Irakli Mtsituri: Georgian Hercules & the Modified Arm-Spin
Photo by Stanislav Krasilnikov\TASS via Getty Images
This article is the first of our “long article” requests through Patreon! A huge thank you to Alteroc (@crwate01) for this excellent topic suggestion.
In an effort to learn more about combat sports, Alteroc laid out an article format that covers three athletes from a specific sport:
An all-time great
A specialist
Someone “weird”
For our first edition of the Alteroc series, I focused on my own area of expertise - wrestling. We’ll be releasing each of the three athlete profiles one at a time. First, #2, a specialist.
Georgian Hercules: Irakli Mtsituri and the Modified Arm-Spin
While Georgia’s young 92 kg World bronze medalist could easily fall under the “weird” category as well, his success at the highest level adds the “specialist” legitimacy to his offensive quirks. His true specialist form does not come about until a move up in weight, but Mtsituri’s creative streak has always been lurking.
After a quiet age-group (Cadet and Junior) career, Mtsituri first made his mark on the international scene in 2016, when he took silver at the U23 European Championship. At 86 kg, Mtsituri showed off his power and athleticism, taking out a series of overmatched opponents with explosive leg attacks off the upper body feints, a brutal gut wrench series, along with a few unusual techniques.
In his second round match with Elvelin Rusev, Mtsituri entered off the collar and wrist on a high crotch, cracking down while his opponent gripped the chest to avoid exposing. Back-stepping over, Mtsituri hooked back over the reaching arm and underhooked the near leg, bearing backward into Rusev, eventually leading to the fall. A variant on a move known as the Peterson Roll, something many in the wrestling community would classify as a “junior high move”.
Against the tournament’s eventual bronze medalist Kadir Yazici of Turkey, Mtsituri was caught with his feet planted, and despite a nice limp leg and turn out, he was ultimately out-hustled and the Turk scored a pushout from the seatbelt, but only after limp-arming out of the whizzer of Mtsituri.
That offense was largely possible for Yazici because of the way he was pressuring into Mtsituri, the Georgian was reluctant to give up ground and risk a step-out and dug in his heels, making him a stationary target when Yazici cleared ties.
Rather than avoid these situations with his competent opponent, Mtsituri began to feel for the counter.
Now we arrive at Mtsituri’s specialty, drawing out pressure and punishing with an explosive, upper body attack.
Yazici pushed forward once again, this time from the over-under. Mtsituri came over the underhooking arm and blocked inside the hip, pushing back into Yazici while maintaining hip separation. He timed Yazici pushing in harder, hopped forward while switching the blocking hand to an overhook, pulling Yazici in with the arcing motion and overhook while pushing him the rest of the way through with the underhook. A lateral drop.
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.
With the triangle step, you’re coming across with your rear foot to the opposite side, then pivoting and lowering levels as you pull. Judo and BJJ black belt Tom Elliott explained to me that it’s the most helpful if you can get your opponent moving away laterally from the site you’re throwing to, naturally lining up their hips. Tom went on to explain that in judo, hip contact is extremely important for scoring.
So why is it that Irakli Mtsituri waited until neither man was moving, then ripped the arm spin with his hips off to the side?
Even more strange, he scores with it. Against the pound-for-pound #1 wrestler in the world.
Why? How?
At first, I thought perhaps Mtsituri was just bad at arm spins, but was strong enough that it didn’t matter. Maybe there’s truth in that, but there is clear intention - this is how he always does it.
Three years later and up at 92 kg, Mtsituri is still hitting his janky arm spin at the World Championships.
The simplest explanation I can offer is that Mtsituri is not looking for a four-point throw, he wants two. It’s not a loaded throw, it’s a drop. It’s potentially a two-step move.
Mtsituri hits the triangle step in place, with no concern for lining up the hips or countering pressure. He doesn’t need it. The entire motion is designed to wrench the shoulder as he drops his weight - forcing his opponent to drop to the mat. To amplify the shoulder-wrenching, he rips the throw sideways, across his own arm, rather than over top of his traps or shoulder.
You can see it against both Toth and Sadulaev, Mtsituri is closing that gap after he throws, not during or before. The principles of throwing are still being honored somewhat, work your opponent off balance and then expose. Mtsituri uses the throw itself to debase his opponent and create instability, then pressures in with his hips and back to create the exposure. In freestyle, you need your opponent to break 90 degrees and partially show their back to the mat to score.
If that motion begins with both wrestlers on their feet, it’s four. If the exposure occurs while the wrestlers are grounded, it’s two. Mtsituri is using a strength move to set up a cheap bump exposure.
It’s cheese, but it works. Conceptually, it’s brilliant in a way, you’re forcing your opponent into an unstable position and creating momentum in one direction, and you’ve trapped the posting arm that would save them from exposing. Something as simple as pressing in with your shoulder can create exposure on the best in the world from that position.
Of course it doesn’t always work, and reaching across to get that two-on-one is easier said than done, but it’s a move that you’ll more or less only see from Irakli Mtsituri.
More Than An Arm-Spin
While the modified arm-spin is definitely the highlight of his game, Mtsituri does appear to be a highly skilled competitor otherwise.
Take a look at how he pushed two-time World champion and #3 pound-for-pound ranked J’den Cox, even after failing to get his positioning right for the arm-spin.
Against one of the most mobile wrestlers in the world, Mtsituri held his own, displaying active footwork and the ability to level-change with another extremely dynamic athlete. His timing looked impeccable, kicking back at just the right moments to disrupt Cox’s offense, threatening a chest wrap, then releasing and pouncing on the go-behind as Cox stayed flat to avoid the exposure.
He may not have been able to overcome the alien-wizardry of J’den Cox, but his footwork looked to be on par with the slickest operator in the game.
Defense is all about your head, hands and feet. You should be matching levels, creating, clearing, and intercepting ties, modifying distance and positioning as an exchange plays out. Look how comfortable and active Mtsituri is defensively against a European veteran.
Despite how clearly elite Mtsituri is in this domain, his offensive creativity is truly his standout attribute.
In the World quarterfinals, he went big against Otsu of Japan in one of the most unconventional trips I’ve seen.
With his opponent underneath in front headlock, Mtsituri essentially secured a head chancery, lacing under the arm and behind the neck as you would for a half-nelson. Trapping the post with an overhook on the other side, Mtsituri stood up, stepped around the leg of Otsu and used the chancery to take him to his back, his base becoming compromised as he stood up to match Mtsituri’s level.
Irakli Mtsituri is a specialist. He utilizes his elite physical attributes by implementing a system that leads to unique, high-powered offense that no wrestler in the world can truly say they’re prepared for.
When he’s denied his preferred ties, it certainly limits his attacks, but he’s almost never blown out in a match.
At the 2020 European Championship, Mtsituri was in such a match against the eventual champion Suleyman Karadeniz of Turkey. Down 2-1 with less than 10 seconds on the clock, Mtsituri’s attempt to rally saw him pinned. He dropped another tight 2-0 match in the bronze medal bout to Aslanbek Alborov, a wrestler who holds a win over Kyle Snyder.
It’s still uncertain if Mtsituri will go up to 97 kg or down to 86 kg for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but we’ll likely see him at 92 for the non-Olympic World Championship later on, if his Olympic bid fails.