Most shocking defeats

[irani 375]

Which upsets truly shocked you? I can think of a few candidates,  but there are probably other good ones

1. 2000 olympics, Brandon Slay defeats the unbeatable Buvaisar Saitiev 
2. 1960 (yes, I am not old enough to remember, but have heard about it enough times) Douglas Blubagh defeats arguably the best wrestler of that time Habibi 

3. Taylor Pins the Olympic champion Hassan Yazdani in the world cup, and then beats him again the world championship to show that it was not a fluke 

 

4. Rasul Khadem defeats the legendary Makharbek Khadartsev in 1994 and does it again 1995 and 1996 to show that it was not a fluke 

 

5. Rulon E. Gardner defeating Russia's Aleksandr Karelin in 2000 olympics 

 

6. Hamid Sourian w in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, losing in the quarterfinals by eventual gold medalist Nazyr Mankiev of Russia (mercifully, I could not find a video)

 

 

Edited October 31 by irani

[scribe 1,653]

Gardner over Karelin 

[irani 375]

3 minutes ago, scribe said:

Gardner over Karelin 

Yes, that was my number 5

[scribe 1,653]

That’s my most shocking per the thread title. 

[Fishbane 102]

Asgarov over Kudukhov in the finals of the 2012 Olympics was pretty shocking

[The Genius 179]

Sharifov over Snyder was a hugely unexpected defeat. 

Hamid Sourian getting pinned by the Kazakh in 2016 Olympics was a heart breaker. 

[jchapman 716]

Jimmy Carter defeating Lee Kemp in 1980.

[2td3nf 457]

4 hours ago, Fishbane said:

Asgarov over Kudukhov in the finals of the 2012 Olympics was pretty shocking

IIRC, Kudukhov had a brutal half bracket before he met Asgarov in Olympic finals. Don't remember Asgarov's path on the other half bracket.

As far as the above list, I'll go with the pin by Taylor over Yazdani in Iran.

[wrestlingnerd 2,361]

I still have trouble believing Slay beat the GOAT.  That has to be the biggest shocker ever.

[wrestfan 445]

Slay-Saitiev is #1

but this is my #2, Artur Taymazov losing to Rares Chintoan (Romania) at 2005 Worlds

 

[MDogg 176]

Probably biased as an American but the top 2 seem obvious...though their order can be debated:

#1 Slay-Saitiev

#2 Gardner-Karelin 

[irani 375]

4 out of 6 were Americans, so you had 4 to pick from!

[tec87 324]

48 minutes ago, jchapman said:

Jimmy Carter defeating Lee Kemp in 1980.

Jimmy defeated a lot of big names in 1980 in wrestling. I’ve seen what had to be 100’s of names of people that lost to him that year.

[KTG119 815]

Zadick over Batirov is another one

[TBar1977 3,299]

1 hour ago, MDogg said:

Probably biased as an American but the top 2 seem obvious...though their order can be debated:

#1 Slay-Saitiev

#2 Gardner-Karelin 

This. In this order too. I would have had Rulon over Karelin as #1 if it were one cycle earlier and the Russian was 4 years younger. 

[ConnorsDad 358]

1 hour ago, wrestlingnerd said:

I still have trouble believing Slay beat the GOAT.  That has to be the biggest shocker ever.

Absolutely. Even after getting taken down, you can still see he didn't believe that Slay could do it again. Talk about overconfident. Hands down in my mind the biggest upset. Gardner over Karelin in my mind is an overrated match just because of the way it happened. It'd be a different story ifhe beat him 5-2 or something like that.

[irani 375]

So here is how I will rank the 6 and I listed

6. I will rank Gardner over Kraelin 6th.  It was towards the end of Kraelin's career, and no legitimate points were scored.

5. I will rank Khadem over Khadartsev 5th, because again it was towards the end of Khaderstev's career

4. Taylor over Yazdani is 4th, because Yazdani's credentials are nowhere near the other 5 in this list

3.  Blubagh over Habibi is 3rd because it was more like an accident.  Habibi was dominating the match and got caught

2. Sourian who was and is considered one of the GOAT is 2nd because while it was a shock, Sourian did lose again in that same Olympics and a future one

1. Slay over Satiev has to be the top.  It was a confident execution of a bold game plan against one of the GOAT, who won many medals before and after that loss

Edited November 1 by irani

[Lurker 693]

Rulon is the biggest in terms of recognition and all that surrounded it, but not as shocking as the gap had been closing.  Remember Karelin only beat Gaffari 1-0 in '96, and Rulon had been battling Ghaffari for a while, and has a world gold and another olympic medal to go with it.  Slay is the most shocking, as he virtually came out of nowhere and beat one of the GOAT in his prime.  Slay doesn't have another medal to go with that one.  Blubaugh has to be up there in terms of who he beat and how it went down.

Edited November 1 by Lurker

[Lurker 693]

And how about I thrown in Lebeedev over Mutzakaev at '16 Russian nationals.  When you absolutely, positively, without question win the match........but still lose!

[Crotalus 229]

9 hours ago, irani said:

6. I will rank Gardner over Kraelin 6th.  It was towards the end of Kraelin's career, and no legitimate points were scored.

Yeah, it was still a crazy upset (hence it being listed among the others), but the only point being scored by a broken clinch because of the ridiculous rules at the time, take away from it a bit.

[MDogg 176]

Every match mentioned so far that involves an American is one where the American scores the upset. What about when it comes to Americans being upset?

Is Burroughs getting teched by Bekzod in Rio #1? Maybe “Bekzod beats Burroughs” isn’t all that shocking or a headline in 2019, but it was back in 2016 and it was an absolute rout. I think if we’re including the degree to which Burroughs lost its #1. Burroughs got teched without getting turned or giving up a 4 pointer. Bekzod just took him down at will...3 times in the first period as I remember. It was shocking.

Edited November 1 by MDogg

[ptz305 83]

14 minutes ago, MDogg said:

Every match mentioned so far that involves an American is one where the American scores the upset. What about when it comes to Americans being upset?

Is Burroughs getting teched by Bekzod in Rio #1? Maybe “Bekzod beats Burroughs” isn’t all that shocking or a headline in 2019, but it was back in 2016 and it was an absolute rout. I think if we’re including the degree to which Burroughs lost its #1. Burroughs got teched without getting turned or giving up a 4 pointer. Bekzod just took him down at will...3 times in the first period as I remember. It was shocking.

Burroughs loss was in the wrestle backs after he had already lost. It's an upset but it isn't, because we all understand why it occurred. 

[mspart 152]

15 hours ago, jchapman said:

Jimmy Carter defeating Lee Kemp in 1980.

Yep, that was a bad one for sure.  Carter defeated lots of Olympians that year.  He was a beast!!!

mspart

[Jim L 148]

1 hour ago, MDogg said:

Every match mentioned so far that involves an American is one where the American scores the upset. What about when it comes to Americans being upset?

Is Burroughs getting teched by Bekzod in Rio #1? Maybe “Bekzod beats Burroughs” isn’t all that shocking or a headline in 2019, but it was back in 2016 and it was an absolute rout. I think if we’re including the degree to which Burroughs lost its #1. Burroughs got teched without getting turned or giving up a 4 pointer. Bekzod just took him down at will...3 times in the first period as I remember. It was shocking.

As American fans I think we are not shocked when one of top guys loses, because it is Freestyle and we have for many years, seen guys we think are unbeatable (based on their Folkstyle) lose to someone we don't know much about.  I agree that Burroughs big loss to Bekzod is a shock, but because it was a repecharge match I don't count it as much.

Although if we want to count Us v. US, Kemp over Gable has to be one of the most shocking.

[jon 128]

7 minutes ago, Jim L said:

Although if we want to count Us v. US, Kemp over Gable has to be one of the most shocking.

Backside results always a bit suspect and yes this match happens on a rather small stage but here's another U.S. v. U.S. shocker: Ness over Metcalf.