How Matt Ramos Pinned Spencer Lee

Spencer Lee was on track to being a 4x national champ. After a dominant year, he had it all but wrapped up, only 2 matches to go, and against opponents he didn’t have too much trouble with throughout the season. I think by now we all know how devastating Division 1 nationals can be with all of the upsets. We used to call it upset city, because it happens, and often.

50 seconds to go in the third, Spencer is on top, winning 7-4, Ramos stands up and Spencer goes to lift him. Ramos catches the ground with a foot and does a granby roll to get the escape. This is a very common way of escaping after someone fails to lift you well. Spencer really should have rolled with him which would have landed him back on top, or maybe a reversal if things got too crazy. Ramos is out so now it’s 7-5 with 44 seconds to go. Ramos does a hard club, looking for an underhook on the right side. It looks like Spencer goes for a quick fireman’s carry, but ramos’ level is too low and so Spencer gets stuffed down to his butt, he grabs the elbow to stabilize himself a little bit and gets back to his base. Spencer reaches up for a body wrap with his right arm as Ramos catches a head and arm, that’s where you lock your hands around the.. head and arm. This is where things take a turn for the worse for Spencer, he reaches up and locks his hands around the body. This is an interesting idea, he’s likely looking to waste time and get a stalemate here, but honestly he probably should have stayed on the elbow and looked to do a sucker drag or post the wrist down to get back to neutral. There’s not much time left, he likely could have held out without body locking. He didn’t know what was about to happen though. Ramos tightens up his head and arm and goes for what we call a head pinch. Throws his hips in a little bit, steps his right leg across and starts to roll Spencer across his back. This is usually just a freestyle move, meant to roll the opponent across his back and get a quick 2, or maybe feet to back and get 4. Where Spencer ultimately tips it in Ramos’ favor is when he holds onto the body lock the entire time and fights the roll. It’s Folkstyle, rolling across your back is fine, and if Spencer just went with the roll, maybe tried to speed it up, he would have wound right back on his base again. Maybe give up a takedown if he loses track of things, but he has riding time sealed up at this point, so even with that takedown he’s still winning. He fights the roll hard though, looking to come up, start reaching for a double, and score a takedown. Ramos switches from a body lock to an underhook with his right arm and catches Spencer’s left shoulder. He has probably done this before in his career, maybe just in the practice room, kind of as a gag move honestly, something he’ll get here and there but never really goes for it unless he absolutely has to. I could be wrong on this, but that’s how I view that type of move. Ramos pulls Spencer to his back and sticks him there. At this point Spencer is in trouble, the takedown is awarded and at least 2 more points are ready to be put on the board, but this thing just gets tighter. Ramos at this point is just chillin, wasting away time. He loses track of the underhook on the right and switches to what is basically the ending of a chin whip. You can visibly see Spencer’s face start to turn red. The grip Ramos has around his throat is very tight, meaning, Spencer is getting choked at this point, making it even harder to get off his back. Spencer should try to roll him through, as if it’s a headlock. He needs to get his hips in tight, arch his back, post on his head, and roll him the other way, but that would take a lot of energy, and might be difficult at this point. Ramos steps back over, which tightens it even more, and that’s all she wrote.

An upset for sure, could have definitely been avoided, but that’s what happens at nationals. With so much on the line, it’s easy for anyone to be caught off guard. Let’s be honest though, this won’t do anything to stop Spencer’s ultimate goal, Olympics and Worlds, if anything, it might fuel the fire and help him. We all need a little dose of humility from time to time, and for Spencer, well this is what might just tip him over the edge and give him the hunger to get that world title. Congratulations Matt Ramos, that was sick, funky, and totally my style. Love to see it.