Coach Mike R
UFC 179: Factgrinder Guide to the Wrestling Careers of All the Fighters on the Card
Bloody Elbow provides this Factgrinder Guide as a means for you, the reader, to access a single hub that leads to individual Factgrinders, which provide the wrestling accomplishments for the fighters on a particular card. UFC 179 features four fighters with significant wrestling backgrounds: Chad Mendes, Phil Davis, Darren Elkins and Scott Jorgensen. Bloody Elbow […]
Why Phil Davis isn’t a more effective MMA wrestler
After tepid performances against Rashad Evans and Anthony Johnson, fight fans have openly wondered why a four-time NCAA Division I wrestling All American and champion doesn’t make better use of his wrestling against opponents with less heralded wrestling backgrounds. The truth of the matter is that Davis was, and is, a fantastic wrestler, every bit as […]
Bloody Elbow’s dirty dozen college wrestling rankings: #6 Mizzou
The University of Missouri is one of college wrestling’s best stories. When head coach Brian Smith took over the program in 1998, the Tigers had never even produced a Big 12 champion (keep in mind that by the time the Big 8 became the Big 12, only five member schools fielded wrestling teams). Since Smith […]
Bloody Elbow’s dirty dozen college wrestling rankings: #7 Virginia Tech
Last season, at the NCAA tournament, Virginia Tech wrestling, led by head coach Kevin Dresser, turned the corner in their quest to become an elite NCAA wrestling team with staying power (and they did it primarily with products from the Commonwealth of Virginia). Dresser has developed a culture at Virginia Tech which produces wrestlers built […]
Inspiring video on blind wrestler Max Lamm
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The wrestling season is upon us (scholastically, in the USA). Soon, athletes from coast to coast will take the mats to test their mettle in the world’s oldest and greatest sport. Wrestling is great for many reasons, including the opportunities it provides competitors with disabilities. In recent […]
Iranian wrestling world champion Aliakbari training for MMA career at AKA Thailand
People keep asking me, “Hey Coach, when are we going to see more Russian and Iranian wrestling stars going to do MMA?” I now have an answer: when more of these Russians and Iranians get lifetime bans for doping, we will see more of them in prize fights. Iran’s Amir Aliakbari, has placed first at […]
Bloody Elbow’s dirty dozen college wrestling rankings: #8 Penn State
The prediction of four-time defending national champion Penn State finishing 8th at the 2015 NCAA tournament is largely influenced by various whispers about who won’t be in PSU’s lineup. These whispers still swirl in wrestling’s rumor mill, unsettled by substantiation or refutation. One thing you learn following college wrestling long enough is that where there’s […]
Bloody Elbow’s dirty dozen college wrestling rankings: #9 Oklahoma State
I’m not quite sure what to make of Oklahoma State’s wrestling team this year. The most decorated program in wrestling history enters the 2014-2015 season with more questions than answers. I look at their roster and wonder to myself… How will defending national champ Alex Dieringer do up a weight at 165? What about super […]
Wrestler pairings set for November’s NWCA All Star Classic
The University of Pennsylvania host this year’s NWCA All Star Classic, the nation’s premier early season wrestling event. For the third straight year, Wrestlers in Business Network (WIBN) will run the Classic at the behest of the NWCA, and for the third straight year, I would expect the event to be pretty successful. The last […]
Bloody Elbow’s dirty dozen college wrestling rankings: #10 Nebraska
This past off season the University of Nebraska wrestling team and head coach Mark Manning suffered a major setback with the departure of ace assistant coach Tony Ersland, who became the head coach at Purdue. I guess Manning had trouble finding a new assistant who was any good, so he scraped the bottom of the […]
‘Foxcatcher’ comes to theaters in one month, new trailer released
The film Foxcatcher comes out later this month, and could possibly place the sport of Olympic wrestling into the spotlight of American pop culture in ways previously unimagined. Fellow wrestling writer Mark Palmer of Examiner.com has provided extensive coverage on the entire production of Foxcatcher, throughout its prolonged production The movie, which tells the story of […]
Bloody Elbow’s dirty dozen college wrestling rankings: #11 Iowa State
This is a pivotal year for the Iowa State Cyclones head coach Kevin Jackson. Jackson has assembled a talented lineup filled with wrestlers who could make deep runs in the NCAA tournament, as well as an excellent coaching staff. However, come time for nationals, if the Cyclones fail to deliver on their potential, I would […]
Beautiful Highlight Video from the 2014 UWW Wrestling World Championships
United World Wrestling’s highlight video for its 2014 World Championships in freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling is simply gorgeous. I don’t know any other way to describe it. See for yourself. Frankly, I’m not entirely comfortable calling it a mere highlight video. While most wrestling highlight videos have entertainment value, they are usually sloppy things […]
Bloody Elbow’s dirty dozen college wrestling rankings: #12 Northwestern
In this brave new world of extreme parity in college wrestling, the difference between 20th and 5th place in the nation may only be a dozen or so team points. Last year, the top two teams at the NCAA tournament finished with over 100 points, and any score over 50 points would earn a team […]
Bloody Elbow’s dirty dozen college wrestling rankings: Primer and predicitions
On the NCAA Division I level, wrestling practice has officially started. All these teams have been working out six days a week, sometimes more than once a day, for more than a month now, but now they will have full length, full contact wrestling practices every day in their respective wrestling rooms. This means that […]
UFC 178 Judo Chop: Dominick Cruz’s double leg from the heavens
One of the first posts I ever wrote for Bloody Elbow discussed the specific components of the sport of wrestling actually mattered for preparing a combat athlete to take his opponent down in a mixed martial arts bout. The post identifies three parts to most wrestling shot-based takedowns: the set-up, the shot itself and the […]
The 20 greatest wrestling matches between future MMA stars: Complete ranking
It’s over. I have completed my rankings of the 20 greatest wrestling matches between future MMA stars. This project took on a life of its own, ballooning beyond its planned size to the point of overwhelming the author. In the beginning, I intended to catalog this ranking in a maximum of four posts, but through […]
The Blackzilian’s hire another college mat legend as new wrestling coach
The Blackzilians have a new wrestling coach. Filling the position after the departure of wrestling legend Kenny Monday, Greg Jones now provides wrestling instruction to the Florida-based fight team. In Countdown to UFC 178, Eddie Avarez, who fights Donald Cerrone at UFC 178, praises the new coach. At about 1:55 into the video, Alvarez describes […]
The 20 greatest wrestling matches between future wrestling stars: Bonus edition-Lindland vs Henderson
Dan Henderson and Matt Lindland picked a strange object of their athletic devotions. I’m not talking about MMA, I’m speaking of the almost universally misunderstood sport of Greco-Roman wrestling I can’t prove it with numbers or any other reliable evidence, but my experiences tell me that the vast number of Americans are totally ignorant of […]
The 20 greatest wrestling matches between future MMA stars: #1-Kerr vs. Couture
One glance at the photo of Randy Couture and Mark Coleman wrestling in the 1992 NCAA Finals inspired this entire rankings. Photos like this give us a quick peek into a tiny slice of the past, and looking back into the past of famous mixed martial artists is fascinating. In this particular look back, we […]
The 20 greatest wrestling matches between future MMA stars: #2- Cormier vs. Lawal
The 2007 World Team Trials final wrestle off between Daniel Cormier and Muhammed Lawal at 96 kg makes a serious case for the number-one entry in this ranking. The yet-to-be mentioned final installment of this series features an NCAA finals match, and wrestle offs for the World Team possess substantially more gravity than mere collegiate […]
Alleged ‘Mafia Chieftain’ hosted the 2014 UWW World Wrestling Championships
Last week, Salim Abduvaliyev, the president of Uzbekistan’s Wrestling Association, welcomed the best wrestlers on the globe to his home country as the 2014 United World Wrestling (formerly FILA) World Championships took place in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent. In a letter attached to the front of the event’s program, Abduvaliyev graciously thanked competitors for […]
The 2014 UWW World Wrestling Championships: American performance reviewed.
The USA Freestyle wrestling team entered the 2014 United World Wrestling World Championships with high hopes, and left with disappointment. In freestyle competition, the USA only notched two top-five finishers, no finalists and a ninth-place team result. This year’s squad featured more talent and experience than the 2013 World Championship team which finished just a […]
2014 World Wrestling Championships Day 2 results: American superstar Jordan Burroughs falls
On the final day of freestyle competition at the 2014 UWW World Wrestling Championships, American 74 kg megastar lost to international competition for the first time on the Senior level. In the semifinals, Burroughs, a 2012 Olympic champion, fell to Russia’s Denis Tsargush, who Burroughs has beaten in their only two previous meetings. To the […]
UWW World Wrestling Championships live video stream: Day 1 freestyle medal matches
Today, is the first day of United World Wrestling’s World Wrestling Championships, and Bloody Elbow presents live video of the action. Today’s action feature four weights of men’s freestyle competition: The 57 kg weight class, including Tony Ramos of the United States The 70 kg weight class, including Nick Marable of the United States The […]
2014 Wrestling World Championships results day 1: Undefeated MMA prospect Abdurakhmenov wins bronze
The older I get, the more I realize how little I know about wrestling. When undefeated blue-chip MMA prospect Bekzod Abdurakhmenov won a bronze medal at 70 kg in freestyle at the 2014 Wrestling World Championships, he showed that I actually might know nothing. If one of my kids approached me and told me that […]
A thorough guide to the 2014 World Freestyle Wrestling Championships: 125 kg
True legends are rare. One of freestyle wrestling’s true, honest-to-goodness, dyed-in-the-wool legends will compete tomorrow (September 8, 2014) to win the 125 kg title of the United World Wrestling (formerly FILA) Freestyle Wrestling Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Russia’s Khajimurad Gatsalov won an Olympic gold medal in 2004 (defeating Daniel Cormier in the semis). On top […]
A thorough guide to the 2014 Freestyle Wrestling World Championships: 86 kg
The mighty Russians haven’t had a world or Olympic finalist in this weight range since 2006. For a country that once simultaneously boasted three eventual or past world champions at 84 kg in the early 2000s (A. Saitiev, Sajidov and Gatsalov) eight years without a gold or silver is an eternity. The drought should end […]
A thorough guide to the 2014 Freestyle Wrestling World Championships: 74 kg
After Bouvaisar Saitiev, the greatest wrestler to ever live, retired following his third Olympic gold medal in 2008, Denis Tsargush rose to take Saitiev’s spot in the Russian freestyle wrestling team lineup at 74 kg. The early returns suggested that the Russian’s would not miss a beat with Tsargush in command, as the young Abkhazian* […]
A thorough guide to the 2014 Freestyle World Wrestling Championships: 65 and 70 kg
The 65 kg weight class at the 2014 Freestyle Wrestling World Championships will feature neither the defending Olympic champion, nor four of the past five world champions. (To list notable absences: Japan’s Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu, Cuba’s Livan Lopez, India’s Sushil Kumar and Iran’s Mehdi Taghavi) The only world titlist in attendance will be Armenia’s David Safaryan, […]