In September of 2015, Robby Smith walked off the mat at the World Championships in Las Vegas to the sound of raucous cheers from an American audience who, like himself, felt that he had done enough to have earned the bronze medal. The scoreboard disagreed. Instead, it was the hand of Bilyal Makhov that the referee raised, as the hulking Russian had collected a controversial 10-8 decision.
The reason for the controversy, at least at the time, had to do with what actually occurred during the match. On at least three occasions, the officials missed calls that would have been advantageous to Smith. To make matters worse, there was a moment in the second period which saw Smith clearly pin Makhov. In fact, the only way Makhov could have avoided being pinned was by fleeing the zone, which is what he had done, and which is in and of itself an infraction that should have resulted in additional points for Smith. But, ultimately, Makhov’s early lead from the first period coupled with a miscue by Smith later in the contest gave way to an outcome that, for just under a decade, sporadically haunted Smith, this despite the popular heavyweight eventually putting the finishing touches on what was an otherwise outstanding career.
Then ten years later, the wrong was righted.
In June of 2025, an investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency found that Makhov had committed a violation in March of ’15 — six months prior to the aforementioned World Championships in which he encountered Smith. Therefore, all of Makhov’s results from ’15 were eradicated, including the Greco-Roman World bronze at 130 kg. This past April at the World Team Trials in Las Vegas, Smith — at long last — received the medal that most who had witnessed his performance felt that he deserved. And because of this change in circumstances, the way Smith’s career at the top is viewed has become elevated even more than it already had been.
Though it did not require ten years of waiting, this episode of the Five Point Move Podcast itself took a while to come to fruition. In this latest edition of the program, Smith provides an engrossing account of how he learned about Makhov’s doping violation, when he was told that the medal from ’15 was finally his, and the alterations in perception that soon followed. Also, in riveting detail, Smith gives a near blow-by-blow rendering of the match with Makhov, including the emotional see-saw that accompanied the aftermath of the result.
Smith goes through all of it and then some, as well as delivers insights on other topics in which listeners might be interested. Among the questions for Smith involve his thoughts on World Team member Cohlton Schultz (130 kg, Atreus WC) at this stage of the latter’s career, and whether or not he feels that ’21 World bronze G’Angelo Hancock would resume being a medal-capable contender if he were to return to competition.
A Few Highlights
Smith on how he learned of the medal reallocation
“I had a call from Herb (House). I missed it and he told me to call him back. Then I got a call from Rich Bender right after, and he was like, ‘Hey, it looks like you’re going to get the bronze medal from 2015.’ So I said, ‘Stop joking with me. Why are you calling me and messing with me right now?’ Because, that’s how we live in the wrestling realm. We mess with each other a lot. He says, ‘Robby, I’m not messing with you, I’m telling you the truth. They found a banned substance in his [Makhov’s] test and it looks like you’re going to be allocated the bronze medal.’ I was like, Wait, what? And then Herb called me back after that call and told me the same thing. I was like, Wait a second, what’s going on?”
Smith on now having retroactively continued the lineage of American heavyweights medaling in World events
“It was a big thing to me. That was huge, because we didn’t have it. Every other heavyweight before me, for a long time, medaled. I ran that weight class for six years and to come out of it without a medal… I mean, I had a great career, but just didn’t have that medal. And then ten years later, ten years later, to get the call that says, That match that haunts you, that you wake up and think about, that should have been yours? You were right. It should have been your medal. It’s amazing.”
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