It’s not just that Mtsituri has the competency to make these reads as they’re occurring and capitalize, his style actively encourages situations that favor him.

He holds solid position, keeping his feet moving and clearing ties to reset when he doesn’t like the hand-fighting taking place. Being remarkably mobile and athletic for the weight, that’s usually enough to frustrate opponents into pressuring into him a bit more single-mindedly.

In this example, he went with the go-to move from over-unders for punishing forward motion, the lateral drop. Theoretically it’s possible to hit one without your opponent already moving forward, but the idea is that you’re pulling them in when their weight is already trending toward you, making it difficult to stop that motion, from there you can redirect with the underhook and make sure they go all the way through.

There is inherent risk to the maneuver, without the proper momentum or arc the throw could come up short, you’re likely going to pull your opponent directly on top of you.

That’s why Mtsituri selected a different technique for his bread and butter when it comes to countering pressure.

We saw it for the first time at a major competition in the 2016 U23 European Championship finals, against none other than the future greatest freestyle wrestler of all-time - Abdulrashid Sadulaev.

While the lateral drop was fairly textbook from Mtsituri, the following setup and execution are bizarre, to say the least.

Off the hand-fight in collar ties, Mtsituri swam his lead arm across body to go two-on-one on Sadulaev’s rear arm, pressuring in. Anyone familiar with judo or upper-body throws would recognize that grip for an ippon seoi nage, or “arm spin”, as wrestlers say.

Typically, in wrestling, the grip is caught all at once in the explosive movement, just like how Mtsituri switched off to the overhook as he was hopping into the beginning of the lateral drop. But here, Mtsituri was showing the grip early, baiting a reaction.

Giving up a throw like this would mean four points, a huge score in freestyle. Feeling that grip, perhaps some wrestlers would begin to back out, allowing Mtsituri to use that two-on-one to score a pushout. Sadulaev did not give up ground, likely looking to wait out the position and have the referee separate them. I’ve seen it in judo where they’ll catch the grip, bump in forward then explode into the throw as their opponent pressures back in, but Mtsituri’s timing was all wrong if that’s what he was going for.

The mechanics of an arm-spin involve a strong pull with underhooking arm over the shoulder, while “triangle stepping” to line up your hips and back underneath your opponent as they move in.