Is giving up a round in wrestling the same as fixing a match? Or is the problem with deciding on how a certain match will go by deciding the winner of a round or two before it starts? How about if wrestlers from the same club decide to split the first two rounds and wrestle the third for real, does that make it legitimate? To tell you the truth, I don't know but think it is worth talking about.

Following the Ontario Senior Wrestling championships there has been a lot of Buzz around one of the final matches. This is common to hear about different matches that standout, however this particular match stood out for reasons we normally don't come across at these types of events.

I will sum up below on what I have been reading (OAWA Message Board) and hearing from many of the participants that were there and what I saw in the video recording of the match;

Round 1:

Wrestler A wins by scoring two three point moves, or by 6 point difference.

Round 2:

Wrestler B wins by 6 point difference

Round 3:

Lots of action with the round ending 0 to 0 and goes to a clinch.

I am of the opinion the match wasn't necessary fixed because I am not sure they decided the outcome of the match. I am saying this because of the way they wrestled the final round, but the first 2 round were probably decided before the match started.The third round was wrestled the way I would have hoped the first two rounds should have been wrestled.

Is it ever good strategy to give up a round?

I am not sure if it is ever good to loose a round on purpose, but to employ a strategy to have your opponent work harder than you in order to have an advantage in the next round is debatable.

One argument for this strategy goes like this: The wrestler that wins the first round has given themselves some breathing room, and their opponent has to win the second round to stay in the match. This gives the wrestler with a 1 - 0 round lead a chance to rest a little and let their opponent come to them. The idea for this strategy is that the second round will physically tax the wrestler down 1-0 in rounds more giving the the wrestler that won the first round a small advantage entering the third round. A bonus for the wrestler that won the first round would be if the second round goes to a clinch and they get the luck of the draw and win the advantage position as well.

When I played squash and had a 2 game lead in a best of 5 series I would often change my strategy to make my opponent run more. I wasn't as concerned about winning every game, but winning the match was the objective. So not trying to win every game of a match isn't fixing the match, but using a particular strategy to tire my opponent out and win the match.

This happens in boxing all the time, the Ali Rope a Dope is a classic. Ali didn't throw a punch in the early round of the Foreman fight. Ali used the Rope a Dope to tire Foreman out.

Mind you I don't think the wrestlers at the Ontario Wrestling Championships were using the first two round to tire their opponent, only they know what they were trying to accomplish by wrestling those rounds the way they did.