Wrestling Blogs - Craig Vitagliano

From the top down we'll see 2009 Golden Grand Prix champ Jamal Mirzaei taking on 2009 Pan Am champ Reneir Salas of Cuba. Also in the bracket is 74 kg 2006 World Champ and 2007 Sivler medalist Ibragim Aldatov of the Ukraine. Bottom of the top bracket will feature 2006 & 2007 World Bronze medalist Zaurbek Sokhiev of Uzbekistan and 2007 & 2008 Sivler medalist Yusup Abdusalamov of Tajikistan. No real big names at the top of the bottom bracket aside from 2009 Russian National champ Abdusalam Gadisov. Below that veteran David Bichinashvili will have USA's Jake Herbert in the… more »

Looking forward to this weight class. From the top down we'll see 2009 Euro Champ Zelimkhan Guseinov of AZE taking on Olympic Qualifier Vitaly Koryakin of Tajikistan. Should be a decent bout but Guseinov should have little trouble and make it to the semi final. The next part of the bracket will see tougher competition in 2005 55 kg World Champ Dilshod Mansurov of Uzbekistan taking the winner of a tough 1/8 bracket where we will see 2007 World Silver Anatoli Guidea wrestle Shawn Bunch first round and Cuba's Maikel Gonzales taking on 2008 Euro Silver Didier Pais of France.… more »

What a great weight class! Missing is 2008 Olympic Champion Ramazan Shahin of Turkey. Watch for Olympic Bronze medalist Sushil Kumar of India, 2009 Junior World Champ and Euro Runner-up Jabrail Hasanov, first round match up between 2007 Euro Champ Albert Batyrov of Belarus and 2007 World Silver Medalist Geandry Garzon of Cuba. Russia's Rasul Djukaev will have a tough opponent from Korea first. USA's Trent Paulson will take on veteran Leoinid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan. Olympic Silver Medalist Andrey Stadnik of Ukraine will face 2x Junior World Champ Mehdi Taghavi of Iran in the secnd round.  The winner will take… more »

Decent weight class with a much tougher lower bracket. From the top down we'll see 2008 Olympic Bronze medalist Khetag Gazyumov of Azerbaijan. He'll most likely face Euro Medalist Serhat Balci early on and then 2006 World Bronze Medalist Ruslan Sheikov of Belarus. Moving on USA's Jake Varner will have to face either 2007 World Silver Medalist Saheed Abrahimi of Iran or 2007 World Bronze Medalist Kurban Kurbanov to advance to the semi final. In the bottom bracket we'll see 3x World and 1x Olympic Champ Khadjimourad Gatsalov of Russia taking on World Champ Georgi Gogschelidze of Georgia in the… more »

The only returning Olympic Medalist is Radoslav Velikov of Bulgaria. He was the Bronze medalist in Beijing. Velikov was the World Runner up in 2005 and the World Champ in 2006. We'll also see 2007 World Bronze medalist Rizvan Gadzhiev of Belarus as well as 2007 World Silver medalist Bayaraa Naranbaatar of Mongolia. Watch for young star Kyong Il Yang of North Korea (PRK), Besarion Gochashvili of Georgia, 2008 Euro Bronze medalist Francisco Parra of Spain, as well as veteran Hyo-Sub Kim of Korea. 2009 Russian National champ Viktor Lebedev and 2009 Junior World Champ Hassan Rahimi will be competing… more »

74 kg: As I mentioned in my video preview the other night (http://www.flowrestling.org/videos/speaker/1413-craig-vitagliano/71944-74-kilo-breakdown), this is by far most stacked weight I have seen in any World or Olympics.? You'll see 7 or 8 World medalists battling it out forthe Gold medal. I'll say it again: If Ben Askren wins Gold here it will be the single greatest achievement by an American wrestler to date. Here we go: First round we will see 2003 World Silver Medalist Mourad Gaidarov of Belarus taking on Azerbaijan's Chamsulvara Chamsulvaraev, 3rd in last year's World Championships. I see this as an exciting bout. Gaidarov recently… more »

66 kg:Last year's World finalists Ramzan Shahin of Turkey and Gendry Garzon of Cuba will meet in the first round. Expect to see an exciting match here with attacks, counter-attacks, flurries and trips. Hopefully Garzon shows a little more heart than his Cuban counterpart Quintana. If he does I believe he will win this match. 2007 Junior World Champion Mehdi Taghavi will take on Canada's Veranes Garcia. Taghavi is real tough and I see him advancing.Ikematsu of Japan, 3rd at the 2003 World Championships will be taking on last year's Bronze Medalist and 2006 Silver medalist Otar Tushishvili of Georgia.… more »

Ok guys & gals, here we go. The first night of Freestyle wrestling begins this evening and the draws for 55 and 60 kg are out. There are some interesting match ups, and some matches that the world has looked forward to for quite some time. Let’s take a look and go over what we can expect to see this evening. 55 kg: Kyong Yang from North Korea is at the top of the bracket. If you recall my preview from the other night (http://www.flowrestling.org/videos/speaker/1413-craig-vitagliano/71947-55-kilo-breakdown) I said that this kid can win the entire weight. He’ll have Azerbaijan first round… more »

60 kg: ? Some very interesting match ups occurring right away. ? At the top we have both Bronze medalists from last year, Bazar Bazarguruev of Krgyzstan and Sahit Prizreni of Albania in an opening bout.? Bazarguruev had a good match with Batirov last year, as well as wins over Fedorishin of the Ukraine and Odabasi of Turkey.? Prizreni had an equally impressive run in Baku last year with wins over Mike Zadick of the USA and veteran Mourad Ramazanov of Macedonia before losing in the semi finals to Anatoli Guidea of Bulgaria.? He had a great match against He… more »