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the first and only time. They asked why not wrestle Greco? I said I will do it in freestyle. I will beat Bruce. I will be the guy. I was too stubborn to slide over to Greco. I could have held my own in Greco,” said Erikson. Then came all of the other young freestyle heavyweights peo-
ple thought might finally knock off Baumgartner. “There was a long list of guys who would be the one to beat
Bruce. But I was not done yet. Guys forgot that I was still win- ning. I had a lot of wins over the next Bruce Baumgartner. I took it very personally. They hadn’t beaten me yet,” said Erikson. After Baumgartner retired, Erikson finally got his chance to
show his stuff, competing at the 2007 World Championships in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Erikson had a very difficult draw and in spite of a badly injured shoulder, he wrestled very well. He opened with a win over World finalist Sven Thiele of Germany, then beat Russian World champion David Musulbes, who had moved up from 97 kg that year. With a shot to make the finals, he lost an overtime match to Junior World Champion Alexis Rodriguez of Cuba. After a win over Olympic silver medalist Alexei Medvedev of Belarus, he had a rematch with Musulbes in the bronze-medal bout and lost to place fourth. “I had a World medalist in every match there,” said Erikson. “I
lost that match to the Cuban and made a mistake. He scored two points, but you had to score three to win then. He got tired and I took him down to make it 2-1. I tried to turn him and he stepped over a gut wrench to win. Silly me, I was being aggres- sive and tried to force the position. I could have worn him out and won later on.” Erikson stayed in the game through 2000, but never made another U.S. team. The weight class was loaded with young tal- ent. He broke an ankle against Kerry McCoy during the 1998
Trials process. In 1999, he lost to eventual World champion Stephen Neal in the Trials finals. Tolly Thompson, who won a World medal later in his career, knocked Erikson out of the 2000 Olympic Trials. That marked the end of his wrestling career. “I was getting long in the tooth and short in my passion,” said Erikson. “I could have wrestled a bit after that but I felt it was time. In 2000, I took my stab at it. When it was time not to over- stay my welcome, I wanted to get out.” Erikson did some Mixed Martial Arts during its early years,
and was successful. He beat some talented MMA opponents. Erikson felt that he never really had a chance to become cham- pion. In many cases, top athletes did not want to face him because of his size and athletic ability. It was in coaching where Erikson found an outlet for his com-
petitive juices. In 1999, Purdue head coach Jesse Reyes asked him if he would take an assistant position there, to work with their talented heavyweight Tony Vaughan. Erikson had enjoyed coaching while with the Oklahoma State program, and decided to give the new opportunity a try. He is still an assistant with Purdue, having put in 12 seasons on the Boilermaker staff. “I liked it. It was a way to rekindle the passion. Wrestling is
too physical to fake it. You have to love it. Coaching has given me a tremendous opportunity. There are great people at Purdue. It is a joy to work with young people,” said Erikson. Erikson has no regrets about his competitive career, which
has to be considered outstanding from all accounts, except for the lack of a World or Olympic medal. “I got to see a whole lot of things, and went to so many great
places around the world,” said Erikson. “I always felt I wanted to go to a World Championships or Olympics. I wanted to show people that I can wrestle. I wanted to validate that I could wres- tle at that level.”
13 USA Wrestler
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