From Eddie’s ADCC News website http://news.adcombat.com/article.html?id=8321
ANNUAL EDDIE GOLDMAN AWARDS: KARAM GABER, 2004 WRESTLER OF THE YEAR
Submitted by: E.Goldman/Boxing & Wrestling Editor
Posted On 12/27/2004
This year there is likely to be a consensus among those who cover international wrestling as to who was the top wrestler in the world. One wrestler stood heads and shoulders over all the others. He performed feats on the mat which brought awe and amazement from even the most veteran wrestling people. His winning a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics will be recorded as one of the most dominant achievements in Olympic wrestling history. And his penchant for hitting flashy and high-risk throws as well as his infectious personality had him emerge from the 2004 Olympics as wrestling’s brightest international star.
That man is 2004 Olympic gold medalist Greco-Roman wrestler Karam Ibrahim of Egypt, better known as Karam Gaber. He won what many believe will be the first in a series of gold medals by dominating the 96 kg weight class so thoroughly that already comparisons are being made between him and three-time Olympic gold medalist Alexander Kareline.
In his five matches at the 2004 Olympics, Gaber outscored his opponents by a total score of 43-7, which included six points for one foe in a pool match. He scored one pin and two technical falls, the latter of these coming in the finals and semifinals. In the semis he threw former world champ, Turkey’s Mehmet Ozal, who had beaten him in the 2002 world finals by a controversial 15-11 score, now defeating him 11-0 in just 1:09. In the finals he clobbered Georgia’s Ramaz Nozadze by a 12-1 score, this time actually going into the second period and taking 3:20 to rack up the win.
The style of Karam Gaber is very easy to understand: He will lift you and throw you, like you are a toy or a stuffed animal. He is so strong, quick, skillful, agile, and confident that he makes tossing around champion and world-class wrestlers look easy. No one since Kareline, who retired after the 2000 Olympics, has stood out as so dominant in any style of wrestling.
Gaber’s performance was so electrifying that several articles in the normally U.S.-centric mainstream media about the 2004 Olympic Games focused on him. He was profiled by the Associated Press and NBCOlympics.com, which did not exactly give lots of space to the likes of Egyptian Greco-Roman wrestlers. Although he did not wrestle Americans in the medal rounds, his matches were aired, albeit on tape, on the NBC Olympics broadcast, after which he was interviewed by NBC’s Len Berman. He was also heralded by USA Wrestling’s commentators at the 2004 Olympics for his outstanding performance.
His fame also spread way beyond the world of wrestling. In Japan, two mixed martial arts companies, Pride and K-1, and running major New Year’s Eve shows directly opposite each other, both live and on Japanese national television. The competition is fierce between these two companies. Last year’s New Year’s Eve show earned K-1 a rating of about 19.5, while Pride had to settle for a rating of 12.2. This year each is determined to do better and come out on top.
To accomplish this, both needed to bring in new stars. Pride made their move first. In one of the main events of their New Year’s Eve show, which will be held Friday, Dec. 31, at the Saitama Super Arena just outside Tokyo, making his mixed martial arts debut will be the 2000 Olympic gold medalist Greco-Roman heavyweight wrestler Rulon Gardner, the only man ever to defeat the great Alexander Kareline in international competition. Gardner’s opponent will be another former gold medalist, Japan’s Hidehiko Yoshida, who won gold in 1992 in the sport of judo in the -81 kg/178.5 lb. weight class, and is 4-1-1 in Pride.
With Pride using the angle of Olympic gold medalist vs. Olympic gold medalist, K-1 had to counter with booking an Olympic gold medalist of their own. It was here that they turned to Karam Gaber.
Although he has had some training in Egypt in striking and submissions, Gaber has not fought professionally in any style of combat sports, and has only competed in wrestling on a world-class level. Nonetheless, K-1, driven in part to try to upstage its rival Pride, made Gaber an offer which was too lucrative for him to pass up.
He will be making his mixed martial arts debut on the K-1 Premium 2004 Dynamite show on Dec. 31 at the Osaka Dome. He will be facing a tough foe in his first fight: Kazuyuki Fujita, a mixed martial arts veteran as well as a former freestyle wrestling champion in Japan. (It does not appear at this point that this show will be televised in the U.S.)
To sign him, especially to such a tough fight, K-1 made Gaber what was essentially the offer of a lifetime. According to the information we have, K-1’s offer to Gaber was a $1.2 million contract.
Gaber has stated that he intends to continue wrestling, including going for another gold in 2008 in Beijing, if not longer. Continuing in wrestling is a major reason he also turned down a lucrative offer from the WWE, who would not have let him compete in any real sports if he had signed with them.
Karam Gaber is only 25 years old. However he fares in mixed martial arts, he is bound to be a fixture on the international wrestling scene for some time to come.
So this year’s Wrestler of the Year, in my opinion, is wrestling’s top star, Karam Gaber of Egypt.
For more on Karam Gaber, check out his web site at:
www.karamgaber.com
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