Craig Vitagliano » Mehmet Ozal v. Karam Gaber, 2002 World Championships

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Mehmet Ozal v. Karam Gaber, 2002 World Championships 6236 views

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Uploaded by Craig Vitagliano | October 1, 2009

Gold medal match at the 2002 World Championships between Turkey's Mehmet ozal and Egypt's Karam Gaber.

Speakers: Craig Vitagliano

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23 comments

Anonymous Coward 4 months ago

a good greco match?

AJT 3 years ago

Wow! Just two young bulls going at it!

cgilman 4 years ago

Craig, do you have any Filiberto Ascuy matches? He was amazing, and he totally destroyed the guy in the 2000 Olympic Finals.

coach crusher CKWC 4 years ago

this is one of the greatest international matches i've ever seen in my life. Great on there feet. Amazing at turning and defense is mind boggeling! Wrestling nowadays can't even be like this. It seems the refs let the turning go on longer back with during htis match; three short periods really changes things up. It seems to me less big throws nowadays.

Though maybe these guys really seem to work turns more.
Though if i look at this match, maybe they REALLY worked there turns always. The win was sealed with that defense move to his reverse lift.
what does the flowrestling community think?
-cory

arm-spin 4 years ago

I think Gaber was just as dominant in the 2002 and 2003 worlds- until he lost in the finals. Got lit up this time, and completely shut down in 2003. Youtube comments state that he lost that one on purpose too. It seems that any time a good wrestler loses these days, people accuse them of throwing the match... either people just like ot throw accusations around on the internet, or FILA seriously needs to do some investigating into the sport.

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZiRyjL6o5Y&feature=PlayList&p=7164C43BF3BBCD41&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=12) (2003 match)

Ankle Picker 4 years ago

I don't think that match looked fishy. No way you would put up 5 to start the match if you intended on losing. What looks more fishy to me was Gaber's run at the Olympics. I hate to say it but it looked like a steroid type performance. Of course I could be totally wrong and if so I apologize, it's just the culture we live in makes me know it's certainly not out of the realm of possibilities.

4 years ago

how bout khadem vs khadartsev 96 olympics next

matt 4 years ago

holy crap that was good. i was like "oh crap. greco" but then started watching and . . . . (sorry greco dudes).

Haywood Jablomi 4 years ago

Greco is the toughest style

arm-spin 4 years ago

Agreed TJX, as a the only times I've ever been afraid in wrestling is going up against an accomplished greco athlete. Getting lifted and thrown sucks.

TJ X 4 years ago

I once did Greco Roma wrestling many years ago with some coach from the Romanian world team at the time and after he told his prized pupil, "Marty, throw him (me) 250 times onto that "soft" mat" I decided I would stick to freestyle. You have to truly be demented to do this stuff, it is nuts if you have never done it before. Thanks for the great match and Greco respect Guru, you are the best!

Mike Oxmall 4 years ago

Great Vid! Gaber bounces back and shreds the Turk in the 2004 Semis of the Olympics.

4 years ago

Thank you for listening to the couple suggestions for greco. The Guru is truly a student of the sport and opening flo viewers eyes further to our great sport

sly 4 years ago

as usual a great video. not a big fan of greco but there are a few i keep track of. this video ranks high up on the chart for non stop action.

arm-spin 4 years ago

Oops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpl-YzqEilk&feature=player_embedded

arm-spin 4 years ago

These two wrestled several other times and Gaber dominated... not sure if there is any evidence other than "he should have won" that Gaber lost on purpose. Coward, my other favorite greco match:

Ankle Picker 4 years ago

Heidari Kurtanizde next please. People have to see the Iranian crowd that year.

4 years ago

whats the story behind this one? why are people saying he threw the match?

4 years ago

he threw the match, no pun intended

4 years ago

pleaseeeeeeee more greco matches and rare matches of gaber...

this guy is a beast

arm-spin 4 years ago

Thanks Guru!! If this was indeed a legitimate match (ie no losing on purspose, which does seem plausible) it's easily the best Greco match I've ever seen.

I think Gaber claimed it was a rib injury that impeded his preformance. His ground defense certainly was non-existent. Or maybe he just flat-out choked?

5pointcrossankle 4 years ago

what was going on with gaber here? probably the same thing that was going on with romero against mindo a the 05 worlds. thanks again for the match quick

Craig Vitagliano 4 years ago

Ok time for some Greco love.

Here's the much talked about Gold medal match at the 2002 World Championships between Mehmet Ozal of Turkey and 2004 Olympic Champion Karam Gaber of Egypt.

What a wild match with both guys tossing each other around the mat. Some nice throws both from the feet and par terre. Excellent athleticism displayed by both athletes.

Final score something like 15-11 in favor of Ozal.

These two met once again in the semi finals in Athens with Gabar walking away with a lopsided victory of 10-0 in a little over a minute. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exLD5rQa3mo

Leaves you wondering what was going in with Gaber in this match. Your guess is as good as mine.

BTW for some reason the uploader wouldn't work for me last night so I was only able to post it this evening.

Enjoy.