Henry Cejudo (55Kg) and Mike Zadick (60Kg) come out flat for the first match at the World Championships. The pace was slow with as little action as it took for their opponents to win both rounds. Years of preparation and months of intensity just didnt carry over on the mat today in Baku. Only the 55 and 60 Kg weight classes wrestled on this first day of freestyle. In World Championship competition if you lose you only make it to the consolation rounds if the opponent you lost to goes to the finals.

Henry Cejudo lost to the Iranian in a clear cut match. His first round he got taken down at the end of the first minute. In the second minute Cejudo simply wasnt able to get in on the legs of the Iranian. Going into the second period The idea was to pick up the aggressiveness. Americans are typically in better shape and it is usually in their best interest to have a high tempo and intense match to challenge the conditioning of their opponents. You can hear Kevin Jackson calling out "Its got to be a war" from mat side as opposed to a chess match.

In the second period Cejudo did pick up the intensity taking more shots and making more fakes and trying to move his opponents. However he took a one armed shot and the iranian caught his arm and took him down. Cejudo was forced to open up with only about 40 seconds remaining and the iranian capitalized on a double leg from his knees.

All in all it was a short premier for Cejudo as he was knocked out of the tournament when the Iranian lost in the next round.

Mike Zadick came in with something to prove against an Albanian (Sait Prizreni) who has trained at the New York Athletic club. Right away Zadick scored the first point when he pushed his opponent out of bounds. IT was all down hill from there. Mike Zadick didnt continue with the pressure and instead played into his opponents hands by waiting around for the end of the period by trading position battles. Prizreni with time running out in the first period ducked under Zadicks right shoulder and reappeared behind Zadicks left arm- almost like a magician - and scooted behind for the takedown. By scoring the last point in the period the 1-1 tie for that period went to Prizreni.

In the second period Zadick picked up the intensity a bit. but it was to no avail. The period went to the clinch and the coin ended up flipping in the Albanian's favor. Prizreni capped the upset by barely taking Zadick down in the clinch.

Zadick now must await his fate with the performance of Sait Prizreni in the following rounds.