Outside of the World Championships or Olympics, you won’t find too many other tournaments that offer the same level of star power as the Hungarian Grand Prix, which takes place this coming weekend in Gyoer. Action begins at 10:30am local time (4:30am EST) and streams live in the US on FLOWrestling.
Two high-profile American athletes will be making their season debuts in Hungary — Olympians Ben Provisor (87 kg, NYAC/NLWC) and Robby Smith (130 kg, NYAC/Chicago RTC). Both last competed in the finals of the 2018 World Team Trials, with Provisor falling to Patrick Martinez (87 kg, NYAC), and Smith to eventual World silver Adam Coon (130 kg, Cliff Keen, world no. 2).
Both guys have been training throughout, though Provisor reportedly had to tend to a knee injury that briefly disrupted his groove. And not that it holds any impending relevance, but both athletes were also drafted to David Taylor’s team in the American Wrestling League this past fall.
United World Wrestling has gone ahead and posted all of the entries for the Hungarian Grand Prix listed by nation, if you’d like to check those out. Our full-scale coverage continues later in the week and culminates with the tournament itself.
- Live coverage and post-session recaps of the tournament.
- Standard follow-ups and analysis.
The US did not participate in the 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix because it coincided with the Trials in Tulsa. But the previous two outings for the Americans were fairly memorable.
In 2016, Ryan Mango (Army/WCAP) earned bronze at 59 kilograms and Geordan Speiller did the same at 75 with a rousing win over now two-time World champ Peter Bacsi (82 kg, HUN, world no. 1).
A year later, Speiller engineered one of the more impressive runs for a US athlete that season when he starched a pair of World-ranked opponents and endured an arm injury but still managed to make the finals opposite Bacsi. Speiller lost that bout 4-0 on an arm throw in the first period.
Two Marines who are now National Team members also made noise at the ’17 event. Daniel Miller (97 kg) completely bulldozed eventual World bronze Revazi Nadareshvili (GEO) en-route to the third-place match where he came back late against Germany’s Felix Radinger via four-point bodylock. Radinger had defeated a then-returning Joe Rau (TMWC/Chicago RTC) earlier in the day.
John Stefanowicz (82 kg) lost his first bout, was pulled back in, and advanced to the bronze bout versus two-time Olympian and former Junior World silver Zurabi Datunashvili (GEO). Stefanowicz pressed and pressured Datunashvili throughout much of the contest and was within striking distance with mere seconds remaining. Virtually at the buzzer, the Marine plowed forward on a bodylock and collapsed Datunashvili to his back for an apparent four points which would have won him the match. Instead, it was ruled that Datunashvili did not land directly on his back and only two points were awarded. Stefanowicz dropped the match on criteria 4-4, but carried the momentum from his Hungarian GP performance into the World Team Trials where he upset Speiller in the semifinals.
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Hernandez with nice form.
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It was a fun tournament!
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Folksilly is always okay, especially when it leads to international careers.
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