i know jarhead follows wrestling, but do any of you guys follow judo? not to say that these competitors are future mma hopefuls, but some might pursue especially if they don't win the gold. personally, i love and follow both sports (more so than amateur boxing) and am looking forward to some of these competitors. freestyle jordan burroughs - 2011 world champion, 2009 and 2011 ncaa champion. hasn't a lost a single freestyle match since competing in the international scene after graduation jake herbert - former ncaa champ (i think year 08 and 09). lost to comebacking cael sanderson in the world team trials last year, but since cael's retirement, bounced back nicely to win the olympic trials this year. greco ellis coleman - known for the viral flying squirrels move video. only 20 years old and upended grown men en route to his olympic trials championship. also very experienced in the international scene for his age. judo kim jae bum and wang ki chun - each guy won silver at the beijing olympics and are both two time world champs representing south korea. both are favorite to win the gold in london. teddy riner (france) - 5 time world heavyweight champion. only 23 years old and virtually unbeatable. i read somewhere that he wants to compete in MMA after he wins an olympic gold. iliadis ilias - won the gold when he was a teenager in sydney. two time world champion and is probably the most dynamic/powerful throwers in the sport. looks like he could do exceptionally well in mma. probably the best grappler in all grappling sports.
Awesome thread Joony. Lets keep this updated throughout the Olympics. I am a big fan of Ellis Coleman. One of the kids on my football team is a greco stud, Clai Quintanilla(remember that name man, he's only 13, but a fucking monster) and I traveled to Reno to watch him compete in the Asics Invitational last year. Ellis was there, actually working with some of the younger kids. Great guy and I agree, so fun to watch. I can see him going towards MMA, just a great athlete. Keep me up with the Judo. I have never paid close attention to it. I don't quite understand the rules, but I enjoy watching it. I am very intrigued about Ilias.....
I follow greco-roman wrestling. For some reason it has always been a bigger sport here than freestyle even though freestyle is more popular world wide. We get to see some matches from all Olympics, world and European championships here, but not enough so that I could make proper picks in any weight division. Most impressive performance apart from prime Karelin of course, was Karam Ibrahim's march to the gold in '04 I also watch judo when it is on but I don't like it as much as wrestling
just look up ilias on youtube. he's a beast and very fun to watch. judo draws more comparison to greco than freestyle. leg attacks were barred in 2010 so guys can't immediately go for the leg like they do in freestyle, but leg trips are legal and also it's legal to grab the leg once an upper body throw has already been initiated. all matches are 5 minutes long, but it can be ended by an ippon (a throw that results in the opponent landing on his back), a pin (like wrestling, but a guy needs to be held down for 25 sec), on points (if you do a throw that results in the guy landing partially on his back or if a guy gets penalized for stalling), or judges' decision. judges decision is determined by three judges (one refereeing the bout on the mat, the other two on the corner of the mat sitting down) after it ends in over time.
Great post. I will be following both closely. It's funny, but thanks to MMA I am following both sport far more closely than I used to. I look forward to your commentary as the Olympics begin.
today's the 3rd day of judo competition. korea's wang ki chun in the 73kg weight class just outworked america's nick delpopolo (there are only three american men who qualified). if interested, semi's will be under way in a few hours. you guys should watch it on nbcolympics website
Pretty lame bronze matches in men's 73 kg. Apparently these guys defend so well that you hardly see any scoring techniques. The French guy finished #1-ranked Korean Chun in style in overtime though The final was a hard-fought battle, even though one yuko decided it. The Russian winner might do well in MMA too, he seemed quick
yea wang ki chun was favored to make it to the finals. he was upended by this russian cat who ended up winning the gold. that final second throw by the frenchman was impressive.
Korean Kim dominated the finals of 81 kg, defeating the defending Olympic champion. His record from the last eight years is 108-15 or something like that
he's a beast. arguably the best judoka in the world right now. he's won the last two world championships and pretty much all the grand slams one can think of. plus he beat the guy who beat him in beijing finals. tomorrow should be exciting w/ illadis from greece going for his second gold. he won his first when he was like 18 back in greece.
We've seen some judo guys do well in mma, but with the gi it seems like it wouldn't be too helpful in mma.
the French giant at super-heavyweight was pretty tough. Unbeaten for last two years and five-time world champ
wasn't all that impressive nor exciting to watch, but he played it safe just to win. can't blame him though.
Wrestling fans may remember Egyptian Karam Gaber (aka Karam Ebrahim) as the outstanding wrestler of 04 Olympics where he roared through 96 kg weight class, winning the finals inside distance. Now he is back at 84 kg. He struggled through the first round but there was none of the past fire and brilliance in his wrestling this time
meijin lopez of cuba won the gold again in greco heavyweight division. he won in 2008 and also has won multiple world championships. the american who did the infamous 'flying squirrel' was eliminated in the first round, but he's only like 20 years old or so and will fare much better in 2016 if he choses to.
no medals for americans thus far. dremiel byers and spencer mango were both eliminated yesterday and justin lester (66kg) is in the consolations bracket trying to earn a gold. france's steeve guenot (2008 olympic champ at 66kg) was upset via korean hyun woo kim in the semi's. greco's actually pretty fun to watch if you understand the rules.
I think it was better in the 80s and 90s when the match lasted five minutes and the more passive guy had to go to ground. I am not comfortable with the new system of two two minute periods. The even itself is fun to watch, and over here greco is more popular than freestyle
I don't know much about the sport but Ive thoroughly enjoyed watching the wrestling along in these Olympics. I enjoyed Judo, but I actually like wrestling more. Both are technical, but I just like the explosiveness and physicality involved with wrestling. I was watching some 19 year old phenom named Asparov. He pretty much threw around the 4 time world champion in his weight class. I wish I was able to follow Jordan Burroughs (sp?) more. I missed his matches but saw the highlights. He is one explosive athlete.
yea, that 19 year old beating the russian was impressive. he handled a much more experienced and elite level guy with such ease. burroughs winning was expected. his double leg takedowns are virtually unstoppable. the biggest surprise i thought was jake varner winning the gold. he won the bronze last year in the world championships, but i figured he'd lose in the quarter finals and would've been lucky to medal. good for him. he trains under cael sanderson at penn st's nittany lion club.
judo is more fun to watch from a stand up perspective because stalling prompts caution from the ref (a yellow card) followed by a point reward to your opponent after the second warning. usually after the first warning, a judoka is forced to attack so to avoid a point deduction. also, you only have a few seconds to execute your ground attack otherwise, the ref calls a halt and both judokas have to start from the stand up stance. this is where i think judo is much more fun to watch than BJJ because in BJJ, you can simply avoid takedowns by pulling guard and you can't really get called for stalling when you're working the guard or at least pretending to make something happen on the ground. greco is fun to watch because you have both guys trying to gain upper body control and trying to throw. if it's 0-0 after the 1:30 mark, then one guy gets top position trying to score points with a turn (a gut wrench for example) while the guy on bottom simply wins if he avoids a turn. freestyle is more explosive because of leg attacks. also from top position, you can turn a guy by a gut wrench or leg roll.
