Kyle Snyder lost to a Dagestani in the Semi-Finals

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Khabib did sambo and gsp trained wrestling specifically for mma, neither of them competed in international competition or even in local tournaments as far as is reported

I don't think that this is entirely accurate.

Khabib did both sambo and judo but I think that his dominant grappling style is clearly wrestling. He certainly didn't get his style from sambo nor judo. And since we know he never trained folkstyle, then his wrestling must be freestyle, no? I mean purely by elimination. That is without even mentioning that he picked up his wrestling in Dagestan, which is totally freestyle, as much as I am aware.

Now on GSP: it is well documented that GSP learned pure wrestling at a pure wrestling club. When he started wrestling he was still a nobody and nobody knew wtf MMA was. Folkstyle wrestling does not exist in Montréal, so I disagree: GSP does have a pure freestyle background. Of course he adapted it to MMA but it was freestyle and nothing else. Want to know more? The club he trained wrestling at is run by some former Soviet dude with high credentials. So can you really imagine a teen GSP going to some former-Soviet-run wrestling club and telling them to teach him MMA-oriented wrestling? In fucking 1998 or something like that? I don't think so.

Oh and just to conclude and for the record: I think that both freestyle and folfstyle wrestling are great and have no skin in the debate as i am a shitty judoka pushing 40 and don't give shit. So I am no hater of either style and don't even have an opinion.

 

[PointyShinyBurn]

Khabib did sambo and gsp trained wrestling specifically for mma, neither of them competed in international competition or even in local tournaments as far as is reported

I know a guy who used to train with GSP, he competed quite a bit. He continued training in straight freestyle throughout his career (https://montrealgazette.com/sports/gsps-wrestling-roots-helped-lay-foundation-for-stardom)

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

Kinda expected Burroughs to take his L. Snyder losing before the finals shocked me. Really thought he'd at least get silver.

Something is up with the water in Dagestan

 

[HunterAcosta]

I had a gut feeling one of them wouldn’t make the final. We all wanted it too bad ;_;

I don’t get why so many people are shitting on US wrestlers. 3 women took gold, Burroughs bronze, Cox gold, Dake is wrestling for gold tomorrow, Graff and Snyder still have shots at bronze. Please recall as well collegiate/folkstyle != freestyle. Russia is tremendous of course, but imagine if they all spent 22 years wrestling freestyle and suddenly had to switch their primary focus to collegiate? You think they’d just be able to pop right back up like it’s nothing with someone like Kyle Snyder on top of them? Probably not. D1 wrestling isn’t overrated, your understanding of international wrestling is overrated.

You guys should be ashamed of yourselves for bringing that toxic “GOAT or can” mentality into the grappling forum. Leave that shit in the heavies.

This . Different rule set . Rules make all the difference in any combat sport . Put habib in the World Judo championships and watch him get worked . Put a top Dagestani In the mundials with a gi and watch em lose.

 

[HunterAcosta]

I think Khabib training with high level folk style wrestlers like Cain and DC ( yes I know DC is also freestyle but he got second in NCAA Natl Championships only losing to one of the GOAT , Cael Sanderson ) influenced him a lot too at AKA.

 

[Gabicho]

The USA didn't get a bad result.
I think the USA and Russia in their "superpower role", believe anything but gold is a failure.
Truth is, losing in the top 8 is not "bad". It's not great. Good medal is perfect. In sports, losing is just one of the probable outcomes.
What US wrestling should worry about, is that if his current roster is not winning, they don't seem to have much of a backup plan. The B or reserve team is weak by international standards. Most of the former Soviet Republics and to a lesser extent, Cuba have at least 3 competitive teams. They seed then out since they are kids. And even in the junior and cadet categories they have a few rosters of teams.
As mentioned plenty in this thread, the weakness of the USA is that it has no freestyle or greco base. Hence the weakness of the B team and non existant C team (competitively speaking) . Folkstyle is amazing, but it's not freestyle.
Some of the NCAA kids who demolish their opponents are better off financially doing something else later or just don't have a style to translate to in Olympic wrestling.
A very simple plan that would push the US all the way up again, would be to have national Olympics where Folkstyle is part of it as a guest national sport. And all wrestlers have to compete in folk one day, and Olympic the next.
Just like they did back in the day with greco or Sambo. They "forced" people to compete in them from a young age as to make a base and people would start to love it.
Will never happen in the US, though. Too much politics and business involved.