Frank Chamizo's Dake-Like Weight Progression
Frank Chamizo's Dake-Like Weight Progression
Chamizo has found success at every weight class in which he's wrestled. Follow along as we trace his progression up in divisions.
Most folks are familiar with Kyle Dake's legendary feat of winning four consecutive NCAA titles at four different weight classes, from 141 to 165 pounds. Most are also familiar that Dake continued to bulk up after graduating, coming within one match of making the Olympic team at 86kg or 189 pounds. Fewer are familiar with international treasure Frank Chamizo's similar progression.
Chamizo, who faces Jordan Burroughs in a super match at Beat the Streets next Thursday in New York City, started his career as a relatively skinny teenager, wrestling for Cub at 55kg, or 121 pounds. In a week, Chamizo will take on the champ at 74kg, or 163 pounds.
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Like Dake's incredible jump from 141 to 189 pounds—a difference of 48 pounds in just seven years—Chamizo has gone from 121 to 163 pounds in about eight years. Both superstars demonstrated how to be successful while growing into ever larger weight classes.
Chamizo began his career wrestling for his native country Cuba. As a 17-year-old, he won a Pan-Am gold medal at the senior level. As a newly minted 18-year-old, Chamizo claimed a bronze at the Moscow World Championships in 2010.
Watch Chamizo's bronze medal-winning match against Hyo-Sub Kim of South Korea:
Flash forward a few years and Chamizo has found a new home and a new team in Italy, now as a 66kg 21-year-old. Chamizo went back to his winning almost immediately, scoring a handful of medals at various tournaments, including a gold at the stacked 2014 Yashar Dogu.
Chamizo made the international scene stand up and take notice at the 2015 World Championship in Las Vegas, where he managed to maneuver his way through an insane 65kg bracket and claim gold. It was the first gold medal for an Italian wrestler at the world or Olympic level since 1980.
Watch Chamizo's triumph in Vegas over Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan:
Chamizo would stay at 65 for all of 2016, losing only twice at that weight and placing third at the Rio Olympics in another ridiculous bracket.
In 2017, Chamizo made another jump up, this time to 70kg, an 11-pound difference from his previous weight. Chamizo would prove nearly untouchable, winning both the European and world championship in dominant fashion.
At the Paris World Championships, Chamizo avenged his loss to American James Green in the finals. Green bested Chamizo at the 2015 Grand Prix of Spain, the only time before 2017 that Chamizo wrestled above 66kg.
A new year would bring another weight jump for young Chamizo, still just 26 years of age. For in 2018 Chamizo climbed up 4 kilos, or nearly 9 pounds, to 74kg—an almost 20-pound increase in less than two years.
Chamizo has won two of the four tournaments he's wrestled in so far at 74kg, with one of his most impressive performances coming at the European Championships mere weeks ago. Chamizo took out last year's world 74kg silver medalist, Khetik Tsabalov of Russia, before eventually settling for a bronze medal.
Weight matters in wrestling; otherwise, no one would ever bother cutting. But Chamizo and Dake have both proved you can move up in weight divisions and still find success. And if last year's Beat the Streets match between Jordan Oliver and Chamizo was any indication, Burroughs better be ready for a scrap, no matter how much Chamizo has moved up over the last few years.
Watch JO and Chamizo go at it in stunning HD:
