Originally Posted by ban basketball

They also looked to be throwing some heavy forearms and hands at each others' heads. Is that a part of the sport too?

Yes, I should have mentioned that. There is both "avec frappe" (with hitting) and "sans frappe" (without hitting). This obviously was with hitting but it's not nearly as much hitting as MMA.

Cool video. I like how at the end of the match the officials had to rush in a pull the victor off the guy he beat.
Having train Judo for decades and being somewhat famaliar with Sumo, this loks alot more like Sumo. Many country have similar type of traditional belt wrestling styles and Judo rules over the years had been modified to strongly discourage using belt grabbing techniques.

I am also picturing that somewhere in an alternate universe there is a Senagalese wrestling message board where posters are lamenting the international freestyle rules and arguing why traditional Senagalese wrestling is more exciting

Originally Posted by TomWright25

This past Sunday they had a championship match between Yekini (undefeated champion since 2007) and Balla Gaye 2 the challenger.
Balla Gaye 2 terrasse Yékini - YouTube

So which one was the winner, the champ or challenger?

Originally Posted by Herkey#1

I think I could take both of them at the same time.

fixed it

Dig the referees "uniform"! Notice it is all on the ground, no mats & it is a consecutive last man standing tourney.

Originally Posted by Herkey#1

I think I could take both of them.

Great!! Herkey, would you like me to set a match for you with these guys? You might get a pretty good pay off. The 2 wrestlers EACH got 100 million CFA, which works out to about $200,000 for the match. Not bad when the average annual income here is about $700/year!

Originally Posted by ODH

Cool video. I like how at the end of the match the officials had to rush in a pull the victor off the guy he beat.
Having train Judo for decades and being somewhat famaliar with Sumo, this loks alot more like Sumo. Many country have similar type of traditional belt wrestling styles and Judo rules over the years had been modified to strongly discourage using belt grabbing techniques.

I am also picturing that somewhere in an alternate universe there is a Senagalese wrestling message board where posters are lamenting the international freestyle rules and arguing why traditional Senagalese wrestling is more exciting

Yes, I'm sure that debate goes on, but sadly my Wolof (other national language in addition to French) isn't good enough to enter into the debate! LOL

If you look in the background at the end of the match, a man falls over. Evidently this is not uncommon and often attributed to spiritual forces.