Dan Gable tribute discussion

[Ishaq]

Dan Gable receiving Presidential medal of Freedom from Trump.

 

[Kforcer]

Imagine if Uetake and Gable had wrestled each other. Both were just a weight class apart, went to college at the same time.

My high school coach, Don Behm, was probably one of the few who wrestled both of them during their collegiate careers. In both cases, he had razor close matches with them. He was the only one to takedown Uetake in his entire collegiate career and he was seeded above Gable when they wrestled and lost a very close match.

 

[rmongler]

Gable was a great competitor, but there are a lot of great competitors out there.

What made Gable an all time great, in my mind, was that he was not *just* a great competitor; more than that, he was great in leading others into becoming great competitors - that's a much more rarified field.

 

[judoka loca]

Dan Gable receiving Presidential medal of Freedom from Trump.

Pretty cool. Well deserved

 

[dsdoubled]

Imagine if Uetake and Gable had wrestled each other. Both were just a weight class apart, went to college at the same time.

My high school coach, Don Behm, was probably one of the few who wrestled both of them during their collegiate careers. In both cases, he had razor close matches with them. He was the only one to takedown Uetake in his entire collegiate career and he was seeded above Gable when they wrestled and lost a very close match.

Are you certain they never wrestled at AAU Nationals? I once read about a Japanese wrestler giving Gable all he could handle in a domestic FS match.

 

[Kforcer]

Are you certain they never wrestled at AAU Nationals? I once read about a Japanese wrestler giving Gable all he could handle in a domestic FS match.

Yep, Uetake never lost a match after high school, scholastic or otherwise. I think you are thinking of Masaaki Hatta, who was also an NCAA champion, who Gable beat in the AAU finals.

I have to imagine that a Gable-Uetake match would have been pretty huge on American soil would have been a pretty big deal; basically the two greatest legends from America's two greatest wrestling powerhouses.

 

[dsdoubled]

Yep, Uetake never lost a match after high school, scholastic or otherwise. I think you are thinking of Masaaki Hatta, who was also an NCAA champion, who Gable beat in the AAU finals.

I have to imagine that a Gable-Uetake match would have been pretty huge on American soil would have been a pretty big deal; basically the two greatest legends from America's two greatest wrestling powerhouses.

You must be right because it was actually Noriaki Kiguchi who I was thinking about. Japanese world team member who apparently wrestled in the States some. Interesting side note, Kiguchi went on to train MMA legends like Genki Sudo I in later years.

 

[Kforcer]

You must be right because it was actually Noriaki Kiguchi who I was thinking about. Japanese world team member who apparently wrestled in the States some. Interesting side note, Kiguchi went on to train MMA legends like Genki Sudo I in later years.

Oh yeah, Noriaki Kiguchi is one of the most legendary MMA trainers of all-time. Think about this; in the Pride Lightweight Grand Prix and the Heroes Light Grand Prix, the two biggest MMA tournaments in the world at the time, every single finalist was a product of Kiguchi Dojo: Gomi, Sakurai, Yamamoto and Sudo. And Kiguchi was a crucial part of early Shoot, being basically the main trainer other than Satoru Sayama himself and certainly the most successful.

I'm a huge fan of Combat Wrestling, which is Kiguchi's brain-child and so I have Kiguchi to thank for that as well.