In a monumental upset, Purdue's Matt Ramos defeated Iowa's Spencer Lee in the semifinals of the 2023 NCAA wrestling championships. Subscribe to the NCAA Championship RU-vid channel: ru-vid.com...
Hours before this match, Ramos had an interview and said he had a plan. You can really see him execute it here. 1) He chooses neutral in 3rd instead of bottom (Lee chose top in 2nd) because Lee's tilt is so deadly 2) He uses his Greco-Roman experience to full advantage. In their duel meet match earlier this year, Ramos dominated on his feet, but Lee pinned him as soon as he got on top. 3) He uses an excellent standing Granby roll twice to get escapes into immediate counter-attacks. 4) He is constantly pushing into Lee, then changing direction to throw him off balance. Even in the cases where this didn't score him points, it is obviously effective, often sending Lee onto his butt or into a desperate scramble. I would have loved to watch Lee make history tomorrow night. He's such an exciting wrestler to watch, and such a darn nice guy, that you can't help but cheer for him. I wish he had gotten the happy ending he seemed destined for. But on the other hand, this feels like the first chapter in a story just as exciting.
What's that last move Ramos hit for 5 called? I'm not used to seeing a roll away from the trapped arm. It was slick though, they don't call them home runs for nothing. Fun match.
What a weapon on his feet. He knew to stay off bottom to start the 3rd. Take that chance with a neutral start. Smarts and confidence there. A great career for Lee.
This was the 2nd best I've seen. Big Spencer fan being from PA. Same move won the other one too. Guy was down like 10 or something and hit that crazy pancake. Same shock.
Nah Glory is going to beat Ramos. I was worried that Glory would beat Lee in the finals. But Ramos already did that. Glory is just as big as Ramos and has wrestled pretty good against Lee in the past.
@@teebob21 Except Spencer's not out though. And neither is Beau Bartlett up at 141 and Shayne Van Ness at 149. Both will still top 7 finish but will have to go through some competition to do it. I don't think Spencer will just quit and take himself out, he's gotta get some bonus points in consolations to give his team somewhat of a chance.
My name is Rob Rohn from Lehigh. I won a NCAA championship in wrestling. Some consider it the greatest upset win in NCAA wrestling history. I will tell you right now, this one beats mine. I am shocked
It was amazing. Quite a surprise. That 3-1/2 minute break for the challenge probably helped Ramos for last 50s. Surprised Lee was caught there. He had an 8-4 lead with the riding time point, call it 8-5 with an escape point. Pretty much the only way he loses is if he gives up back points. Lee could have easily stalled out the last 50s, instead of being so aggressive and risky.
@@davidcrowl6138 Ramos had a traditional front headlock hooked in pretty deep. I believe Spencer likely though he would try to run the corner and get points, but I truly don’t know. Ramos takes advantage of Lee on his knees, anchors all his weight on Lee’s neck, shoots his right hip/leg through to essential gator roll him as if a throw/exposing the belly to the lights. Spencer is caught, Ramos sinks the hips not allowing him to roll through. Steps over and pretty much crucifixes Spencer for the fall
Exactly and now, with Lee, we get to see HOW great he is-and will be, if he--as he, rises to the occasion. Gable went into a funk, but came out of it. One famous boxing champ once said "you can't see the great until you see how they handle getting beat". Something like that; now will Lee use this to get even better, like Gable did. Maybe?
Amazing. Put him on his back twice, and the way he got that escape and came back aggressive and went for it was amazing. Seemed to catch Lee off guard.
Actually no, Lee totally gassed and gave up. He was WELL off his back and, I think, got choked out. He only needed to hold out for a few more seconds. His fire and fitness were not in the ball park for this season. If he couldn't crap tilt you in the first 2 minutes...he was a shell the rest of the match.
@@bidenisatraitor7633 strongly disagree. Dan Gable's loss to Owings in 1971 is not what people remember him for. Once the shock goes away and once he transitions to freestyle (if he does) his whole career will be remembered. Can say something similar about David Taylor (4x finalist, losing to Bubba Jenkins and Kyle Dake), Isaiah Martinez, Mark Hall, etc.
@@kristopherwilson506 And even Zain Retherford and Bo Nickal AND Jason Nolf. All who were disappointed by past tournaments and didn't want that feeling ever again. I think Bean Bartlett and Shayne Van Ness will also go down as two of the Penn State greats down the road, but Shayne's time I feel is definitely coming quick.
Let's not forget that incredible double leg takedown in the 1st. Ramos literally bulldozed Spencer Lee from his feet to his back, getting 2 and 2, setting the tone for what was coming later. If Ramos hadn't started off ahead by 4, I'm not sure it would have played out the way it did. What an incredible double!
Great match, tough to see Spencer get pinned, hats off to Ramos, he came to battle like in the Dual. Both of them fought and fought for sure, great match.
Congrats to Ramos. I gotta say it’s insanely tough to continue competing at a high level with two torn ACLs even after surgery. You can tell it has affected him. He doesn’t move as good as before and gets gassed quickly. Even if he can’t get his 4th title, he’s still an unbelievable wrestler. Hats off to Matt Ramos tho.
@@spoons6923 I understand that he lost fair and square. He decided to step on the mat and scrap and lost. However, everybody knows that Lee wasn’t fully healthy. No excuses, just facts.
@@nyazz22 he barely has both his knees? He tore both ACLs and never made a full recovery. You’re telling me him not being fully healthy has nothing to do with him losing? Lol come on now
I'm a Pennsylvania guy and a huge Penn State fan. What I just witnessed I'm speechless over. Iowa is our huge rival, and I never saw Spencer Lee losing. Ever. Huge hat off to Ramos for an intelligent Match...
Shall we call that the “Ramos Roll”. Literally with .01 seconds left HE’S STUCK! 😮 Kudos to Matt 👏🏼 And Spencer will be always be a legend. My god I love this sport and hot damn I love tournament. 🙏🏼
See what happens when you incorporate all 3 styles of wresting into one masterpiece. Haven’t seen lee thrown like that since his younger days. Great match, all respect to both warriors, only one can go further.
Ramos showed in January he might have the edge in neutral. Even though he still lost despite being up 8-1 in the first that's information to take with you and a confidence boost.
I am a casual fan, but I watched the dual meet between Ramos and Lee during the season. When Ramos was up 8 to 1, I knew he would be a problem for Lee. I felt like Lee was confident on the mat, and too confident specifically going into this match, whether because he not only beat but pinned Ramos previously or not. It will be interesting to watch how he wrestles tomorrow morning for the third place title.
Gotta disagree. Lee gave Ramos props at the handshake in the first match on the throw. And Lee definitely respected the hell out of Ramos' upper body weapons. Looked more to me like Lee just got caught in a wild position and paid the price. Hats off to Ramos for being game til the very end. Signed, a Spencer Lee Fan boy lol
@@aaronsarquist3382 lee’s ego got to him, Lee had a chip on his shoulder, hence why Lee body locked Ramos while still underneath him in a bad position..
Huge upset! But anyone could possibly see this coming at some point. Lee has been handled many times upperbody this year and this shows how difficult the four x thing is. Only sport you can be ahead by a ton and as long as their is time on the clock, you can lose. Credit to Ramos , he had no fear of Lee on his feet and thanks to Lee for giving us fans so much to applaud over the last couple of years.
He's not done yet. He's still got to go for 3rd place and I think he has to because Beau Bartlett and Shayne Van Ness are both angry and by the look of things will be trying to get some bonus point wins here in the next medal rounds.
@@michaelnorth2055 right lol, like a 3x national champ and 2x Hodge Trophy winner is easy to do. You must be a 4x and 3x'er. Because that's what Lee was looking at doing.
Even without the pin Ramos had it won with back points! That is a clean win over one of the best of all time. Credit to both guys for going all out all throughout!
I love to see the comment section. All respect to Ramos for beating one of the best Hawkeyes in the past decade. Sad to see Lee go but the whole community loves him
Who else noticed that in the first round Ramos threw that late time gator roll that Lee rolled through, but that gave Ramos a feel for it and he hit in the 3rd to pull out the W. Also Lee allowed Ramos to control his head and neck in neutral too much during the match. You saw that Ramos felt really comfortable getting that front headlock position, and that's what he attacked late in the match when it was crunch time.
Gable lost to Larry Owings who was a sophomore at a now University of Washington defunct program after being undefeated in high school and college Went ballistic in freestyle and beat Owings 7-1 in the Olympic trials and that was the only point he gave up in the 17 US Matches and then went Unscored upon in 6 Olympic matches. Sometimes it’s these things that refocus people. Larry Owings never won again in the next two years
That was one of the sickest moves I've ever seen. To execute it at that moment against arguably the best 125lber to ever do it is just simply clutch. Not taking anything away from Ramos but Lee looked anything other than dominant the entire match!
Had to play that back at half speed a couple of times to really get it. It was like a cement job but instead of Ramos just locking on Lee the fact that Lee had a body lock on Ramos aided Ramos; he just sort of threw his body and Lee had such a tight lock he had to follow... That... That had to have been one of the most unique improvised moves of all time.
I remember I use to wrestle with matt in the same club back in Bolingbrook IL when we were on the raiders together he’s always been good super proud of you matt !
Wow you hear coaches of the sport talk about "character building" all the time & god damn does this drama epitomize it. This match and Spencer Lee's journey reminded me of all the highs and lows and humility of this crazy amazing beautiful sport. The older you get the more you understand the greatness of this sport. It's sad for Lee but damn thank you Spencer for helping all of us fall in love with this sport all over again. That was the most dramatic & exciting television I've seen in years. I was shook!
I had Ramos as a dark horse going into the tournament just based off the fact that he put Spencer on his back earlier in the year and that he is coming down from 133 so Spencer can’t bully him like he can the other people…Not to mention Spencer seems to run out of steam every time he has to wrestle past two rounds
