The Mystery of Ramazan Attasauov

 

NAME: Ramazan Attasauov

HOMETOWN:  Nalchik, Russia

HIGH SCHOOL: Wayland High School, Wayland MA

CURRENT RANKINGS: #21 Wrestlestat.com

LOOKS: Exactly Like a Russian

HIGH SCHOOL ACCOLADES: 2x State Champion; High School All American

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: U23 Nationals Champion, NCAA Qualifier, 3rd Place Big 12

QUESTIONS: Previous Leg Injury; Making Weight

2020 was a big year for Ramazan. He wrestled in the U23 National Championships and won. Along the way, he beat Danny Vega, Rayvon Foley and Patrick Glory. How did he do at the World Championships? Well, Covid won that year, unfortunately. 

There were no championships. 

WRESTLING STYLE

His style is interesting. He loves the uh well the uh Russian tie. Typecasting perhaps? He threw a Gator Bacon in his championship match in the U23 Nationals. It didn't work, but he still won. He is excellent at gut wrenches, which would be fun to see in a folkstyle match, but are essentially worthless. On the other hand, he is also tough with the bow and arrow. 

He's pretty tall, even taller than Rayvon Foley, so his ability to get to a healthy 125 will be key. Ramazan has an absolutely vicious throw-by. This worked on even top level wrestlers after they had felt it a couple of times. He gets a modified underhook and just full-body whips it by. We'll see this move scoring him lots of points against smaller 125 wrestlers and even being effective against the bigger and stronger ones. 

Strong stance and good hand-fighter, he also has a workable shin whizzer. On bottom, he'll need to get some lessons from Lucas Byrd. That was his most glaring weakness in folkstyle. Of course, he has wrestled exclusively at 133 during his career, so he will now be the strong guy on the mat. 

Wrestled to overtime with Matt Ramos back in 2022, beat Tony Madrigal by the scores of 2-1 and 4-1 that same year. He was 16-6 entering the NCAA tournament and got injured in the first round and had to forfeit out. 

THE BIG TEN

Not including medical forfeits, Attasauov has been 5-5 against Big Ten opponents, 7-5 if you include his wins over Madrigal while Tony was at Oklahoma. Good wins included comfortable margins over Cullan Schriever, Jake Gliva and Dustin Norris (Fall) last year at 133. If the opponent is unworthy, he will be pinned by Ramazan. There was the SV loss to Ramos, and he did give up a major to RBY. His overall record in college against D-1 is 38-23.

The stiffest Big Ten competition at the weight will come from Matt Ramos of Purdue, Dean Peterson of Rutgers, Caleb Smith of Nebraska, Cooper Flynn of Minnesota (formerly Virginia Tech) and Luke Lilledahl of PSU. Assuming his prior injuries have healed and he can make weight, the rest of the conference wee ones should be no problem for him.

MOVING TO AMERICA

Besides dealing with weight training, practice and schoolwork, Attasauov had to learn a very obstreperous language and fit in. From his high school newspaper:

Despite Attasauov’s seemingly smooth transition into American wrestling, the adjustment was more stressful than it appeared.

“The biggest obstacles for me were moving to America, learning the language and the new style of wrestling,” Attasauov said. “I used to wrestle freestyle, but now I wrestle folkstyle.”

David Carr, his roommate at ISU, had this to say about him: 

“He’s a beast as my roommate, so I see all the little things he does,” Carr said. “He’s disciplined. He goes to sleep and eats the same food, I mean, he does everything right and so I think you’re going to see a lot of great things out of him. I’m excited to see him just out just wrestle his best. I mean, he’s been looking amazing. So you’ll get to see what he’s all about this season.”

OUTLOOK

There is mystery surrounding Ramazan Attasauov. Why is he coming over to the ILLINI when he is ranked by wrestlestat.com one spot ahead of his former Iowa State teammate Kysen Terukina? Have his injuries healed up? Will he be able to make 125 and be effective? Assuming all of that, he is certainly skilled enough to be an impact transfer for the ILLINI.

Ramazan had success in the Big 12, so it is more of a lateral move for him. He can qualify for the NCAAs and win some matches. He could become an All American. He's got enough talent to do that. 

If things don't work out, the ILLINI have Caelan Riley and Joey Ruzic available. In fact, it might be wise to give Ramazan a few "weight breaks" over the season and let the young guys catch a dual or two.