ZANE RICHARDS!

Everybody thought Zane could do it. 

It's the way he did it, though, and how he did it, and the final results--better than anybody else in the World. Ever. Zanabazar Zandanbud is the reigning World Bronze medalist at 57kg. I've watched a bunch of his matches, and the dude is a tireless machine. But, as you can see here, Zane came out on top:

THE RESULT

Check out his record at the United World Wrestling site. Zandanbud has thirty-two results on the UWW site, which show that he has never been close to being teched. That includes Senior, U23 and Junior World Championships, Senior Asian Championships (Iranians and Japanese there among others), and ranking tournaments. 

When he finished with the Bronze at the last Senior World Championships, Zandanbud only lost to the 2021 world champion and 2022 silver medalist, Thomas Gilman, 1-5. Zane Richards finished the match in 4:19 without giving up a single point. The final score was 10-0. 

THE WAY ZANE DID IT

This wasn't a perfect double leg followed by four leg laces. Zane's win came from a variety of techniques. The best and most interesting was his roll-through cradle, which did give him a burst of four points. 

THE BOX SCORE

To make sure we keep the historical record accurate, the meet took place on December 10, 2022 in Iowa, and this is the official box score from USA Wrestling:

GROUP A:  United States 7, Mongolia 3

57 kg - Zane Richards (USA) tech. fall Zanabazar Zandanbud (Mongolia), 10-0, 4:19
61 kg - Seth Gross (USA) by forfeit
65 kg - Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia) dec. Yianni Diakomihalis (USA), 10-3
70 kg - Tyler Berger (USA) tech fall Munkhtulga Zuunbayan (Mongolia), 10-0, 2:52
74 kg - Sumiyabazar Zandanbud (Mongolia) dec. Vincenzo Joseph (USA), 8-0
79 kg - Jordan Burroughs (USA) tech. fall Temuujin Mendbileg (Mongolia), 10-0, 1:04
86 kg - Zahid Valencia (USA) tech fall Bat Erdene Byasgalan (Mongolia), 10-0, 0:29
92 kg - Nathan Jackson (USA) by forfeit
97 kg - Kyle Snyder (USA) inj dft. over Batzul Ulziisaikhan (Mongolia), 0:00
125 kg - Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur (Mongolia) dec. Hayden Zillmer (USA), 3-1

THE PERFECT WARRIOR

Nobody can be a perfect warrior. 

The best MMA champions lose; even Muhammad Ali lost five bouts. But if you put in the effort, you can become the perfect you. Thanks to opportunities to train in Russia and wrestle overseas provided by the IRTC and Titan Mercury, and thanks to coaching from Bryan Medlin and opportunities at the University of ILLINOIS, and thanks to his own effort of putting in the sweat equity and making a tough cut, Zane Richards became the perfect Zane Richards.  

NATIONAL EXPOSURE

Cody Goodwin of The Des Moines Register has done an outstanding job following the World Cup. His information-packed article was picked up by Yahoo! and sent across the globe. Here is a Zane-specific quote from the article:

"Notes/Observations: Solid opening win for the U.S. men. Biggest highlight came right away, when Richards rolled up Zandanbud, a 2022 world bronze medalist, 10-0 to open the dual. Locked up a cradle for an exposure after an early takedown, too."

Click on the link above to give Cody Goodwin a boost. Click on this link to give him a boost at The Des Moines Register. 

NEXT UP

Zane (or I guess it could be Nicky Pushups) have the World Cup finals later today at 5:30 pm (Central). This is from the official organizer site. On the USA Wrestling site, the start time for the finals is listed as 6:00 pm (Central). Make appropriate plans. 

For a sport where even one second can determine a winner from a loser, wrestling does a lousy job when it comes to hours and days and dates. Jiminy Crickets! 

The USA's finals opponent will be the winner of the other pool: Iran. That means Zane Richards will face Iran's Reza Hossein Momenijoujadeh. The Iranian had a tough win against Japan in his pool, 6-5, then lost by tech, 2-12, to Zelimkhan Abakarov on the All-World squad. Abakarov won the Gold Medal at World's this year, and teched Joe Colon back in 2019 when he won the Medved. So, the tech fall looks bad, but it was to a very good wrestler. 

Here is the ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond's preview of the Iran wrestler in a Moneyball style. This is him cheating with a singlet grab:

The Iranian loves to interlock fingers. He's a shrug-by, snap and spin-behind kind of wrestler. Here are Momenijoujadeh's Moneyball stats (note that there were only four videos of this guy available at the time):