On December 7th in the main event of Russia’s Wolnik Wrestling league, Jason Nolf took on 2017 world champion Khetik Tsabolov. Take a look below at a match summary and video of their high-scoring bout.

Tsabolov struck first and was able to put Nolf in danger just under a minute into the match to go up 4-0. Nolf kept his pace high and stayed on the attack scoring a single leg to narrow the lead to 4-2 with a minute to go in the first period. Then, just 20 seconds later, Nolf got in on another leg attack and finished with a takedown to a gut wrench to take a 6-4 lead. Nolf countered with a go-behind on an errant Tsabolov shot and scored another takedown at the closing seconds of the first period to extend his lead to 8-4.

In the second period, Tsabolov was noticeably tired while Nolf pushed the pace and extended his lead to 12-4 within the first minute of the second period. Tsabolov, a crafty veteran, was able to secure a takedown and transition to his patented leg-lace to cut the lead to 12-8 with just under a minute remaining in the match. Nolf's conditioning and offensive attacks proved too much and he shut the door on a Tsabolov comeback with a big, four-point double leg with 40 seconds left in the match. Take a look at the complete match video below:

Nolf's match against Tsabolov:

Jason Nolf, a three-time NCAA Champion for the Penn State Nittany Lions, is just getting started in his senior-level wrestling career. Nolf finished third at 74kg in the 2020 Olympic Trials, losing only to eventual Olympic bronze medalist, and world champion Kyle Dake. Then, at the 2021 World Team trials in September of 2021, Nolf lost in the quarter-finals to Jordan Burroughs, 5-3. Nolf’s win over Tsabolov is the biggest of his senior-level career and will place him in the top 20 at 74kg in our latest international rankings.

Khetik Tsabolov is a 2014 world champion and was silver at the 2017 World Championships where he lost to Jordan Burroughs in the finals. Also of note, Tsabolov is the last wrestler to defeat World and Olympic Champion Zaurbek Sidakov. Tsabolov and Sidakov met in October of 2020 at Russian Nationals where Tsabolov came out on top-9-3. However more recently, Tsabolov went on to transfer to Serbia and failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. He then competed at the 2021 World Championships where he lost on criteria in the quarter-finals to the eventual 5th place finisher - Azamat Nurikau (BLR).