AU wrestler Muzzafar Abdurakhmanov says he's "kind of lucky," but that may be an understatement.
The 24-year-old junior is ranked No. 3 in the country, has won a pair of national junior college championships and toppled All-Americans while bringing attention to AU's wrestling revival. And he's come all the way from Central Asia to do it.
Abdurakhmanov began wrestling in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, a city of 2.1 million where the vast steppe meets the mighty Tien Shan Mountains. The former Soviet Republic regularly produced Olympian wrestlers for the Soviet Union, and most recently, Uzbekistan won a pair of gold medals and a silver in Athens.
He started the sport as a teenager for the country's wrestling clubs. After watching the best wrestlers compete, he made it is goal to become one of them.
"When you win a couple tournaments, you decide that you can do it if you work hard," he said. "You believe in yourself. When you beat a couple guys, you say, 'This feels good.' "
One of Abdurakhmanov's first lucky breaks came out of his country's wrestling tradition. Alexander Nedarezov, a former champion of the Soviet Union, coached him and other world-class athletes.
"He was coached by guys who were world champions, Olympic champions, so he was surrounded by these people as he came up through the years," AU wrestling head coach Mark Cody said. "I think that helped him. If you watch him drill, his technique looks airtight."
Abdurakhmanov eventually found luck once again when a friend told him about the opportunity to study and wrestle in the United States. He then traded the windswept plains of Uzbekistan for the windswept plains of the United States and began wrestling at Colby Community College in northwestern Kansas.
Along with the entire English language, he had to learn the collegiate style of wrestling, which favors strength over technique. Now he's comfortable with it, as shown by his success, and uses his training techniques to be a tricky opponent.
"He's so hard to scout against because he's got a great arsenal of attacks," Cody said. "It's really hard to scout against a guy who's so well-versed. We'll go to competitions sometimes, and I'll see him do things I never knew that he had."
In Kansas, he became the center of junior college wrestling and amassed a 57-4 record. In his first year he won the national junior college title at 157 pounds, catching the attention of NCAA coaches - including Cody. When Aburakhmanov won another title in his final year of junior college eligibility - this time at 165 pounds - he and Cody started talking.
But the AU coach wasn't alone. Coaches at Minnesota and Oklahoma, home to two of the nation's premier wrestling programs, were also after the junior college sensation. It was stiff competition for AU, where wrestling was almost cut just three years ago before the school announced a recommitment to it.
Abdurakhmanov saw the chance to pioneer the upstart AU program. He also liked Cody and said he's the latest person to help him on his path through life.
"Something was telling me to come here," he said. "[Minnesota and Oklahoma] were really good coaches and good programs, the top 10 in the nation. But then I talked to Coach Cody and something was telling me inside to go to the place."
Attracting Abdurakhmanov was routine business for Cody, a former Big 12 assistant.
"I'm trying to recruit the same quality of athletes that I recruited at Nebraska and Oklahoma State," Cody said. "I still intend to go after the top people in the country, so it was nothing new for me."
Since joining the AU squad this fall, Abdurakhmanov has proven to be worth Cody's effort. He started the season ranked No. 13 in the country and is climbing the rankings while earning a 15-1 record. His only loss came Dec. 30 at the Midlands Tournament in Evanston, Ill., where he subdued three Big 10 wrestlers before falling to Illinois's Alex Tirapelle, the 2003 national runner-up.
He vaulted to the No. 3 ranking in early December after defeating Ohio University All-American Jake Percival at the Mat Town USA Invitational in Lock Haven, Pa.
With eight events remaining before the national championships in March, Abdurakhmanov has time to maintain his position among the best and have a chance to prove he is the best of all. But no matter how high he goes, he'll be the first to tell you he couldn't have done it without the fortune of knowing the right people.
"Sometimes you come to another country and you meet the wrong people," he said. "But when I came here, I met only good people, so my life is good"
