#NFRoundup

NF Roundup Blog, Jan. 11-17

By Eric Olanowski

Mensah Moves Past Gray; Burroughs and Taylor Rescheduled to Wednesday
In the headlining bout of Flo Wrestling's 10-card match, reigning 68kg world gold medalist Tamarya MENSAH-STOCK (USA) bumped up to 76kg and defeated five-time world gold-medal winner Adeline GRAY (USA), 4-0. 

Mensah scored four points in the opening period. She snagged Gray's ankle on a low-level attack before tacking two exposure points to pick up the 4-0 shutout win over one of women's wrestling's most dominant competitors.

Meanwhile, due to contact tracing on the part of '18 world champion David TAYLOR (USA), his colossal matchup with fellow world champion Jordan BURROUGH (USA) has been rescheduled to Wednesday, January 13.

It'll be the fifth time the pair of world champions have squared off in their storied careers. Burroughs owns a 4-0 record, with his last win coming in '14. 

RESULTS
155lbs: Mitch McKee df. Tristan Moran, 11-1
60kg: Ronna Heaton df. Desiree Zavala, 10-8
215lbs: Nate Jackson df. Wynn Michalak, 12-1
61kg: Seth Gross df. Zane Richards, 11-3
143lbs: Ethan Lizak df. Matt McDonough, 10-0
65kg: Joey McKenna df. Nahshon Garrett , 12-2
51kg: Erin Golston df. Emily Shilson, 8-5
152lbs: James Green df. Pat Lugo, 3-2
97kg: J'den Cox df. Hayden Zillmer, 6-1
76kg: Tamyra Mensah-Stock df. Adeline Gray, 4-0

#UWWAwards2022

Ozaki earns Women’s Wrestler of the Year honors

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 28) -- United World Wrestling has announced Nonoka OZAKI (JPN) as the Women’s Wrestler of the Year. 

At the mere age of 19 years, Ozaki joined a rare list of wrestlers with all four world titles.

This year was undoubtedly Ozaki’s year as she won U20, U23 and senior world golds this season.

Ozaki won a bronze medal at the 2021 World Championships but stormed back with a gold-medal-winning performance in 2022 in Belgrade. On her way to the gold, she defeated defending world champion Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ) and silver medalist Kayla MIRACLE (USA).

Domestically, Ozaki needed to defeat Olympic champion Yukako KAWAI (JPN) to make the world team. She did that in May 2022 and then remained undefeated on the season until suffering a season-ending loss by Sakura MOTOKI in the final at the All-Japan Championships on December 25.

In April, she won her first Asian Championships title by beating Tynybekova, added the U20 world title in August, and completed the set by winning the U23 world gold in October. She won the U17 world title in 2019 in Sofia.

The year-ending rankings were also a reflection of her dominance as she finished on the top at 62kg with 55000 ranking points, out-placing other veterans of the sport.