Toughest Draws Ever

[arm-spin]

For wrestling historians or those in the know... what are some of the toughest brackets ever in international tournaments?

I remember the 2008 74 kg Olympic bracket being touted of one of the all-time toughest because of the number of veteran wresters with medals (Saitiev, Adatov, Gitinov, Tigiev, Fundora,Gaidrov, Chamasurlaev, Bazri).
http://www.flowrestling.org/blogs/bl...-74-kg-preview

Two others that come to mind:
The 2000 Yargyin at 84 when 3x world/olympic Adam Saitiev beat 7x world/olympic Khadartsev in the final, and 2xworld/olympic champ Magomedov beat 2x world champ Sajidov for bronze. Wow. (I wonder if a young Gatsalov was in the bracket too?)


Not sure of the whole bracket, but in 1996 Saitiev beat World/Olympic champ Monday, the defending Olympic champ from Korea, and world (and arguaby Olympic) champ Leipod en route to the gold medal.
http://www.thewrestlingtalk.com/free...matches-5.html (Good Matches)

Any others?

[Bond]

ck out Gia sissouri's Draw from I believe 97 where he wins bronze.

[ziggy]

ramazan sahin had a pretty crazy draw in 08 - garzon, taghavi, tushishvili, stadnik

[arm-spin]

Shahin also pulled off some crazy moves to win it- hit a big throw in the dying seconds against Garzon to win one period, help off Taghavi in a tripod to win another, a last second comeback with an inside trip to beat Tushisvilli and a step-over on a gutwrench in the 3rd to take out Stadnik. They don't come much more "clutch" than this guy.

There's a thread on themat.com right now detailing the insanely tough draw Tom Brands had at the 1996 Olympics.

I don't think Igali's draw in the 2000 Olympics was one of the toughest, but he certainly had some tough matches with 3 OT bouts in a row!

[JensenS]

Kudukhov had pretty tough draws in 06 and 07 I think.