Roman Bravo-Young competed in Nice, France on January 20 at the 2024 Henri Deglane wrestling tournament. This was RBY's first senior-level international tournament while representing Mexico. On top of that, he competed down at 57 kg - a weight almost 8 pounds lighter than where he competed during his college career. Check out the article below for a full recap of his results and a breakdown of his tournament.

Check out Team USA's results at the 2024 Henri Deglane HERE

Watch the Henri Deglane HERE

Match 1 - 10-0 win over Ben Tarik, MAR

Tarik has no international credentials and it showed in his bout against Bravo-Young. In their match, RBY got to his offense early with a takedown in the first 20 seconds off his short offense from a front headlock. RBY continued to pressure forward, and worked a snap to a go-behind for his second takedown about 30 seconds later. Once on top, RBY locked up his side headlock and used it for 3 turns for a 10-0 tech in just over a minute.

Match 2 - 14-4 win over Kael Lauridsen, USA

Kael Lauridsen, a Nebraska commit, is currently training and competing under USA Wrestling's 'Elite Accelerator Program'. Lauridsen was the #64 overall recruit in the class of 2023, a 4-time state champion, and a Fargo champ. 

In this match, RBY again got to his offense quickly with an arm drag to a go-behind in the first 10 seconds of the match. Lauridsen did a good job defending from the par terre position and didn't allow any turns on top. Once back on their feet, Lauridsen was able to stifle many of RBY's attacks but ended up giving up a step out and caution +1 to make the match 4-0 in RBY's favor.

With about a minute to go in the first, Lauridsen got to a clean single leg and finished quickly to get on the board. After the takedown, Lauridsen transitioned immediately to a tight gut wrench for a turn to take a 4-4 lead.

However, after that, it was all RBY. He converted on a duck under for his second takedown of the match and then an ankle pick to take a 8-4 lead into the break. Early in the second period, RBY converted on another go-behind to extend his lead to 10-4. After about 2 minutes of hand-fighting, RBY hit a nice reattack and finished quickly to make it 12-4 then finished off the tech with only 8 seconds left with his final takedown of the match.

Match 3 - Pinned Diamantino Iuna Fafe, GBS

Iuna Fafe is fairly experienced on the senior level but doesn't have significant results to mention. He's an African champion, competed at Senior Worlds three times, and wrestled at the Tokyo Olympics after winning the African Continental Qualifier.  

Bravo-Young and Iuna Fafe's semifinal match started slow with neither wrestler firing off any committed attacks in the first 2 minutes. Iuna Fafe went on the clock first and RBY received a point after Iuna Fafe failed to score. RBY held position for the remainder of the period, defended a few shots and took a 1-0 lead into the break.

Things started in the second period with RBY coming forward and putting solid pressure on Iuna Fafe. Feeling that pressure, Iuna Fafe took a poor shot resulting in an easy go behind for RBY. Once on top, he worked to his side headlock, took it over for a turn, and earned the fall just 50 seconds into the period.

Finals - 2-1 win over Daniel DeShazer, USA

Daniel DeShazer was the toughest opponent of the day for RBY. DeShazer is notably a two-time Division 2 NCAA champion and already recorded a 10-0 tech over D1 NCAA Champ Darian Cruz on the day.  Beyond that, DeShazer is an experienced freestyle wrestler and finished 3rd on the ladder at 61 kg in 2022 with notable freestyle wins in his career over Tyler Graff, Jesse Mendez, and Luke Lilledahl.

The match started with both wrestlers feeling each other out for the first 90 seconds with neither getting to a leg. With the score 0-0, DeShazer went on the activity clock but failed to score a takedown despite several attempts putting RBY up 1-0.  There were a few more flurries but neither wrestler was able to convert for any points keeping the score 1-0 at the break.

The second period started similar to the first with both wrestlers hand fighting in the middle of the mat. After about a minute, DeShazer was put on the clock for a second time with RBY controlling the ties and center of the mat. Similar to the first period, DeShazer wasn't able to score and RBY earned another point to go up 2-0. RBY continued to hold position for the rest of the match but was hit with a caution +1 with about 1 second left in the match. Not the most exciting match but RBY gets the 2-1 win over a very tough DeShazer.

Overall Tournament Assessment

If I were to give RBY a grade based on his performance in France, it would be a solid B. He obviously performed well by earning gold and winning all of his matches - especially getting the win against DeShazer in the finals. He was also impressive with his par terre offense - especially with the side headlock from the top position. However, RBY had trouble generating his own offense and was over-reliant on his reattacks. Beyond that, he showed weakness in his par terre defense against Kael Lauridsen when he gave up exposure off of Lauridsen's gut wrench. Lauridsen has a good top game, but he's nowhere near the best guys RBY will face at the Olympic Qualifier, Olympics, or Worlds.

RBY's next competition will likely be at the end of February at the Pan-Am Olympic Games Qualifier. There, he'll have to make the finals to qualify for the Olympics. The United States is not yet qualified for the Olympics and will send Zane Richards to that event. RBY will likely be Richard's toughest competition to make the finals and an Olympic birth could ultimately come down to Richards vs Bravo-Young.