5PM68: Two-time World Teamer Benji Peak

Two-time World Team member "Mr. Fantastic" Benji Peak discusses recovering from a broken neck and returning to action just in time for the first two UWW Ranking Series tournaments of the year. Peak goes into detail about his injury, whether or not he was fully convinced that he would wrestle again, and how he has felt since resuming training.

In addition, Peak is one of several accomplished USA Greco-Roman athletes who has recently joined Sam Hazewinkel's new team called Position Wrestling based out of Oklahoma. Peak touches on that, as well, along with a string of other topics which are layered in his entertaining perspectives. 

SUBSCRIBE:
Apple Podcasts | Spreaker | RSS

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'll rip where I'm off, stop worrying about stupid procedures
and do pull up.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's sporting of balls, making self gift Craig why are
we having this podcast? And wanted to call the five
point Move. I'm frustrated with the way our Greco guys
for United States are true and because you are good athletes, you.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Have good human beings.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
But Rona went, We've got to help him get that.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
See what I want? People know me from all of
our results where everything comes from Five point Move. Hello
and welcome to episode sixty eight of the Five Point
Move Podcast. I'm Tim Hans, founder and senior editor for
five point move dot com and happy New Year. I
guess since this is the first one of twenty twenty six,

(00:47):
and look you clicked on it, you know what you're
listening to. You understand already. The most is it's none
other than mister fantastic himself, Benji peek Oh. Two time
World team member by the way, and I don't know
two or three time national champ. I mean, we have

(01:08):
to mention credentials in the sport of wrestling. It's automatic
and compulsive for some reason. But nevertheless a lot of
people most people are aware of the circumstances surrounding one
mister Peak, and that is last year he ended a
broken neck just about a year ago. Took a obviously

(01:29):
all I mean, you know what's funny because you say
it like it's not the biggest deal in the world,
and at the time it was the biggest deal in
the world. And you know, there were, at least from
the outside, there's a lot of worry and consternation and

(01:50):
questions and confusion. But Benji recalls the entire ordeal, but
he's moved past it. That's most important. But still nevertheless,
we do touch on a little bit here in the
beginning segment, and then we move forward. Mister Peak, by
the way, is getting prepared this coming weekend, depending on
when you hear this, to compete in the Grand Prix

(02:14):
Zagreb Open Ranking Series tournament in Croatia. So there's gonna
be stuff like that. And there's also the other headliner
with Benji. He's wrestling now in Oklahoma, not the Olympic
Training Center. He's with Sam Hayswinkle's new venture called Position Wrestling.
So look, there's a lot to get to, lots of

(02:37):
quote unquote unpack I can't stand that, but unpack. Yes,
we're gonna unpack it, and yeah, let's just move right
to the segment and then come back with some final
thoughts here for the sake of you know, the audience,
like what precisely happened with your neck and what was
the if you can come up with the clinical term

(02:59):
for the injury, what was it?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I fractured my C five and my C six on
the right side of my neck and last February.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
You know, I should know, and I don't remember anyway, uh, precisely,
because I was just more I'm not trying to sound
like a bleeding heart, but obviously I was more concerned
with just you individually, Like I didn't care how it happened,
but exactly how did it happen.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
I was we were doing simulation matches at the OTC,
and I did I did a lift and the guy
I was wrestling faced me, so I did like a
high name. We were belly to belly and we had
came down and I had scorpioned over my neck hard,
and I instantly knew that that I had heard something

(03:53):
pretty bad, and I just kind of laid there for
a while and was just trying to uh just see
how bad.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
The situation was.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
I was hoping I had like just strained my neck,
or you know, maybe a disc something to do with
my disc, wasn't you know, Or I was just maybe
got a stinger. But uh, I mean the next day,
I couldn't move at all. I actually went home and slept.
The trainers were very upset. They were trying to get
me to go to the hospital earlier. They wanted to
put me on a stretcher right away, but I didn't

(04:24):
want my friends to see me get on a stretcher
because they wouldn't have let me live it down.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
They would have just lit me up.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
So I actually went home, slept, and then woke up
early in the morning and went to the hospital because
I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
I couldn't move it all. It's pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
So you suspected by the next morning that like this was.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yes, by next by the next morning, I was I
had known that something was pretty bad, but again I
still was pretty optimistic. I was like, you know, this
could just be you know, like a disc issue or
a really bad sting and I need some pain medicine.
Like I wasn't sure exactly, but I had a pretty

(05:06):
good idea that that I was I was gonna have
to be resting my neck for a while.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
That's definitely yeah, that was definitely the case.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Did you have like any kind of like numbness in
like your right arm or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
No, I had no numbness at all. Everybody kept asking
me that, and I had zero numbness.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
I just had a extremely just a ton of pain. Yeah, no,
no numbness at all.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
So and all the pain was pretty much like centralized
in your neck.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, my neck and like kind of into my shoulder blade. Right.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
So, and so what happened, like, uh, when you got
to the hospital, I'm assuming you got examined and then
went into imaging.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Well I got to the hospital and I was telling
him I hurt my neck, and they were just kind
of like, oh yeah, like no problem, like we'll send
you in the back. And they weren't like rushing it.
They just kind of thought I was, you know, just
a little banged up. This guy came in just wants
to make sure he's, you know, he ain't got nothing wrong.
And then I get the imaging and they come running

(06:15):
into the waiting room because I was kind of just
waiting in the waiting room. They see what happens like
in this little waiting area. They come running in and
they put me in this huge brace and put me
on a stretcher and take what They're like panicking, and
I'm like what happened?

Speaker 2 (06:30):
And they're like, yeah, you've.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Broken your neck in two different places and we need
you to not move it at all.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
And it was really scary. I was like panicking. I
was actually like once they started saying that, I was like, like,
I start freaking out.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, why couldn't they just say it, Like why couldn't
somebody just be calm, be like listen, here's what happened.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, you know you would think they would, but they
were not calm at all. They made it sound like
I had ten minutes left to live type of deal.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
It was pretty scary, but.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
You know, they they came back like a few I
told them how I'd done it. And then I was
at the Olympic training Center and they had came back
and they're like, well, the good news is you're gonna
be able to wrestle again. Like she's like, I've seen
this injury, you know, we we've never seen it in
someone as young as you. But I've seen it in
some older people, and I've seen how well they've recovered,

(07:24):
and we're not worried about how you're gonna recover. We
think you're gonna recover great.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
As long as you wear this and you don't move
and you you know, like they're like, as long as
you do what we tell you to do, you're gonna
be fine. So that was like a huge release.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
At the same time, well, you know what that was
actually gonna be. One of my questions was, you know,
was there ever a moment when you thought you weren't
going to wrestle again?

Speaker 3 (07:50):
For like, it definitely like I thought, like right away
like it wasn't and you know when she when a
doctor says that, you're like okay. But but there definitely
was still a point of me where it was like,
even after she had said that, I'm like, I don't
know if I'm going to wrestle again, you know, because
even with them saying I was gonna be okay, Like

(08:11):
there still was a big chance like how would I,
you know, mentally be able to do it.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
I still had to see how I recovered. Like, you know,
anything can happen. It could over time. They could just
be like, you know what, yeah, I know what she said.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
It doesn't look like that's going to be the case anymore,
Like it's just not the right idea to try and
wrestle again. So I definitely was still worried about that
even after she had said it, but I was more
relief that she had high hopes for my recovery.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Well, the other thing is, I mean, if my mind
went here, I would assume you were just did is that?
It's like, I mean there was you know, if I'm
not I'm not mistaken. You had a shoulder in high
school and then a few years ago you had your

(09:02):
shoulder right, like yeah, and it's so it's like, oh, well,
here's one more thing for ben for Benji.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, I would say, like that's That's definitely where my
mind went was. It was like, you know, I've had
three shoulder surgeries already. I had broken my foot before
Olympic trials, like the.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Year before, that's right, And it was just like it
was like one thing after another, and then I had
recovered from the foot, my shoulder was feeling good, I
was finally healthy.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
I had gone to non Olympic Worlds wrestled there, went
to the ranking series, went through camp, was kind of
feeling like I was catching my vibe and then it
was just like or catching my stride and then it
was just like boom, a broken neck.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
I'm here.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
It's a very very serious injury. It's going to take
a long time to recover. And it was just like
do I want to keep Do I want to do
this again? Like that was more where my mind was
as well, Like it was like, Okay, I can do this,
but this is gonna be a very long road.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
I've been doing injury after injury. Do I want to
try and come back again? Too? Like there was definitely
that side as well.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Did you ever talk to anyone else who like had
a similar injury?

Speaker 2 (10:19):
No? No, not at all.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well there was the Norwegian guy Parand's cure, who I
do remember.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
I didn't talked to him at all, and actually we're
pretty good buddies, but I never had talked to him
about it.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
How long into uh, give me figure this a year ago,
so how long how long into like yeah, getting fixed
and uh, going into the rehab protocol? Like, how long
into the process did you start to gain more and

(10:57):
more I guess confidence assurance that you were going to
compete again.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
This past August, because I was still more on the fence,
like I wasn't talking to anybody. I had really not
talking to anybody in the wrestling world besides like my
close friends like Peyton and you know, George and like
a few like the wrestlers, but like I didn't talk
to any of the coaches. I didn't talked to nobody.
I kind of was just staying to myself about it.
And then I'd say in August, I kind of started

(11:30):
reaching out to the staff a little more, working with
my pt on some more wrestling based stuff, because before
it was more like you know, for like three months,
it was like getting back to walking normal and running
and like doing that kind of stuff. And then August
hit and I started like lifting pretty heavy again, and
I had started moving towards like wrestling rehab. So like

(11:54):
August is kind of when I was thinking, you know,
I think I can get back on the mat.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Well, I remember, uh, you know, because obviously, like you
and I weren't in touch, and I remember talking to Jacobson.
I guess, I don't know, it was a couple of
months ago or something like that, and he was talking
about how he was wrestling you, wrestling with you, and
I remember thinking like, oh, that's quite a test.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah yeah, me and me and Peyton were wrestling over
Christmas break. Yeah, we wrestling over Christmas Break. I have
to like make up rules when I wrestle him now,
so like like what like he's got he has to
go down twice, no matter what, like stuff like that,

(12:46):
like he I'll I get to be waitning now going
into the match before it starts, like I gotta kind
of I gotta kind of handicap the match to make
it fun.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
He's a he's a unit right now, did you.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Like when? All right? So, like in terms of January Camp,
like how I mean, I had heard like a like
you know certain things, you know. I don't know if
it were I don't know who it was or what happened,
but I heard that. I don't know if someone put
you in a front headlock or something like that, but

(13:24):
I remember hearing like, oh he was tested, Like no,
you look great, like you look good and blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah, like what happened at January.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Camp, Dude, January Camp was pretty sick. They had Yeah,
January Camp was was really cool. They had some good
teams and some good guys out there. But I got
I got like my first I actually went to Portugal
and wrestled the tournament, but it was like it was
pretty It wasn't then. It was just like kind of
like a practice thing, like the guys were. It was

(13:53):
pretty soft overall. But my first real like overall wrestling
was at January Camp and I wrestled some you know,
some top ten guys in the world at that camp,
and I, you know, it was good for me because
I kind of was like, you know what, I'm still there,
you know, and I got put in some.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Some positions where.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
My neck was kind of tested, like I got put
in a really tight front headlocked or in simulation matches
when everyone was watching, and did what I did in
that position and came up and everyone was kind of like,
you know, they kind of stopped almost like make sure
I was good, and I was like, yeah, let's keep going,
like no problem at all.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Didn't even think in the moment, you know, like while I'm.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Wrestling, I'm really not even thinking about my neck too much,
so I'm starting to move past that. So it's good
in this camp really really reassured that for me before
I go over to Croatia here.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
That was kind of one thing I want to ask
you is like, do you have any sort of plan
or protocol in terms of of governing or protecting yourself
and like let's say, por itch or something, just because
like the volume of live is so high usually and

(15:09):
the allotment of partners there and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
You know, I wouldn't say I have like any protocol
going in. I'm kind of taking it like I'm you know,
like it never happened in my eyes. But I'm also
you know, I'm a little older now, and if i
need to take a day off because you know, I'm
not feeling one hundred percent, and at that camp, if
you're not feeling one hundred percent, you shouldn't be in there,
you know what I mean. Like it's so like, if

(15:34):
I'm not feeling good, you know, I'll take a day
and just go lift or go run or do some
cross training of some kind and get back when I
feel one hundred percent. So I'm just kind of taking
it day by day over there, but I don't plan
on having any protocol.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
I'm hoping I can go every single day I camp.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Well, I I gotta say, like I Well, first off,
I didn't know about the Portugal thing. I have no idea.
I don't know how something like that gets past me, honestly,
and that's sound arrogant about it.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
We had a whole team go Portugal who went to
Portugal like me, Me, George Sykes, Noah, Watchmith. Noah looked good.
Actually no, it looked really good. A few other guys.
We wrestled on a team Portugal in a dual tournament.
We took second.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
We did pretty good when we lost them all Dova
in the finals and they had a couple of Georgians
on their team as well. This is well, uh, this
is when this was like before Christmas, right before Christmas,
two weeks before Christmas, so.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Like right after like let's say, like a week after Finland. Yeah, yeah, no,
I had no idea, like zero soil you said zero.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yeah, it was it was fun, it was cool. It
was my first time in Portugal as well, so it
was really pretty well.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
You know what, I remember the Portuguese coach got cool
with Lucas at Austream Open like like years ago.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, it was the same guy. We wrestled on his team.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
You just got done talking about OTC and so like
to kind of play catch up here of course, like
you're one of the uh, like you're kind of one
of the ogs of leaving high school early to do
greco full time, and you did this by going from

(17:31):
Wisconsin to Northern Michigan. Then you're at Northern Michigan for
I don't know, Benji well eight years seven neat years
seven years, six years, Okay, Then you're at the OTC, Okay,
and now you are with Sam Hayes Winkles new position
wrestling team club whatever in Oklahoma? And so what is

(17:58):
what is that? What was that process? Sas? Like, how
did this happen? Like, how did Sam reach out to you?
What was your whole thinking on it? Your perspective? Uh,
what was like behind the decision to go from the
OTC to him? Walk everybody through because not everybody is
I think quite yet familiar with the fact that Hayes

(18:20):
Nichol's got a new team in Oklahoma.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, so I had. I was at the OTC for
just about a year and a half and the OTC
was great for me, It really was, and I was
I loved Colorado springs a lot too, so it was good.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
And I really liked the Perrero as well. I thought
Perrero was awesome. So like leaving there was a big
decision for me.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
But Sam had reached out to me a few months
ago telling me that he was starting this Greco team.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
And you know how many times I've heard like, Oh,
we're starting a Greco program here. It's gonna be amazing.
We're gonna make sure all our athletes are taken care
of of. Like I've heard it so many times. Where
like when Sam first said told me about it, I
didn't really hold my breath. And then he had called
me again and he was serious. He's like, you know what,
we're gonna get you guys here. We're gonna make sure
you guys are taken care of. We're gonna take you

(19:13):
to we're gonna pay for these trips, like we're gonna
make sure you guys are in the best position possible
to win. And the more he had talked to me
about it, I was like, you know what, this sounds
like an awesome like this seems like perfect for me.
And the time I was kind of looking for something
like this where I was gonna be able to travel
a little more, and it just seemed like the perfect

(19:35):
fit at the right time. It was more about like,
can I get the training partners I need there to
find the success while I'm in the US, And he
was able to do that for me, And uh, yeah,
so I just I've only been in Oklahoma now for
a month, but so far it's been awesome. And yeah,
I think Sam is going to be a really good
coach for me when over these next two years.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
So did he ever like, I mean, you were you
were you were a sun kissed athlete? Did he ever
corner you at all? Did you have any connection through
sun kiss Probably?

Speaker 2 (20:12):
You know, we had we.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
We had met through sun Kissed definitely at like in
the whole you know, we all stay at the same hotel,
so we'd meet there and he he had cornered me,
I think in a couple of matches, not many, but
a couple. But I'd always talk to him at all
the tournaments, and so we knew who each who each
other were, Like, we were pretty familiar with each other overall.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
You know what's funny is that like you I mean
you like really freaking hit it on the head there
because it's like, you know, if it were anybody else,
it's like I'm I don't want to say I'm sick
of hearing it, like because it comes off like like
a kind of being a like a pessimist, I guess.
But it's like it's like every few months or every season,

(21:00):
every year, it's like who's starting this, who's doing that. Oh,
I'm looking to start at a club, I'm looking to
start a training stare, I'm looking to do this and
RTC that and all this, and the overwhelming majority of
times it's just talk and it's just evaporates. It's you
never hear anything about it again. But when I started, Now,

(21:24):
obviously I have a relationship with Sam, but even still,
like the thing that I thought was different with Sam
is that he's like got the character credibility, you know,
like for sure saying it like it's probably it's probably happening,
because he wouldn't put the cart before the horse, you know.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
No, that's that's exactly You're right, You're you hit it
on the head there. Like when when he said it
and he like gave me his word on it, I
was like all right, like I was, I was pretty
much yeah, he had told me on it, and I
had believed in him, So I mean that's pretty important,
and like.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
We hear it all the time. Every every year there's another.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
New team that's trying to start a Greco and yeah,
so it took me a little bit, but once he
gave me his word, I trusted him on it.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
So how I mean you said it was It's been
awesome so far, But how how have you adjusted to
the uh, you know, the whole cowboy lifestyle or whatever
goes on over in Oklahoma.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
You know, it's good, but it's it got cold here
and apparently it doesn't get cold like this, so I
feel like the weather's kind of following me.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
But it's been good.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
I haven't really done much because as soon as I
got here, I've just been training for Croatia really, so
I haven't really got a chance to go out and
see the town yet.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
So maybe when I get back.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Are there are listen. I'm in New Jersey obviously, so
I'm not trying to but what are the like if
someone want to visit like Oklahoma, Like, what are the.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Like?

Speaker 1 (23:03):
What are the tourist attractions? I can't I mean, I'm
not trying to be funny, like I don't know, well.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
It seems like everyone here loves Oklahoma football, Like that's
big here is like every people come in to watch,
you know, the Sooners play football, and they also love
the Oklahoma City Thunder, the basketball team. That is huge.
That is huge.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Like in Wisconsin, we're a pretty big football you know,
everyone loves the Packers or Bears, you know, I mean.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Everybody's got their football team, and.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
But like here, it's it's not it's just about you know,
the the Oklahoma City Thunder like that, that's what everyone
talks about.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
So where Okay, what town are is? Uh the club
and we're an Edmunds.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
So we're about like twenty five minutes north of Oklahoma City.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Okay, alright, it's a it's a really nice area, all right.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
So let's figure this out here on trip Advisor. All right.
So there's the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, there's Bricktown, which is weird because I actually live
in Bricktown. Essentially, Bricktown, just east of Oklahoma City's downtown
business district, is the city's original warehouse and distribution center
turned entertainment district. You can go shopping, drink, at a
bar dine. Blah blah blah blah blah. Oh, here's a

(24:36):
good one. National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. See that
that I think is more appropriate. Yeah, since Museum of Asteology.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah no, I don't think any of those are really
for me.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Myriad Botanical gardens.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
You know, I can go hit the botanical gardens.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
I think another one Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, I love the Zoo. I'll probably hit that up
once it warms up.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Science Museum Oklahoma, No, because you can go see a
science museum. Everywhere has got that. Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
What was your degree in Benji, I'm communications major, all right.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
So forty fifth Infantry Division Museum, So there you go.
Military Museum, Centennial Land Run Monument, larger than life size
sculptures are very impressive, and they have all sorts of
people on I guess horses and things like that. Car buggies.

(25:46):
I guess you'd call them. Uh yeah, I don't know.
I guess those are things to do. Okay, So, like
you've been in Fort Worth a couple times obviously for wrestling,
Olympic trials?

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Are there?

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Nationals? Are there? You know, like in Fort Worth, like
I would like, well, I was like walking around like
that little like town square beastic and I were like
walking around there and like there were like I don't know,
I saw people wearing cowboy hats and stuff, like do
people wear cowboy hats in Oklahoma?

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah? Yeah, it's it's pretty country out here. It's pretty country.
I I don't know. I don't even try and put
mine on because they're.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Gonna gonna say you have one. I'm almost positive.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, I love the rock cowboy, but like they would
they would weed me out instantly and know I'm not
really country.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Why would they weed you out?

Speaker 2 (26:47):
That's what I would think in my head. I just
bet these guys know I'm not really country.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Postures in general?

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Yeah, probably so well.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
I was telling somebody because uh, when we talked last week,
you were like telling me how like like you went
to like the grocery store and there was like no
meat left over, like two inches.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Of snow and it snowed like two inches here and
they were panicking. I had gone to the store to
get some water bottles and there was none left. There
was no food on the shelves. The only thing that
was in like the meat section was chicken feet. I
might as well get some steak while I'm here. No, nothing,
not even hamburger, Like, it was just chicken feet.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
That's it. It was. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
And then Wisconsin, you know it's they've they've canceled school
for four straight days over two inches of snow.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
It only snowed one day. So yeah, it's been it's
been interesting.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, it is. Uh, you're leaving, I don't know, in
like a couple of days to go to a poor itch. Wait,
so like, wait, last time you were in Croatia was
that Valomar Cup.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
No, L's time I was there for was rankings series.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Ranking series last year.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Are you like looking forward to seeing guys like from
other places, other countries who you haven't seen in a minute.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty excited. I'm excited to see uh
my buddy Nicholas. I haven't seen him in a while
because I haven't been at any of the tournaments. But
he's like one of my best friends, so it's always
good when I get to see him, and he'll be
in Croatia.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
So I'm pretty pumped.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Oh, Nicholas Allan, Yeah, yeah, what is I mean? I
guess it either it matters or doesn't matter. Well, first off,
are you staying like the entires? Are you wrestling in
Albania as well?

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah, I'm hitting them both in the camp. So it's
going to be a long month.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Well that's what I was going to ask.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Here.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Are you in favor of this the way that they
did this with the scheduling this year as far as
like having the ranking series and such, you know, short
proximity to one another?

Speaker 3 (28:51):
There they were, they were last year as well, if
I'm not mistaken, but we just.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Like this where it's like, yeah, well with the other
one was too far, the second one was, this one's
like not far that. What I'm wondering, I said this
to HERB today, is like what I'm wondering is what
the carryover is? Like how many guys who wrestle in
Zagreb not from here, but like how many guys who
wrestle in Zagreb are just gonna be in Toronto?

Speaker 3 (29:16):
I would say, I would say about half of us
are doing them both, is what it sounds like. I'm
not exactly sure, but we got a bunch of guys
coming in for that tournament as well that aren't doing
the camp or Zagreb.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
You know, so.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yes, but I'm talking about the foreigners, like, oh, like
I would take like eighty percent of the people who
are at Zagreb were gonna be in Albania.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
I know.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
For some reason, some people are trying to say they
think Albania is gonna be easier, and I think Albania
is gonna be is gonna be tough. I think it's
gonna be tougher in Zagreb for the first time ever.
I think it might be, but I could be wrong.
So yeah, I guess we'll see. But I think most
of the guys, I think everybody that wrestled Zagreb basically

(30:00):
going to go to Albania.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah. Well, you know what's crazy. I said that some
mango in the UH is Like dude, It's like, over
the past couple of years, like Albania has all of
a sudden been a place now look to have like
tournaments like Big torn you know.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
They they must be they must be bribing or somebody.
Somebody must be high up on the UWW ladder that
I'm not aware of, because there is zero reason for
it to be in Albania.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
There's there's no reason for it to be there. There's
I don't. I don't get it. I don't get it.
Somebody's pushing some money, or somebody got elected onto the
board of something. I don't know, but it makes zero sense,
zero zero sense. They're yeah, what what is the uh?

Speaker 1 (30:48):
What is the the distance between going from let's say,
Porridge to Toronto?

Speaker 2 (31:00):
I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
All right, well let's find out.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
I have no clue. But Albania is not it isn't. Yeah,
I don't love it. I don't love it, but there
are also worse places to be, so it's hard to
complain at times.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
You liked it when he was there. It's ten hours
by car, by the.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Way, that's it, Albania to from Zagrab.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Well I put Zagrab. But it doesn't matter. It's just
not that bad.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, it's tunny. That's interesting. I didn't know that. I
wonder if we're driving there.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
No, probably not, I hope not.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
No way.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Let's see how long is a flight? Flight's too quick
to yeah, flights really quick.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah, so we'll see. It's crazy. I have no idea
what travel looks like. I haven't even like looked at
my flight yet.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Oh, I get it. Interested in these things like hardcore
I don't.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
I just jump on and see where I end up.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Sometimes, well that fits your personality type, it does not
fit bye yeah uh yeah. Anyway, Well it's a nice
Mediterranean country and they have a really impressive organized crime
legacy as well, Albania in case you didn't know that. Yeah,
so you know, watching you associate with out there, it.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
Doesn't make sense, it really does.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
It's like they have like they have an okay freestyle
wrestling team, but it's not like they're big in wrestling.
They might have five senior greco guys and five senior
freestyle guys. I don't even think they have. They definitely
don't have a women's team. So it's just kind of
a weird spot to have.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Well it is, but they also like to have these
events in these countries that don't have prominent wrestling programs
because and Mango actually pointed this out as well, is
because it helps build like awareness, helps build marketing, like
gets attention like hey, look, we're like legit. It shows
other people in the country like you know, I don't know,
I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just trying to.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Well, nobody comes to watch it, so that always sucks.
I mean they not think about that at all.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Uh yeah, well I just me personally just as like
a you know, from the outside of the fish bowl.
I just would think it'd be better to have if
you're just like it's like they push Hungary all the
way to like the summers now, and like I just
would rather go from like Zagreb to Budapest or something.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, me too, I love Budapest.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
You mentioned George. How's George Syke's doing.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
George is doing good. He's doing good. He's he he's
doing really good. He's been training really already's been wrestling well.
He's down a ton of weight, like he looks like
super athletic again. I'm telling you he's gonna be down
at eighty two kilos.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
He's walking what's he walking around at?

Speaker 3 (34:08):
He's like to eighty eight kilos now. He was weighing
one hundred and seven kilos and he's down to eighty
eight kilos. Like, he's been really working hard and sticking
to his diet.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
He's been doing good.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
Good.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
I'm excited to watch him Wrestless year. He's coming to Albania.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Albani has got a lot of guys that don't have,
Like Albania is gonna have a bunch of guys for
the US that you don't see at these tournaments as much,
So that'll be interesting.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
There's a few guys.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Where I was, it's gonna be like their first real
big tournament, So it'll be interesting.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
Well, it's important because like, far too often, what we're
doing in our country's program, and you know, the national
coach certainly understands my point of view on this is that,
and I understand why, but we invest, reinvest and double

(35:03):
down on investing on let's say the ones and twos
and you know, tertiary threes, right, But it's like we
complain that we have a lack of depth, like as
far as like if you go ahead and you imagine
for a second, like take fine, take top two in
some way classes in our country, you can even say

(35:25):
top three, but take top two. A lot of times
there's a pretty significant drop off between let's say the
top two guys are top three guys in a way
class and then everyone else. It's not like the number
four or five guy is really too often is not
really going to threaten one or two, not really okay,
And it's like, well, what happens. Well, it's like, well,

(35:47):
the guys who consistently make teams or at least in
the argument, and they're on national team, they're going to
get the same pretty much the same opportunities the very
next season too. They're gonna be on the Winter Tour,
they're gonna go here, and they're gonna be at this
camp and do this and that and this and that.
And it's like, well, the guys who are like, you know,
fringe contenders and are just trying to establish themselves, they

(36:09):
need opportunities too. They don't get the funding, and a
lot of them don't even have the club support anyway,
but they're certainly not getting national team funding. And it's like, well,
there's got to be stuff for them to do as well,
Like they've got to have like their own chances to
at least train and compete overseas, even if it's different,
Like my idea was Tier one and Tier two, like

(36:30):
if you could ever have like, let's say, two separate budgets, which,
by the way, I understand sounds kind of I don't know,
like pie in the sky a little bit. But it's like, okay, fine,
you're ones and twos they'll go to a place like
let's say Zagreb, or they'll go to the other branking
series and whatever. But then you're tier two athletes who

(36:52):
haven't made national team yet, or maybe they've made national
team but they haven't really kind of threatened to make
a world team. Those guys you sent to like say
tier two style kind of like more like events, you know,
like if they like on a year, like if they
had Paula Salu and Petrov or something like that, you know,
like and the only reason why I say Petrov is

(37:12):
because Petrov has kind of fallen off a little bit.
It's basically Bulgaria's version of Dave Schultz memorial, but like
it's we need to kind of spread the wealth a
little bit. And I'm not saying that in like some
sort of communistic socialistic sense, but just in terms of, well,
we complain about a lack of depth, right, we complain
about it, but we're also the same you know, two

(37:36):
or three usual suspects in each way class, so the
only ones really kind of traveling and competing. It's like
last year at the World Team trials, it's like ninety
percent of that as that participation list that was their
first tournament the season, it's like they're not really doing much.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Yeah, but like a lot of those guys, they a
lot of them bitch about not getting you know, getting
to do this stuff, or they want these opportunities and stuff.
But when we have opportunities in the US, they don't
even come to them. That's the biggest problem is it's
like if they were all coming to all these camps
and we were filling everything up, and it was you know,

(38:14):
it was tough to even you know, get the ones
and twos into the camp because we had so many
lower guys. We'd probably be like, you know, let's get
more guys involved, but that's not even happening.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
It's not happening. And sometimes you got to make a
way for yourself, you know, like you like everybody'd be like, oh,
I'm not going I can't go to this trip.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
I can't even I can't afford to go to these
tournaments and NYC won't help me. And then it's like
next thing, you know, they're in Mexico on vacation and
it's like, well, you probably could have went to throw
Masters this year, I bet, but instead you wanted to
go to Puntakana.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
With your girlfriend, so like, that's that's a problem. That's
a real problem. Sometimes you gotta do it for yourself.
And then it read the rewards after, you know, maybe
the guys see, oh, this guy's going overseas, he's trying
to do this stuff. Next thing, you know, you're on
the funding, you're getting on NYC, you're getting help, you're

(39:14):
getting reached out to, like they want you to come
to the camps. I don't know. That's just what I think.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Listen, No, you make a great point. That's part of
the problem as well. That is definitely part of the
problem as well. That that said, there should be like
some kind of avenues open budget wise, if we could
ever have it to where it's like identify guys like
from like let's say four to seven or something and

(39:43):
here and there, and it's like, hey, listen, like, you know,
would you be interesting going to this because we can
fund it, you know, and then you at least put
people on the corner to where like if they say no,
then it's on them, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
I guess we'll see.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
I don't think it's not happening anytime soon. I really would.
I'm worrying about it. Gosh, you're right though, man, Like
I look, if there is one complaint that or I
shouldn't even say it's a complaint. It's not a complaint.
But if whenever I talk to like, you know, guys

(40:21):
from the past, older retired guys, guys who are in there,
you know, I don't know, like fifties and sixties dudes
who've been done for like a long time. If they
have one critique of the current generation, it is that
they are two dependent upon others, too dependent on coaches,

(40:42):
two dependent on help, too dependent on resources, instead of
having more of a like, well it looks like I'm
going to have to do it myself sort of attitude,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
No, it's it's a huge problem, and it's just like
I'm I'm just sick of listening to everyone complain about it,
to be like that's that's where I'm at with the
old situation, Like it's a problem, but I just wish
they wouldn't they wouldn't all complain about it, and then
when they have opportunities they don't take them, Like there
was a time you know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Say it, just say it, Just stay the set.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
It's a touchy subject because like we've all, like everybody's
been there. There's not one guy that's on the senior
ladder that didn't have to you know, pull money out
of their pocket to go somewhere or you know, make
phone call after phone call to get to a camp
or get invited to a tournament or go over like
I don't know, and it's just like people don't do it.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
They just don't do it.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
So dude, I remember there was a time when Lynnland
had to turn people away and tell them that they
can't come because their capacity, like everything was pretty much
fairly well full to the point where guys were you know,
some guys felt like, uh by a perception that they
were like being left out on purpose and things like that,
but that wasn't the case. It's just that the buy

(42:05):
in was so high, and it's like you fast forward,
I don't know, ten years or so, and now it's
like you have to twist some people's arms too.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
Yeah, come train, Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Whatever. Hey, let me ask you a question. You're very
close friends with Spencer Woods. Is that not correct?

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, Spencer is one of my I would consider one
of my best friends.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
So what is it like for you when you watch
him and Peyton wrestle each other.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, dude, that one sucks. I hate that one. I
hate that one.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
And I got even closer with Spencer once I moved
to Colorado because he lives there, Like we were really
close before, and then I got close with him, even
closer with.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
Him while I was living out in Colorado. So yeah,
it really sucks.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
At Olympic trials, it was a little easier for me
to sit in Peyton's corner because Peyton was wrestling with me.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Every day, but it still was, like, man, it was
really it was really hard. I yeah, I don't I
don't like that.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
I wish I wish they were at different weight classes.
I would do if there was anybody that I wish
was had a different weight class, that was Spencer and Peyton.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yeah, I mean, look at it's just something that just
is just common in our sport at every level, you know,
like we we formed type relationships with you know, and
plus Peyton's like a little brother almost right.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Yeah, I'm so close with Peyton just his whole family,
So it makes it, yeah, super difficult.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
It's a super difficult match.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
I honestly don't even the one where they watch wrestled
in Vegas. I didn't even watch it until after. I
like just turned the stream off.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
I wasn't in Vegas. I was just watching on my phone.
I just turned it off.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
I actually went back and rewatched it after, so I
was like, I don't even want to watch this.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
That was really where I was at.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
Yeah, I could picture that, and I know, like, yeah,
I could picture because I know how I mean, I
knew that you were close with Woods and that you
obviously have that you know, tight years years years long
relationship with Jacobsen, who, to your credit, even when he
was a shrimp at sixty kilos, like you were trying

(44:30):
to convince anyone who would listen, like how good he
was going to be.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, yeah, I always knew Peyton was going to be.
Peyton's the man. He was always the man.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
It's kind of took.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Yeah, he's a beast, dude, he is a beast. I
was telling the story recently. I think I might have
told Herbert, but he is a true story. So when Aiden,
when Aiden Nutter got to like, well, I think it
was a I don't know if Aiden's first semester or
whatever it was. It was twenty one, so like Peyton
had already kind of been there a minute, and then

(45:01):
Aiden was there and I was like, okay, well, you
know it would be cool, like let's do like let's
do a piece on like Jacobson and Nutter little Nutter
like kind of being at Northern now and you know whatever.
So I go and I do this thing right, and
I started, like it was like Christmas time twenty twenty

(45:21):
one is when like I started putting this on like
the like the Doo Doo do list, And so this
is a true story. It's so embarrassing. Well it was embarrassing,
but I had Peyton's phone number, right, and so it's
like the morning after Christmas, December twenty sixth. And this,

(45:43):
by the way, this is all to illuminate Peyton's work ethic.
But it's like the morning after Christmas and it's nine
am New Jersey time, so that's like eight am Wisconsin time,
and so I'm like, it's probably safe, like that kid's
probably up. And so I was just calling to like
schedule the actual call to record him, and instead it

(46:08):
wasn't his phone, like it was like either his house
number or his like mom's phone or something I don't remember,
but like I go, I call this number and it's
like eight am, Wisconsin time, and his mom picks up
and like so now I'm like super embarrassed because like

(46:29):
I'm a married father of you know, two kids calling
to speak to some like whatever Peyton was in two
when eighteen nineteen years old or whatever. And I'm like,
oh whatever, like, oh hi, missus Jacobson, Yeah, this is
uh Tim from five point Move And she's like, oh,
hi whatever. But after I get over that, she's like

(46:51):
I say, like, yeah, you know, can I you know,
was Peyton there? You know whatever? And she was like,
oh no, well Peyton's gone. He went to the gym
this morning, like he's been there for a little he's
been there for a while, but he should probably be
home like within the next hour or two. It's like, dude,
that kid was up. My takeaway was like that kid

(47:11):
was up the morning after Christmas like working out like
at like six forty five am.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
Yeah. He's a he's a monster. He's got he's got
one of the craziest work ethics.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
He'll make anybody feel lazy, Like he literally could make
anybody feel lazy.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
It is incredible. Dude's just a beast.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
He's like, that's the only word for Peyton is just
he's He's just a beast. Nothing phases him. He's just
it's nothing phases him.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
What was it like, uh watching him get his U
twenty three world medal here.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
I mean, it was pretty It was pretty hype.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
It was really hype because I mean he's been working
for forever for that, Like we were talking about it,
like going into it, I'm like, dude, you can do
it this year. And he you could tell he felt
super confident going in. But then the best part was
he was actually flying. He flew from the World Championships
to uh uh, North Dakota and I picked him up

(48:16):
in North Dakota and we went hunting for a week.
So it was like as he got off the plane,
I was waiting for him at baggage claim and he
came out like all nonchalant, and then he had the
medal around his neck and he had like pulled it
out like it was a chain.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
It was so funny. It was so funny.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah, you guys are in a good spot. We had
a good young group.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
Yeah, we got a killer young squad, like the young
guys are, they're they're really talented right now, They're really
really talented.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
This is I mean, look at I know that obviously
you're I would think obviously that you know, you're of course,
you know, focused and concerned with your own individual goals
and things like that. But you know, I gotta think

(49:09):
like you're I think that you're probably looked at even
with having gone through uh maybe even especially actually gone
through uh, you know, the injury over the past year,
But like, uh, do you like got to be looked
as a leader in our program at this point? No,

(49:31):
do you feel like one?

Speaker 3 (49:33):
I do?

Speaker 1 (49:34):
I do.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
We got a lot of older guys on the team
though that that kind of keep the seniority over me
at times. But I'm definitely I'm definitely like the biggest
hype man on the squad.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Everybody kind of knows that.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
I would say it's me or Max Black, for sure,
but we're I try and keep everyone hyped up, and
the newer guys that are coming on, I try and
you know, kind of show them the ropes the best
I can. But I I definitely wouldn't say I have
this seniority rank on the squad for the moment.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Well, you don't in terms you're twenty five years old.
I get that. Yeah, but like you're you're very supportive
of like everybody. You're obviously very vocal, and you're also
a top athlete, and you've been around like even though
you're only twenty five. The thing is is that, like
you've been like a major part of the program for
what now, Like I mean, if you count when you

(50:24):
started even at Northern, like that's twenty seventeen. So like
it's not like you just got here and you're like
being presumptuous like everybody knows you. Like I would think
that young guys probably would like certainly listen to here.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they definitely do. They definitely, Uh, they
do listen to me for the most part.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
But I know my role.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
I know my role on team, and I worry about
myself for the most part. But there is a time
and place where where I speak my mind or try
and tell these guys is, you know, like when we're
going on a trip what they need to start looking
out for and what's going to happen when we get there.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
So I try and I try and stay in my
my role. The best I can.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
Are you good at like, are you good at comforting guys?

Speaker 2 (51:17):
No? No, I'm not the comforter.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Definitely, they don't come to they don't come to Benji
for comfort.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
That's that's that is, that's the truth.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
But when they want to hear the real honest, when
they want the honesty, I would say I'm probably the
guy they come to. Yeah, I'm definitely not the shoulder guy.
But uh yeah, I'm not the carrot guy. I'm the
stick guy for sure.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
At time.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Oh I like that. That's a pretty good one. Hey,
so what do you think about don here what they're
doing so far?

Speaker 2 (51:58):
You know, I like what they're doing. I actually went
out there.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
I was one of the first guys that kind of
went out there to take a peek at what they
had going I like what they have going there. It's
it's gonna be one of those things where, like a
lot of people already have an opinion on it or
a voice of what they think, but it's it's one
of those situations where it's like it's gonna take time.
If you take an opinion of what it is now,

(52:21):
it's it's not gonna be the same, you know, in
in three years. I think they're they're on the right path.
They just they got to get a couple of superstars.
I really think that's like it's hard to get guys
to go there without a few superstars. I think they
need to invest a little more into that. But they
got a good thing. I I really I like Christiansen

(52:43):
a lot. I like the brack uh Tommy Brackett a lot.
I thought he was a great dude to pull in.
So I think they're on the right track. I like
what they got going there.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
They've done such a great job of bringing kids in
so far. Yeah, but I really like and I love Christiansen.
I totally do totally what I'm really You know how
we were talking before, how you always hear, oh, they're
gonna do this, this team's gonna do that, this guy
saying that he's gonna bring this team in stuff like that,
and don't getting wrong. This was a little different because
like Cheney and then you know, Justin were like involved

(53:16):
in helping make this happen as far as don't adding
Greco and stuff. But I figured it would probably take
They've got a lot of guys already, Like I figured
that was gonna take like a, then the number of
dudes they have and I don't know the exact number,
but the number of kids they have already, I did
not think that they would have until like maybe at

(53:37):
the end of year or two, going into year three.

Speaker 3 (53:40):
Yeah, No, they're doing a They're doing a good job
of getting guys. I I didn't think that was gonna
be a problem though, just knowing Christensen, like I knew
he was gonna he was gonna be a guy that
that was able to pull numbers. But you gotta they
in order to get those better guys to not go
to Northern because they're they're just He's gonna lose the

(54:00):
top talented Northern. It feels like until they can instead
of going for the mass numbers, they're just like, you
know what, Now they got the squad, they got the
guys they need to go land, you know, two or
three really solid guys, big names, and then I think
people will follow. So I have high hopes for them.
I really think they're gonna be good. It's gonna take

(54:21):
some time, but I think they're gonna be good.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
How about your own team?

Speaker 3 (54:28):
We got we got an we got an interesting squad
here in Oklahoma, dude, it's I tell you what I
interesting squad.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
Wait a minute, though, I wrote like I just went
out like and and kind of like I've made this
joke before, but it's like I just did the Spencer
Army Report thing, and it's like, well, it's like Armies
kind of like the Dodgers, you know. Right now, it's
like a lot of top guys. If they want them,
they get them. They've got the resources, they've got coaches

(54:58):
and staff and all this other stuff. And it's like
you look at your team and your team is like
starting to I mean maybe not the Dodgers yet, like
as far as like overall numbers, but you've got a
lot of good guys already.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
Ours is another Ours is another spot where it's like
it's gonna take a little bit of time. I think
we're gonna we're gonna have a really good team quick.
But at the moment, we have one of those teams
where like people are like gonna be a little confused.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
At for a little bit.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
But like my main training partner right now is Brett Bach. Yep,
I'm telling you this dude's gonna be good. Yeah, he's
a bulbog and I wouldn't say that. I don't just
say that stuff like he's gonna be good. He has
never had like a real training partner for Greco. Like
he's been a good wrestler in general, but he hasn't

(55:52):
had like a true training partner. And I think over
the month, the past month we've been wrestling together, he's
made crazy improvements, like I think he's gonna be I
think he's gonna be really tough to beat by April,
and in a couple of years he's gonna be a mainstay.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
I can feel it. I can feel it when I
wrestle with him. He loves to learn, like he's he's
all in.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
He works his butt off, like yeah, high praise for Brett.
He's definitely a goober. He's a goofy goober for sure,
but he's uh.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Yeah, I like him a lot. I think he's gonna
be good.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
I guess this is probably I don't know if it's
a dumb question and not considering, but is there anything
else that you're gonna do anywhere else you're going to
go before trials after coming back from Albania.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
No, I think I'm gonna hunker down here and kind
of just take what I've learned from Albania, whether it's
the tournament or what's going on in camp and my
matches at camp, or you know, just how I'm feeling,
and I'm gonna take that that month and a half
two months to just.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Just stay here.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
Like they got camp in March, and we're not gonna
send our guys there. Sam's already told us we're not
gonna go there, which I think is a good move,
you know, So we're gonna stay and train and we're
just gonna get ready for that.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
Probably last question, you said matches in camp, Right, do
you grade yourself differently depending on the circumstance, like, you know,
whatever live goes you have in camp compared to like
how you do in matches, Like do you grade yourself differently,
like as far as like well I did this and
this against this guy and this guy in camp, but

(57:48):
then in tournament I did this and this and this
and but that was the tournament. Like do you grade
yourself differently depending on whether it's a tournament or if
it's a training camp?

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Yeah, yeah, because there's they're so different in in the tournament.
It's more like I would say, in a tournament, I
feel like we focus more on like.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
The techniques that were happening, like, oh, you were in
bad position, you know, and these spots when you had
your underhooks and in camp. But you can kind of
feel like, I don't know, if this guy felt way
stronger than me, maybe I need to work on my strength,
or my cardio wasn't the best. It's not as much
about the wrestling as it is like your overall fitness.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
That's kind of where I stand on it. Or I'm
getting hired in these positions, or I'm getting snapped down
in a tournament is more like, man, my match IQ
is out the window, or I'm getting off balanced a
lot and these like That's more what I'm thinking overall.
But you can take a lot from both of them.

Speaker 3 (58:44):
Practice matches are great, they have their own thing, and
tournament matches with the lights on, they're a completely different thing.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
But you can pull a lot from both of them.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
If you had to. I don't know. I'm not going
to make you use a ten scale, I guess, but
considering the recovery considering I mean, I guess we'll count
the Portugal thing that I had zero clue about until
you mentioned it then there's January camp and practices in Oklahoma,

(59:17):
and now you're going to Croatia, like you're you said
that you had started to in August like lift pretty
heavy and all that. Like where would you put Like,
is your physical like strength, your physical viability the same
as pre injury ors are you even physically stronger at

(59:38):
this point?

Speaker 3 (59:40):
I'm a lot smaller, Like just I'm pretty Like before
i was weighing like eighty eighty one ish and I
was cutting down to seventy two, so i was cutting
a lot of weight. And now I'm weighing like seventy seven,
so I'm not cutting as much weight anymore, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
A little smaller.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
I'm not as strong, but like physically I would say,
but I'm pretty. I don't know the word I feel.
I feel really good right now. It's hard to it's
hard to explain. But yeah, I've definitely lost some size
from the injury, but I still feel really good, feel

(01:00:19):
one hundred percent, feel like everything's kind of trending in
the right direction.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
So so that's probably just temporary, you know, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Think it'll be temporary. But I kind of like where
I'm at right now, Like I really don't mind it
for at least this year.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
I kind of like where my weight's at, and I
like not having to focus as much on cutting weight
and I can focus a little more on the wrestling part,
which I think is honestly been really nice. It's been
really nice because I feel like a lot of times
I'm getting hurt is when I'm when I'm cutting that
you know, that huge amount of weight. So I think
this could actually be better for me. We'll see, we'll

(01:00:56):
see feel it out here in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Is that it advice that you give to younger athletes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
No, No, I'm opposite.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
I think I think when you're young, everyone's like, oh,
don't tell the young kids to cut weight, and don't
tell them to do this. You gotta do whatever you
gotta do to win, because you will hate this sport
if you're not winning. I am an advocate of if
you can, if you can stay up and wait and
still win a lot of matches and don't cut weight
because cutting weight sucks. But if you have to cut

(01:01:25):
weight to win, cut the weight, cut the waiter, you're
gonna end up quitting because the sport is too hard.
You won't hear nobody else say that, but nobody else
is being honest.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
That's a fact.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
People are like, bump up, you just go up weight,
and then they end up losing and their kid hates
the sport and they're like, well that sucks. And it's like, well,
anytime you're losing every single weekend, you're gonna hate. If
you cut some weight, you're a little bigger, probably.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
Gonna like it a little more. I don't know. It's crazy,
crazy concept, but that's that's how I personally feel.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Okay. And that was two time World team member Benji Peak,
mister fantastic as I like to follow him, and yeah,
two time World team member, multi time national champion, and
you know, I look at I don't want to get sentimental.

(01:02:24):
You know, I could have said this to him, and
in the past I did text him these things or
whatever not that text him these things. But I hope
everybody understands the kind of toughness Benji Peak is comprised of. Okay,

(01:02:46):
because yes, is he crazy. Yes he's a little crazy.
He's hilarious too, but he's crazy. But he has put
together a body of work in conjunction with his results
that if you look at it like as a whole,

(01:03:07):
he's one hundred and ten percent. There's no one tougher
than him. There's no one tougher than him. Okay, he's
come back from I mean, yes, okay, the recency bias,
the broken neck for crying out loud, a broken neck,
and it's like, yes, the way he describes it. And

(01:03:29):
he's saying how the doctor told him, like, look, you're
gonna wrestle again, and like that's you know, okay, but
you like he and he he said he did not
know for sure, because you don't know how these things
are gonna go. It's one thing to hear a doctor
say something. Doesn't mean it's always going to turn out
that way. But it's not just that, it's just, you know,

(01:03:50):
it's only a few years ago, I want to say,
twenty twenty two, you know, tore his shoulder up and
that was, needless to say, a giant, big deal. And
the way he's left it out on the mat like
his first series in twenty one, I guess it was
against Pat Smith and he lost that series. Benji did,

(01:04:17):
but he just I mean, he emptied his reserves and totality,
which for someone like Pat Smith that's you know, that's automatic.
That's how Pat Smith had been as a competitor. But
it's what it takes to just compete against them most
of the time, and Benji hadn't really been called upon
to do something like that. And then you keep going

(01:04:43):
and it's, you know, Benji's match versus kicking off in
the Olympic Trials Challenge tornament final or whatever it was,
or at least was that what it was, the challenge
tom and semi final, sorry, semi final. And I mean,
if you look, Benji came back from that shoulder injury

(01:05:07):
and had a well of the season the next you know,
that next season, which is why I'm talking about that
at row with the kicking off match and all this.
But it's like, you know, a kid has bounced back
from three shoulder shoulder surgeries if I can speak English,
the broken neck, and he's an animal. He's an animal.

(01:05:29):
So off the air if you want to call it
off the air, will be dorks and say off the air.
But when Benji and I weren't recording, I was, you know,
I had been spitballing this previously. It's like, you know,
he's so much fun and he also looks at the
sport as a sport. He can. He's someone who can
talk about Greco Roman wrestling as a sport and not

(01:05:50):
everyone associated with it can do the same. And so
at one point I had thought, you know, I should
if I could some how manage it, it would be
it would probably be fun if I can involve Benji
in this type of thing a little more. So I
go and I mentioned this to him when we weren't recording,
and he was mutually interested. He doesn't lack for hubris,

(01:06:17):
in case he hadn't noticed, so he was like, oh, yeah,
give me an hour, you know, or whatever. So we'll
see how that goes, how that might work. The ironic part,
or coincidental part, I guess is that I had had
a very similar conversation with Kamal a couple of years ago,
or a season ago, or whenever it was, because Kamal

(01:06:39):
is so good at this too. He's good at relating
the athlete experience and relating it to the fans and
involving the fans, involving those who are on the outside
of the periphery, and maybe there's a way to combine
those two elements. Kamal and Benji somehow or I don't know.

(01:07:03):
I got to think about it. I got, you know,
see what we can potentially do as time allows for
all three of us involved. But that might be something,
it might be something going forward at any rate. But
like look at Benji, people probably forget. I don't know

(01:07:24):
how many of you listening are casuals, probably a fair amount.
And I don't know who's going to remember this. I hopefully,
I hope you know. I can't talk. I shouldn't be
allowed to talk. That's that's kind of what it is.
But anyhow, for those who might remember back during the pandemic,

(01:07:49):
it's called five years ago now Bill Coley, who was
Benji's youth coach. Obviously a lot of people should know
who Bill Colly is. Ringers an enormously important developmental Grecro
Roman coach in the United States. He ran what was
called the Ringers Showcase. I think he did one or
two of them, and at one of them called early

(01:08:13):
twenty one, twenty twenty one, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:08:17):
Benji Peak and Austin Nutter did the play by play
slash commentary for it, and they were awesome. They were terrific,
And I'm not even saying that from a like some
sort of bias because I have relationships with these gentlemen,
or because of a Greco Roman bias or anything like that.
They were great. They were great, they were engaged, they

(01:08:40):
were excited, they were exciting, they were explanatory. They're telling
the viewers what's going on and all this, and it's like,
you know, these are some of the kinds of personalities
we have in the Greco program, and part of what
five point at least has tried to do is to
kind of illuminate those a little bit more. But Benji

(01:09:04):
does a great job. And look again, just how tough
can you be? I mean, I just don't see how
you can be tougher than them. And so we'll see
how this trip goes for him, and you know what,
everybody else, because it's a strange sort of dynamic insofar
as you're having a group of athletes who are going

(01:09:27):
to be in Europe for a month, and not that
that's so nuts, it's just the fact that there's two
Ranking Series tournaments, not back to back like in consecutive weekends,
but those are the two tournaments they'll compete in in
a row, most of whom will train in Porch in
between them. And I think Kamal is the only wrestler
who's going to compete in Zagreb go home and come

(01:09:50):
back if I'm not mistaking that part of the plan
for him, But why either way? Either way? And then well, yeah,
we'll briefly touch upon the roster. I think I know
it by heart. So let's go fifty five kilograms. Only
one guy, and that's Brady Koontz Pratdy Kontz, who is

(01:10:12):
one of three wrestlers on this delegation who is a
Sam Hens Hayeswinkle guy. Now Brady Kontz is also part
of Position Wrestling. Sixty kilos is the return of Dalton Roberts,
multi time World Team member, national champion, Olympic Team Trials champion,

(01:10:32):
reigning World Team member, the one and only Max Black,
and World Team Trials runner up Zane Richards, who last
year was second at the World Team Trials to Max,
and that was his first senior Greco tournament. And he's
locked in. And so that's sixty kilos, sixty three kilos.
Il dhar Hafe's off or half he's off, or however

(01:10:54):
you like to say it. Il Dar two time Olympian,
ninety time World team member. I guess or whatever between
USA and news Becka stan And sixty three also has
ret peak no relationship to Benji other than both were
at the OTC at the same time and both are
now with Sam Hayes Minkel, so retpeak. This is his
first major league appearance in the Big Time Zagreb Rankings

(01:11:20):
Series Tournament sixty seven Austin Nutter and Auto Black Auto
Black of course, U twenty three World Bronze, Austin Nutter
twenty nineteen Junior World Bronze, seventy two, Benji Peak, Alex
Sancho seventy seven is just Camal eighty two, Becca Miloshphieley

(01:11:42):
and Jesse Porter eighty seven, Peyton Jacobson and Zach Bronegele
Peyton Jacobson U twenty three World Bronze. Of course I
should if we're gonna keep doing this, I guess I
should have said Becca twenty twenty four U twenty three
World Silver. I mean this is nuts. And then ninety
seven is just Michael Foy one thirty heavyweight Colton Schultz.

(01:12:06):
Three Age group World medals, including a U seventeen gold,
two time U twenty World bronze eight in a tau
and one mister Courtney Denzel Freeman, who's also you know,
on the cusp of potentially being UFC Heavyweight Champion one
of these years, but he's Grecro Roman wrestler slash MMA fighter.

(01:12:33):
It's no secret I would prefer he for this station
of his life focus on just Grecro Roman wrestling, but
he says he can't because he needs to me his
brain gets to board. So either way, that's your roster
for Zagreb. We'll see how this carries over to Tirana, Albania,

(01:12:53):
the Muhammad Malo Tournament, and then away we go. I
was going to do a whole thing on the updated
Olympic qualifying procedures that UWW just released, and it's exhaustive

(01:13:13):
and it's a hot mess. And prior to me to
my recording this segment here, I was on the phone
with Dennis Hall and we were both going hey wire
over it, mainly in disagreement and confusion. So yeah, I'm
gonna save it just because I don't want this segment

(01:13:34):
here to wind up a half hour, but just you
can read it for yourselves. But basically, what UWW is
doing is prioritizing twenty twenty seven stuff over twenty twenty
eight stuff, the actual year of the Olympics. So have
fun with all that, and yeah, let's move on to

(01:13:55):
social media concerns. Social media concerns, to follow Benjie on
Instagram because I'm not doing Snapchat and I'm not touting
TikTok either. It's either Instagram and X or that's it, okay,
So Benji Instagram, Benji Underscore Peak, p e a K

(01:14:16):
Benji Underscore Peak. Dennis Hall. You can follow Dennis Hall
on Instagram as well. That's Dennis Hall Underscore UD And
for the sake of tradition, to follow Dennis Hall on
x you can do so at Dennisall WGW. And for
USA GREK and Roman news and athlete perspectives, please go

(01:14:39):
to five point Move dot com and as always, follow
along on X A vibe to the number five PT movie.
That's it for episode sixty eight. Everybody, thanks for listening,
and we'll see you soon.