well it’s all subjective, weighing coaching vs wrestling. Taylor beat Logan Which Has to count for something, won Ironman four times (first ever) reached the ncaa finals four times and was voted best wrestler in the world a year ago, he Certainly had a better international career then Logan had in my opinion. I know lee kemp has more hardware, but Google his record, he never dominated the way Taylor did and you could argue that in some ways he was never the consistent winner either. He took more losses, that’s a fact.

Lee Kemp, David Taylor, Logan Stieber, and either Douglas or Milkovich for the final spot.

Olympic redshirts....

Solid point. Actually Molinaro was either the 8 or 9 seed. Hope you’re wrong about DT though! Has it ever been stated what his actual injury is?

Is it possible that Zahid is a bit more realistic about his Olympic chances this time around, especially given that he just got demolished by ringer, who will be in his weight class again when he moves up 15 pounds to take on the world champion who also demolished him in their last meeting? Either way I suppose 184 makes sense.

I'll backpedal from saying that in light of looking at it more, but still think Downey has a decent chance despite his lack of track record. Let's look at 2019 Euros:First round, Makoev loses to the Georgian. Georgian is then eliminated the next round by Myles Amine of Michigan- a very tough NCAA Competitor at 174 lbs, but without much of a freestyle track record at 189 (or any other weight). Presumably Downey beats Amine in freestyle. 2018 Euros- Makoev shut out 4-0 first round and eliminated. Tough opponent in fairness. 2017 Euros- Makoev goes 0-2 at Euros. Are we sensing a theme here yet? lol. Again a pretty tough draw to be fair. 2018 Worlds- 1-2, eliminated by Korean in the repechage. You make solid points on his recent placements.... that said high places are international events aren't as impressive as they sound sometimes, as the depth at events other than Yarygin seems to vary wildly from year to year and weight to weight (not gonna google each of these lol). I actually googled Makoev after he beat J'Den because I thought it was a one in a million upset and all I could find was results of him losing, but apparently he's stepped it up since then. As I recall, the list of Americans to beat Mokaev includes Kyle Dake, Nick Marable, Moza Fay, David Taylor, and Richard Perry if memory serves me correctly.