Frank Chamizo beats Jordan Burroughs in Rome Clash of Titans

Frank Chamizo got the better of Jordan Burroughs to take the 74kg title at the 2021 Matteo Pellicone tournament in Rome on Sunday (7 March).

As two of the most high profile wrestlers at the ranking series event, many hoped to see the pair meet in the final.

They did, but the bout was a cagey affair with both men wary of leaving themselves open.

Four-time European champ Chamizo scored the first point as he sent the American out of bounds after 45 seconds, a call Burroughs clearly disagreed with.

Burroughs - who had won three of their four previous meetings - was put on the clock for passivity near the end of the first half, and Chamizo went 2-0 up as those 30 seconds failed to yield a score.

London 2012 gold medallist Burroughs scored just after the restart, pushing Chamizo out of bounds, and the Italian narrowly avoided an ankle grab which could have had him in trouble.

Burroughs was on the clock again with just over a minute to go, and he went out of bounds once more as his Cuban-born rival took a 3-1 lead.

With time running out, Chamizo gave up a point for stepping out with five seconds left but it was too late for Burroughs as the home favourite took it 3-2.

Elsewhere on the night, Bajrang Punia retained his men’s 65kg title with a dramatic win over Mongolia’s Tulga Tumur Ochir.

The Asian Games champion trailed 2-0 with 30 seconds to go, but produced a go-behind takedown which levelled the scores and put him in front by virtue of it being the highest-value move of the match.

There was no further score as Bajrang underlined his status as one of India’s top medal hopes for the Tokyo Olympics.

In the 57kg final, Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan defeated USA's Nick Suriano 4-2.

There was success for the United States at 70kg as Alec Pantaleo beat world silver medallist Daulet Niyazbekov 4-0. Pantaleo had already bested the Kazakh wrestler 6-2 in the morning session.

In a third final pitting Kazakhstan against USA, Galymzhan Usserbayev, edged out David McFadden 6-5 to take the honours at 79kg.

And in the concluding 86kg final, Zahid Valencia went into an 11-0 lead over fellow American Mark Hall to win by technical superiority.