There were two matches at last weekend's U.S. Open that had a lot of buzz around the hands to the face rule.

Jordan Oliver vs. Zain Retherford and Jordan Burroughs vs. Kyle Dake.

The UWW rule book rulebook says, "Wrestlers are forbidden to: touch his face between the eyebrows and the line of the mouth."

Retherford wrestled Oliver in the semifinals at 65kg and definitely had his hands between the eyebrows and mouth of Oliver multiple times during their match. After an offense in the second period, Retherford was hit for a caution, and, per the rule, two points were awarded to Oliver, who went on to earn two more points on a correct throw call and won the match.

In the 74kg final between Burroughs and Dake, Burroughs certainly had his hands between the eyebrows and mouth of Dake on multiple occasions as well. Burroughs was never hit with a caution for the offense and ended up winning the match.

We have gone through both matches and put together a clip for each one that shows each time Retherford or Burroughs put his hands on his opponent's face. Please note that not every touch to the face/head shown lands between the eyebrows and line of the mouth. Many of the head taps by both wrestlers seem to be OK. Some are in a grey area where at least the palm of the hand drapes down over the eyebrow, and some of them are straight face mushes.





Retherford tapped Oliver on the head with more frequency than Burroughs did to Dake, though some of Burroughs' were with more force.

So what do we make of this?

While the rules say a wrestler can't touch between the eyebrows and mouth, it's clear that one violation will not cost you a caution and two points. Repeated touching of the face will get a warning first and then the caution.

Retherford was warned 42 seconds into the match and then penalized halfway through the second. Burroughs was never warned.

Repeatedly touching the face is more normal for Retherford, since he's coming from the NCAA season in which there is not as much emphasis on keeping hands out of the face. Even after he was hit with a caution, Zain popped JO in the face again, and it looked like Retherford was muttering to himself to keep his hands down as it is natural for him to go to the face. That happens at about the 0:56 mark in the video above.

It seemed more like a match tactic for Burroughs against Dake.

Should Burroughs have been warned to keep his hands out of Dake's face? Yes, I think so.

I also think if Burroughs had been warned, he probably would have changed his approach so that he didn't get hit with a caution and two. But he was never warned, so you can't blame him for keeping his strategy.

Might there have been a bit of favoritism since Burroughs is who he is? Quite possibly. What it looked like to me was the old saying: To beat the champ, you have to knock him out.

What do you think? How do you feel about these two scenarios and how they were called?

I absolutely cannot wait to see how things play out at the World Team Trials in Lincoln, NE, on June 9-10. All of the action will be streaming LIVE on FloWrestling.

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