The eagerly anticipated Armwrestling Championship bout of two super matches which featured Armwrestlers from India and Australia took place in Assandh, Haryana. The thrilling bout between the two ended in an entertaining 1-1 draw.
In the heavyweight division, Australia’s Matt ‘Hollywood’ Connelly was up against India’s Aabhas Rana. Matt Connelly is one of the well-known names in professional Armwrestling circuit having competed in several international matches worldwide. On the other hand, Aabhas Rana, a 15-year old rising Armwrestler from India was recently crowned as the World Champion in both the Left- and Right-hand category at the WAF World Championships, which was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in the Sub-Junior category
Heading into the super match, the Australian was the favourite given his years of experience as a professional armwrestler. However, what followed was one of the most dominant performance by an Indian Armwrestler against an international Armwrestler. Aabhas Rana defeated Matt Connelly 4-0 in the super match. The match was scheduled for seven rounds.
The second super match featured Australia’s Ryan Bowen and India’s Mazahir Saidu. Ryan Bowen is one of the most popular Armwrestler in the world and a social media celebrity in the Armwrestling circuit. In a thrilling bout, Bowen overcame Mazahir Saidu 4-3.
Mazahir Saidu took the early advantage in the fight, easily pinning Bowen in a strap battle. However, in the second round, it didn’t take long for Bowen to pin Saidu to equalize. In the third round, Mazahir recovered and pinned Bowen with his impeccable side pressure to take a 2-1 lead. In the fourth, Bowen was nearly pinned by Mazahir’s extremely intense side pressure, but he recovered to pin down Mazahir using his strong wrist power. Heading into the fifth round, the score was 2-2.
In the fifth round, Mazahir easily pinned Bowen to extend his lead to 3-2. In the sixth round, both the Armwrestlers were tested of their stamina and menta strength. Mazahir’s powerful side pressure put Bowen in a lock but he managed to stay until Mazahir gave away his advantage due to an incorrect stance after which Bowen pinned him down.
In the final round, Mazahir managed to pin Bowen with relative ease. However, the referee called for an elbow foul on Mazahir and the bout had to be restarted. While the referee was praised for the unbiased call, both Bowen and Mazahir had decided that minor fouls will not be called out by the referees and that the match would be allowed to continue and had this been honored by the referees, Mazahir would have been crowned as the Champion. As the round restarted, Mazahir started strong but lost his shoulder positioning which helped Bowen to bounce back and pin Mazahir with a shoulder press to win the bout.
