by Mike Malinconico


Sssshhhhh can you hear that? It's a faint whisper. No one really wants to say it out loud, but everyone is thinking it. The US is poised to win its first world cup in a very long time.

For those of you that are out of the international wrestling loop, the World Cup is Earth's best dual meet tournament. It sets country vs. country for world supremacy.

The US rattled off five wins in a row from 1999-2003, but haven’t really done much since. That could definitely change in 2015. The timing is right, the place is right and the team is definitely right. The 2015 World Cup will be wrestled in Inglewood, California this Saturday and Sunday (April 11 and 12), and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

USAW has made it very clear that they are serious about winning this year’s competition by compiling a team that boasts four world/Olympic Medalists - Coleman Scott (Olympic bronze), Tervel Dlagnev (two-time World bronze), Jake Varner (Olympic gold), and the incomparable Jordan Burroughs (three-time World/Olympic champion and 2014 world bronze).

While Iran are the returning World Cup champions, everyone in the world will have their eyes on a Russian team that dominated last year’s world championships. Unfortunately for wrestling fans, which is fortunate for the rest of the teams at the Cup, Russia seems to be bringing their JV. What many people in this country don’t understand is that the Russians have a VERY strict process that involves peaking for certain events like Russian Nationals and Worlds. Any event that they feel will hinder their performance at said events are deemed less consequential. Yes, even the World Cup.

So here is how it all works. Each team will wrestle every other team in their pool. The teams with the best record in their respective pools will meet up in the finals. The teams with the second best record will wrestle for third place, and so on to 7th/8th place. The US is scheduled to wrestle Cuba in the first round, Russia in the second and then Mongolia in the third.

The rest of the schedule is up here.


Pool A               
USA        
Russia   
Cuba     
Mongolia

Pool B
Iran
Turkey
Belarus
Azerbaijan


Key match ups for the US team

Session 1: USA vs CUB

The US isn’t the only team that thinks that they can win a Cup title. Cuba is coming to LA loaded with some the worlds best freestyle wrestlers, as well. This may, for a number of different reasons, be the biggest test that the US sees in pool competition. The Cuban's team consists of four world medalist from this past World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where they took 5th as a team overall. The most interesting part about their line ups is that they are strongest and most experienced in roughly the same weight classes that we are.

61Kg: Yowlys Bonne Rodriguez (2014 Bronze, currently ranked #4 by UWW) vs Coleman Scott (2012 Olympic Bronze) - More of the whispers start to appear when you start talking about Scott and his lack of international success since his break out tournament in London. Scott has yet to make another world team since. That said, what many of those whispers don’t include is the fact that he ripped his pectoral muscle clean off of his chest plate in the first round of the 2013 World Team Trials. Even though he wrestled in the 2014 Open and in the 2014 event Scott will tell you he was not 100 percent. After a full year of recovery and a warm up competition in Istanbul last month Scott is ready to make a ton of noise on the international scene this year.

74Kg: Livan López Azcuy (2014 Bronze) vs Jordan Burroughs (3X World Champion, 2014 Bronze) - Burroughs has dominated every meeting with his Cuban counterpart teching him 13-2 in the last Pan Ams, but Azcuy is scary fast and can score in bunches. This has an opportunity to be a lopsided match in either direction.

86Kg: Reineris Salas (2014 World Silver) vs Ed Ruth - This one is really interesting to me. Ruth made his first world team last year, but didn’t have the type of success at the World Championships that the his US fans thought that he might, but he’s the type of athlete that gets better every time he steps on a wrestling mat. Most people will probably know Salas from the open-handed palm strike that he hit Sadulaev with in the finals of last year’s World Championships. That slap became a popular meme in the wrestling world and made its way through social media as the "The Pimp Slap Heard Round The World." What many people do not know is that Salas is a crafty vet that can beat anyone in the world at any time. If Ruth can find a way to take it to Salas at a UWW sanctioned event, it will do a lot for his world ranking stock value.

Match Prediction: USA over Cuba 5 matches to 3 - They’re good where we’re good, but we’re better.


Session 2: USA vs RUS

Here’s the big one folks. USA vs Russia has athletic and political implications going back decades, if not centuries. With a few exceptional years by the US, Iran and Russia have dominated Freestyle world competition. Russia may not be bringing their “A” squad to the Cup this year because the event is so too close to their world team qualification tournament (Russian Nationals), but do not sell the these guys short. If Russia has proven anything over the years its that their depth is a major part of their strength.

Key Match Ups

65Kg: Akhmed Chakaev vs Brent Metcalf - I love this match up for a couple of reasons. First being Chakaev and Metcalf, who recently wrestled and beat a common opponent; Aaron Pico. That gives us a point of reference. Metcalf beat Pico by a fairly slim margin. Chakaev beat Pico at the 2015 Yarygyn by a score of 14-8 (It should have been much closer, but when you’re wrestling a Russian in Krasnoyarsk with Russian official #DemsDaBreaks). That's not the most intriguing thing to me though, it's that Chakaev has some of the most impactful leg-attack-defense in the world, particularly to his left leg, scoring twice for four points each off of Pico’s attacks. Metcalf, as most of you know, has one of the best lefty high crotches in the world. Something’s gotta give.

57Kg: Viktor Rassadin vs Tony Ramos - If you subscribe to the idea that there are two styles of Russian wrestlers then you’d probably agree that there’s the hard-hand-fighting, forward-moving, muscle-heads like Sadulaev and then there’s the ultra-slick, move-out-of-the-way, make-you-look-silly type like Viktor Lebedev. Rassadin is much closer to the latter. Ramos is a brash, young buck on the international scene with only one speed, GO! Ramos, along with Metcalf have been my favorite two Americans to watch over the past year, and this match up with Rassadin is a very interesting clash of style.

Match Prediction - USA over Russia 6 matches to 2. This matchup could very easily go 6-2 the other way, but assuming the US team is focused and healthy and nothing crazy happens, we should win this one handily.


Session 3: USA vs MGL

Wrestling the Mongolian team is a lot like picking a fight with the youngest brother in a wrestling family…… you’ll probably win, but its never an easy (or painless) endeavor. On paper we should come away with the “W”, but there is a better then good chance that the Mongolian team sends our athletes into the medal rounds with more then a few breaks, bruises, and bumps.

61Kg: Nyam-Ochir Enkhsaikhan vs Coleman Scott - This has big ranking implications for Scott. If he can find a way to get past the sturdy head/hands defense of Enkhsaikhan he can propel himself back into the world rankings and hopefully get himself a decent draw at the World Championships this year, assuming he makes the team.

65Kg: Mandakhnaran Ganzorig vs Brent Metcalf - Of all the monster match ups that should take place in LA, when Metcalf wrestles Ganzorig, much of the freestyle wrestling world will be watching. Ganzorig has proven himself as one the toughest competitors on the international circuit, earning a bronze medal in 2014. Metcalf, while controlling the spot on US soil for the better part of this Olympic cycle, has yet to break out and collect a world medal. That said, he is, without a doubt, one of the best wrestlers in the world. Ganzorig is fast, persistent, and more than anything; mean. I saw him try to head butt Frankie Gomez’s nose through the other side of his head just because Gomez seemed to be moving a little too fast outside of ties for Ganzorig’s liking. While Ramos’ match with Chakaev is likely to be a complete contrast in style, the Ganzorig/Metcalf match has all the makings of being an all-out slugfest. 

Match Prediction - USA over Mongolia 6 matches to 2 - Mongolia’s out gunned here. I have US vs Iran in the finals.


Foreign Teams to Watch

Iran: Is the returning World Cup Champions. A title that the Iranian fans (aka the best wrestling fans in the world) take VERY seriously. It looks as though the Iranians will make another trip to the finals, but standing in their way is the Azerbaijani team.

Azerbaijan: If you’re paying close attention (and I know that you are) Azerbaijan is a young, talented, wrestling-rich country that has made a mark on the international wrestling scene. The country has already won its first Greco Roman World Cup this year and hopes to add a Freestyle Cup to it’s mantle case.


Foreign Wrestlers to Watch

Togrul Asgarov (70Kg AZE): Look to see how Asgarov fairs up TWO weight classes from his Olympic title in 2012.

Hassan Rahimi (57Kg IRI): While most of the Iranian team likes to hold position with their hind-parts towards the center of the mat, Rahimi is always fun to watch lighting up the scoreboard.

Yazdani: The Iranian heavyweight with two world championships. He does nothing except win everything. Its pretty impressive to watch him manufacturer wins with little more than solid body position.