East vs West 16 marks the beginning of a new era, it is the first event under the new leadership of the American businessman Robert Baxter, as well as the first event to be held in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and therefore in a certain sense the capital of Arm Wrestling itself!
The card starts in the late afternoon, two legends of the past, Stoyan Golemanov and Vasili Dautashvili face off to see who of the two is ready to return to climbing the rankings.
Stoyan ends the match 3 to 1, a score that reflects his total control over the match, with the only round lost due to a double fault in a position of absolute victory.
From athletes with decades of experience we move on to two of the youngest of the day, Brad Grundy of Florida against the local favorite, Bacho Saginashvili.
In his last appearance in East vs West Bacho had won 3-0 in an excessively easy way, and we can see how a tradition is starting to emerge, because this time too the American opponent will not even be able to move, 3-0 for Bacho.
We go up a category, the 115kg with Frank Lamparelli, Italy, and Serhii Kalinichenko, from Ukraine.
A match that will go in the direction predicted by Serhii, who thanks to his inhuman strength in his fingers and his versatility between Toproll and Press, will be able to maintain the pressure in every round and assert himself in this category with an excellent start. 3-0 for Serhii.
We go on the left arm for the Polish giant Alex Kurdecha, 170kg, and the Armenian David Dadikian of only 115kg.
Despite a promising start for Alex, who manages to show superior strength in David’s specialty field, a foul interrupts the action. In the following starts, it seems that a knob has been turned, David Dadikian manages not to give Alex the chance to get going, and concludes in rapid and cynical succession each round.
3-0 for David Dadikyan.
The curtain rises for the first titled match, as well as the only female match of the card.
Both athletes come from Sweden, Fia Reisek and Mallin Bergstrom, the latter of whom had won their last match.
Fia will be able to take revenge, and what revenge! A dominant 4-0 victory, for the 70kg world title.
Back to the left arm with Daniel Procopciuc, the Moldovan world champion of the new 77kg category tries his luck against the title holder of the category above him, the Ukrainian Oleg Zhok, 85kg.
Despite his heroic efforts, the title will not be changed hands and will remain firmly in the hands of Oleg Zhok who wins each round faster than the previous one, 4-0.
Let’s go up to the exact higher category, always left arm and always title match.
Betkili Oniani, fresh from a victory against Oleg Zhok in the previous match, in his second defense of the title. And the challenger for this third defense, the Ukrainian Oleg Petrenko is ready to avenge his namesake compatriot.
The home athlete, the Georgian Betkili, to the displeasure of the public, will not be able to keep the belt snatched from him by Petrenko, who will win each of the 4 rounds necessary for this change of hands.
The American Michael Todd, coming from an impressive streak of victories, will try to extend it against Ermes Gasparini, the Italian n1. This match is doubly important, as the winner will acquire the right to face the king, Levan Saginashvili.
Despite a thorny situation in the third and final round, which will be repeated due to some errors in the refereeing, Ermes will be able to assert his dominance, bringing Todd to the pad again in a controlled, but not immediate, 3-0.
In what is the match with the biggest age difference, the 58-year-old American Todd Hutchings, dropped to 95kg to snatch the title from the hands of Irakli Zirakashvili, 27-year-old Georgian, already champion of this category, which he has already defended numerous times.
“Toddzilla” Todd Hutchings, in an almost mechanical manner, annihilates Irakli in the first round, but the home athlete does not give up and recovers in the second round by changing technique, and in the third thanks to a double fault from his opponent. But once he has played his aces up his sleeve, the game is left exposed, Todd regains control, and thanks to some technical adjustments he manages to prevent Irakli’s versatility and ends up winning 4-2, becoming the new world champion!
The penultimate match of the evening is the rematch between Genadi Kvikvinia of Georgia, and the Canadian Devon Larratt. A match in which perhaps the referees should also be added to the list of participants, given their constant presence during the match. In fact, the first round will not even take place, won by default by Genadi due to a double fault by Devon during the setup phase.
In the following rounds the athletes will exchange countless violations, while the score will increasingly lean in favor of Devon, who will finally win 4-1.
Despite the duration of almost an hour, the seconds actually spent in an athletic context will be very few, and they will see the Canadian athlete in control.
Luckily we still have a match to wash away the bitter taste in our mouths from the previous encounter.
And what a match! Artyom Morozov, 8-time defender of the title of strongest left-armer in the world, directly from Kazakhstan.
His opponent, the Siberian giant Vitaly Laletin, considered by many to be the real king of thiscategory.
Despite the polls that indicated Vitaly as an overwhelming favorite, not only for the victory, but also in strength, the match opens with Artyom Morozov surprising everyone. The first round sees Artyom toproll Vitaly, and then conclude with a press, silencing any criticism.
The match proceeds on a razor’s edge, Vitaly recovers in the second round due to a double fault by Artyom. But Morozov does not lose heart and brings the score back in his favor, 2-1.
Vitaly in turn seems to raise the pace, for the first time shows that he has several weapons at his disposal, recovers ground, and finally manages to win 4 to 2.
It will be discovered later that Artyom sustained a serious injury in the opening round, a complete rupture of a tendon! Without this injury would he have retained the title? We do not know, but for now we can say …. Vitaly Laletin, new absolute world champion, n1, in the left arm.
