at 61 Magomedov is definitely the favorite as returning champ, his finals match should be real good though. Abdullayev is the kid who was beating Lilledahl at U20 worlds 9-5 with 20 seconds left last year before LL came back with the fall with 8 seconds left to seal itBouzakis is out. Kid who beat him got teched in the quarters
Nick Lee was fairly sloppy and go go go his first few years. He seemed to find a nice balance..You can do both. And he will. Look at JB, DT. Being more disciplined with his head is going to make him jump levels. Think about it like this - he can't get to a guys legs unless his head is lower anyway. So it's the same discipline.
It's not an either/or question. He lost the same way to Carr and almost lost to Hamiti, two excellent counter guys. Go Go Go is not always a wise strategy, and can be successfully defended. I love MM but there is always going to be one of those guys where his style doesn't work well against. That's when he needs to be satisfied with winning 5-0. Like Levi and Carter. So 95% of the time you'll see the MM you love, but 5% of the time he may need to dial back a little.Sure he can be more defensive but who the hell wants that? I love his style and hope he don’t change a thing.
I’d rather see a guy lose and entertain every match than win a 3-2 snooze fest
Yes, and the whole idea that he must sacrifice scoring in order to clean up his defense is a classic false choice. He can do both.This was my main takeaway, The first three takedowns for Taki were directly off a whistle restart where he got right in on MM's legs. That was the same way Carr got his first takedown against MM to start the NCAA Finals match. He is way too open off of whistle restarts and since he is so used to guys running away from him when someone actually handfights and takes a shot off the whistle they get in really deep
Mark Johnson, NCAA runner-up to Iowa's Chris Campbell in 1970s and later Illinois' head coach, would start every match the same exact way. Shake hands, and on the whistle stand there, do a loose little 2 step jig and then he would wrestle. He was wrestling a Russian in international competition and on the whistle the Russian blast doubled Johnson to his back and a fall.This was my main takeaway, The first three takedowns for Taki were directly off a whistle restart where he got right in on MM's legs. That was the same way Carr got his first takedown against MM to start the NCAA Finals match. He is way too open off of whistle restarts and since he is so used to guys running away from him when someone actually handfights and takes a shot off the whistle they get in really deep