Wrestling Where Wrestling is the National Sport

[TomWright25]

A few weeks ago, as Quinn so humorously noted, another thread got hijacked and part of the discussion was wrestling in my country of Senegal in West Africa. This time I will start a new thread and post a recent championship. Someone posted a "traditional" wrestling match from here which had 2 skinny guys and assumed that wrestling is for skinny guys here. Not true!

This past Sunday they had a championship match between Yekini (undefeated champion since 2007) and Balla Gaye 2 the challenger. One throw wins the match as you will see if you click on the link below. Wrestling is the national sport here and this match was followed with great intensity all over the country. After the match every neighborhood in the city erupted in VERY loud cheering! There is much belief in mystical powers, thus their fetishes (cords on their body), mud and bathing in "spiritual" liquids. The challenger came with 45 marabouts (spiritual mediums) in his camp and that would be interpreted as why he won. Here is the link in case you want to watch it. It isn't too close to folkstyle or freestyle as you will see. But you have to admit, they're not skinny!

Balla Gaye 2 terrasse Yékini - YouTube

[oldfart]

Man, those were some big boys! Thanks for posting, very interesting. It looked like that stadium was going to come down at the end of the match!

How do you think these guys stack up skill-wise against someone like our top wrestlers at the same weight? I don't expect them to be able to be competitive in folk or fs but do you think these guys would trounce someone like Mocco or Dlagnev if they ever tried their hand at this?

[TomWright25]

The enthusiasm level here for the champsionship Hwt wrestling match is bigger than for the Super Bowl in the US. It's also dangerous to be near the stadium as there is often violence afterwards. There is also reported an increased incidence of heart attacks among fans afterwards.

You ask a good question and I don't know the answer to it. If our guys had training in judo or sumo wrestling I think they could hold their own or win. Now someone from here would likely say it also depends on how good their spiritual marabouts are!!

[oldfart]

Well, if it's one thing I have learned, it's that you can never have too many good spiritual marabouts.

You mention sumo training though, and it actually seems that this more closely resembles sumo than any other wrestling style. It would be very interesting to see if these guys could handle the pure girth of a trained sumo wrestler.

[TomWright25]

I'm not enough of a fan of sumo and judo to say which it's closer to Senegalse wrestling (in judo they wear more clothes for sure). As big as these guys are I don't think they compare to sumo wrestlers.

[TomWright25]

Well, if it's one thing I have learned, it's that you can never have too many good spiritual marabouts.

You mention sumo training though, and it actually seems that this more closely resembles sumo than any other wrestling style. It would be very interesting to see if these guys could handle the pure girth of a trained sumo wrestler.

It looks like you have a pretty powerful one in your avatar!!

[Snackem]

Just watched the video, I love how excited everyone got over the match. You could really feel the tension and excitement even through the recording. I definitely wouldn't want one of those two guys pissed at me.

[TomWright25]

They scowl and snarl at each other at times, like in Super Catch (pardon my language) . . . only this is real competition!

[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?