How Marcus Blaze (HS) Upset Daton Fix (World Silver & 4x NCAA Runner-Up)

This match doesn’t come down to too much. The score ended up 3-2 Blaze, but there weren’t any takedowns, nothing super significant happened. They both wrestled smart and did a good job of holding position. Daton did a good job of controlling center at the start, so Blaze got put on the shot clock twice, and both times he gave up a point. The first point was given up without much thought, Blaze wrestling as if it didn’t exist. The second shot clock did get Blaze to pick up his pace, but only after the point was awarded. So, 2-0 Fix.

Blaze did get in on a good shot, a lefty high crotch from a righty collar tie, which is a shot you see a lot at this level now. Usually it’s a righty high crotch from a lefty collar tie, but you can see the over-tie that Daton likes on the right, Blaze lifts it with his elbow and gets on the leg. He’s not able to cut the corner quickly enough however, you need to try to get an angle immediately and start reaching across for that double, assuming that if you get that close into a shot against an elite wrestler and they’re not in good enough position to sprawl, that they will try to scoot to their hips, get a crotch lock, and pull you into a crack-down, which is what Daton does attempt. Daton doesn’t get the crotch lock though, he has a chest wrap with his left arm and an ankle with his right hand, so Daton isn’t able to get a ton of control of the hips and Marcus is able to come up with the leg. Blaze’s shoulder position is what allows him to stay in good position here, that left shoulder is in very deep, Daton’s leg is on his neck, and so Daton cannot scoot around and get a better angle. Another thing you can do here is lift the ankle, pop your head under the leg and go out the back door or turn and face to catch both ankles if you opponent starts running away, though that could easily lead to a shin whizzer.

As Marcus comes up, Daton slows the progress with his left leg, extending that out, which makes it difficult for him to cut double properly, as he does kind of a front side flip to avoid giving up back exposure and I would guess just to create some chaos. It’s kind of like diving under to go for funk or a leg pass, but in freestyle you can’t expose your back or you give up points, so it ends up looking something like this. Neither of them exposed their back, Marcus stayed in good position, coming up to his feet again as Daton hung onto the ankle. The one who wins these situations is usually the one who’s able to maintain height, keep the leg, get their leg free, and/or attack the head, so that’s why you see them both come up with the leg, get knocked down, come up again, get knocked down, until they run out of bounds. A great exchange from both of these wrestlers here that end up scoring zero points. If there was more room Blaze may have gotten the takedown, but that’s pure speculation because the scramble was still flowing.

Blaze continues his attacks, putting Fix on the shot clock, which ends up giving him a point, so the score is now 2-1. The last 20 seconds Marcus is firing off shots left and right as Daton flees. It looks like the ref warns him for running away, but that doesn’t stop him from continuing to flee until the end of the match. Blaze gets onto a single and pushes Daton out of bounds, ref calls a point. It’s contested and ends up being a push-out point. Daton’s hand is posted out of bounds as he grabs a whizzer, Marcus comes up, both of Daton’s knees come off of the mat which brings them out of the grounded state, giving Blaze a point, which would have been enough to win the match. If the score is tied and both wrestlers have the same amplitude of scoring, all of them being one point scores here, the last person who scored wins. Daton’s side did challenge the call, which was smart here, the point was already awarded, so they basically had to. Losing the challenge gives away another point. So this is Marcus Blaze, a high schooler, taking out an incredibly decorated veteran, Daton Fix, by the score of 3-2.

So, nothing too crazy out of Blaze here, who is one of the most anticipated wrestlers to still be in high school because he’s beating legends of the sport and he’s still so young. He stays in incredibly good position though, has great reattacks, and scrambles super well. I’ll have to make more videos on him to see what truly separates him from the rest.