Congrats to Cael

[kr1963]

Why Smith behind Belo when Smith beat him at least once that I know of...?

[ODH]

John Smith is indisputably the best American freestyler and in most people's top 5 of all time. I would place him behind Satiev and Fadzaev, ahead of Khadartsev and maybe ahead of Beloglasov, but that's a really tough call. Best ever either goes to Fadzaev of Satiev, it's usually a matter of style preference.

^^I like your analysis and with my limited knowledge agree completely.
There is no real reason to believe that Gable was close to being the top 5 all time.

[zzyzx]

Gable may had one of the top two year runs in USA Wrestling. John Smith had the greatest single career of any US wrestler of any era. He was not undefeated in international wrestling but did win 6 Titles in a row as posted above.
Mark Schultz should be up there as well as a few others. But, John Smith is the man.

[zzyzx]

Herbert didn't look any better against Cael than he did against Askren, did he?

[5pointcrossankle]

because sergey is a 7 time WC an smith is only 6, plus when smith beat belo, he was in his prime and belo was retired, and smith was a weight class up on him

[bwh27]

because sergey is a 7 time WC an smith is only 6, plus when smith beat belo, he was in his prime and belo was retired, and smith was a weight class up on him

That about covers it. Belo was 33 (or close to it) and Smith was 24 (or close to it) when they wrestled. He was good enough to win one of his titles up at 62kg, but Smith clearly has a size advantage in the match: YouTube - ‪1989 John Smith vs Sergei Beloglasov‬‏

[kr1963]

Fair enough...it is still one of my favorite matches to watch.

I remember when I was at the 88 Olympics. I had been out of the country for 2 years & hadn't kept track of wrestling too much. I watched Smith wrestle & I thought looking at him, I could beat this guy! How wrong I was. He was not physically intimidating at all but man what a technician. I asked John Fritz who I think was an assistant coach at the time, who he was, & he filled me in. I paid attention a lot after that. In fact I was in the 1st row for most of his matches.

And a few years later I was thinking that Kolat & Rob Koll had a chance to follow in his foot steps but no such luck. I have to agree that his record statistically puts him at the top. I am however still a huge Schalles fan & still wish to this day that I could have seen him wrestle more for the USA.

It also seems like that when I was in college, a lot of guys tried to wrestle for 2 or 3 Olympics. For some reason that trend fell off & I think our national team has suffered. Glad to see Cael back out there.

[TLV]

ONe of the things I really liked when watching Smith was that you, everyone in the arena and the other guy knew what was coming..........that low single.........and he still was able to hit it consistantly. What superb technique!