Happy New Year everyone!Here's a great match between 2 great big guys, Bruce Baumgartner of the USA & the late Aslan Khadartsev of the Soviet Union. This is the first round of the 1989 World Championships. The two had a history, not sure what the tally is but I know that they had exchanged wins prior to this meeting. Baumgartner pinned Khadartsev in a 1987 dual in Iowa City. Khadartsev beat Baumgartner 7-4 in a preliminary bout at the 1987 World Championships.Early match shows both guys feeling each other out, looking for control ties and leg attacks. Baumgartner finally scores late off of a Khadartsev leg attack and quickly scores with a gutwrench to take the lead.Khadartsev would go on to win the Bronze medal while Baumgartner would lose in the Gold medal match to Ali Reza Soleimani of Iran.Aslan Khadartsev was the older brother of 7x World Champion Makharbek Khadartsev. Aslan was killed in a car accident around 1990.
