Toughest Collegiate Wrestler

[goferphan]

Alright, I was reading the thread in the International Forum about the mentally toughest wrestlers in the sport. I wanted know who you all thought was the physically toughest wrestler you had ever seen in the sport.

As a kicker, tell me who you think the weakest wrestler you have ever seen in the sport.

My toughest collegiate wrestler has always been McIlravy. That dude always looked like he had been through a meat grinder and was always bandaged up every time you see a photo of the poor bastard.

My weakest wrestler is Fleeger. (See 2006 bout against Mack Reiter in NCAA). He could never make it through six minutes versus anyone without either taking a breather or winning by injury default.

Okay, so its always been obvious to you all that I am not a very big Fleeger fan but I just wanted to make sure that you all knew that my opinion had not changed with time.

[Big]

Mocco (pre-marriage) was absolutely the most physically brutal wrestler I ever practiced with. He could wrestle live for an hour straight with 5 different opponents. Even then Mocco would never stop until everyone else said they have had enough.

[TLV]

50san Hodge
60s:Wayne Baumann
70s: Gable
80s:Mark Schulz(who "Banached" Banach)
90s: Brands boys.......take your choice
00s:Lee Fulhardt comes to mind as a tough guy(whoops, that's post college.......let me think on that one a bit).

[Dart Shark]

Hard to argue with McIllravy ... perhaps Ironside runs second when not talking about anyone named Brands.

Trenge was a very physical wrestler, if you only saw him at nationals, you missed a lot of his power. His inside trip just planted you to the mat. The slap of the resilite would echo.

[Wiltz]

Brands, Gable, Ironside all tough wrestlers. McIllravy he's up their as well. Fullhart won an NCAA title on one good leg. The other leg had no ACL and the next year they used a cadaver tendon to repair it.

[JensenS]

I'll go ahead and toss King Cole's name in for consideration, especially his last two years, he was just nasty to people when he was at his best.

And I'll definitely second the Mocco at Iowa mention from Big, he was a scary, scary guy back then, especially as a sophomore.

[matclone]

Fullhart won an NCAA title on one good leg. The other leg had no ACL and the next year they used a cadaver tendon to repair it.

However, I'm sure none of his opponents considered him dead meat.

[TLV]

Actually, he beat a defending champion from nebraska who had one bad wheel. The guy's leg was taped from heel to thigh.........Fullhardt won in OT. ARe you guys sure that you don't have that match backwards??

I'm not going to go with Mocco. First of all, he didn't dominate good wrestlers........he scared the ....out of so-so wrestlers. His opening head slap was infamous but I think that the beginning of the end was when King Cole imediately whompped him back. Frankly, I think that he was a bully and Konrad stood up to him. NOr do I think that Cole fits the bill as he was just too nice a guy. He did what he had to do to win, but Hodge, Baumann, Gable, Schultz and the Brands boys simply beat the hell out of people. I remember the Big 10 at UW the Brands last year. They both had good guys in the finals...Flood and Gilbert and not only beat the hell out of them but Tom in particular humiliating Gilbert. IT got to the point where he'd fake a move and Gilbert would throw his hips back and land on his belly on the mat and Brands would laugh at him.......that's tough!!!

Still thinking about tough guy for the 2000s..........

[TLV]

Ok, I got 3 guys who fit the bill for toughest. We are not talking most successful, or it would be Cale obviously. We are talking about the guys we would least like to be out on the mat with.....the Roberto Duran of wrestling so to speak.

#1 is Brock Lesnar........he beat up people.
#2 is Cliff Moore....a throw back to the Gable days. He didn't smile even when he won.
And #3 is Abas........a street fighter who could wrestle.