Logan Stieber will take the mat this weekend for the first time as a representative for the United States in the non-Olympic weight World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Stieber has a great chance of bringing home a medal, a gold one, in fact. There are plenty of guy around the word who will pose a major threat to Stieber's podium dreams, but one in particular poses a problem both stylistically and technically.

No one will argue Stieber's success. He's wrestled at a senior level since high school and can get into a shootout with the best of them -- as seen in his win against world and Olympic champion Soslan Romonov. That said, a world team spot has always alluded him.


If you go back and look at who has beaten Stieber out for the spot, it's almost always been a bigger, more imposing athlete. In 2015, Stieber lost to Jordan Oliver in the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament at 65kg. In the interest of perspective, Oliver was in this year's World Team Trials final at 70kg. At the 2016 Olympic Team Trials, Stieber lost to eventual champion Frank Molinaro, aka GorillaHulk.

It looks as though the descent to 61kg has paid dividends for Stieber. Instead of getting pushed around the mat by larger, stronger wrestlers, Stieber has become the bully. He ran through the bracket at the Bill Farrell like a man on fire. He outscored his opponents 23-6 -- the only points that he gave up were to Minnesota's Jayson Ness. Everything is looking up LogieBear.

Enter Russia's Akhmed Chakaev.

Chakaev is a good-sized 65kg who is cutting to 61kg. He's been known to bully people at 65, and at 61, he's almost impossible to move (check out the match below where Aaron Pico gets to Chakaev's legs and thrown for four. TWICE.). Looking closely at Chakaev and Steiber, they're very similar stylistically. They both like muscle their way through bad positions, use folkstyle techniques on top to score, and keep a pace that not many can match.


When all is said and done, the U.S. has a better than average shot of leaving Budapest with two medals. While Chakaev is, by far, the biggest threat to Stieber's medal hopes, the match may come down to conditioning if you measure the two side by side. If that's the case, I'll take Stieber ALL DAY.