John Smith v. Avirmedin Enkhe, 1988 Olympic Games : Speakers & Interviews

19 points in one match. Those days are long gone.

smiths opponent a true piece of crap, pulling out his ankle to stop td

G.O.A.T.

Smith is amazing!!!

Interesting how Enkhe refused to take the bait on any of Smith's fakes early on. Just stood there, then got his own attacks off when he saw an opening. But once Smith saw he couldn't fake Enkhe into a bad position, he just started shooting in deep with no fakes at all. That was the end of Enkhe in this match. Smith is definitely the most technically accomplished wrestler the US has ever produced.

that mongolian was tough,but John was just relentless. i was thinking about all the mathches I have watched of john and I dont think he ever let anyone stall on him. he made you wrestle, if you wanted to or not.

Guru. youre the man here's my fav video of j smith. talk about domination

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH16VZm2qRs

Thank you Guru for posting this incredible match at the 1988 Olympics. So much action! John Smith, to me, was the greatest American wrestler I ever saw. He was nearly unbeatable between 1987-1992 and a total joy to watch. Great pre-match write-up too Guru, I always read it prior to watching the match and it really adds to the overall enjoyment of the match! These matches are simply AMAZING, thank you!!!

all i got to say is john smith is the man

talk about slick, damn!

Nah it wasn't the takedowns, those were gimmes. Most wrestlers give up the gimmes when they are ahead. It was the crotch lift. He really blew it with that. Still he should have gotten 3 for the double out of bounds earlier on.

About the Aleexev match... screw job or not, I can't believe Enke gave up those easy takedowns at the end, more or less snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with that one:)

great match!

There's dirty in the tough rugged sense, and then there's this guy. Just out there intentionally trying to destroy a wrestlers knee. Too Bad Smiths a rubber knee in every sense of the word and a cheater DID NOT prosper.

Ok here we go folks. One of my favorite matches - Smith v. Enkhe at the 1988 Olympic Games. Enkhe was an amazing wrestler. He was quick and explosive, had a great gut and was sometimes dirty (in the classic sense)when he needed to be. One of my favorite wrestlers to watch and definitely belongs in the category of "Best Wrestler to Have Never Won a World Title" along to Vladimir Toguzov.

Anyway, this match has a lot of action with both wrestlers going after it. Enkhe scored the first points and was able to shut down Smith's offense for a while while getting his own attacks in. He did some fairly illegal iknee wrenching, but actually to me the first one was Smith grabbing his own foot to try and turn Enkhe, which he did, but they cautioned Enkhe instead for taking the knee against the joint. Enkhe did it on his own a few more times after that.

Some weird officating stuff too at the 6:20 mark.

I believe Smith had wrestled Enkhe at the 1987 Worlds and beat him 6-1.

Anyway, enjoy - and enjoy the follow links to two other Enkhe matches I posted on YouTube a while back.

Enkhe looked a little sharper here:
v. Alexeev 1985 Worlds (one of my all time favorite matches, screw job IMO): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7PKRcxfhu8

v. Gene Mills, 1986 World Cup http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON99cz8jvjw

1:40 is the dirtiest thing I have seen ever by any scale. i don't even know if he scored with it but it blows my mind