As wrestling fans worldwide will know, the U20 World Championships are currently underway in Samokov, Bulgaria and Team USA has been picking up medals like nobody’s business. The Team currently has the highest number of medals and has five more matches set up with opportunities to win some more, not unlike last year when they also put away the highest number of medals amongst all participating countries. This year, however, there are some feelings, particularly from MMA artist Ben Askren, about a particular 79kg final match, where USA’s William Henckel might have been slighted due to injury time on his opponent’s part.

For starters, a Penn State wrestling fan account posted a statement following the match between Henckel and Iran’s Mahdi Yousefi Hajivar that contextualized the situation, stating, “He wrestled hard in a tough match. Really a shame to see his opponent act like that, using “injury” time to catch his breath. That’s not a world-champion mentality, or even good sportsmanship, if you ask me. But Henckel still has a year of U20 left, right? He’ll get it done.” The account was referring to the fact that Hajivar requested multiple injury timeouts, thereby disrupting the momentum Henckel was gaining in the game.

Then, adding to that, reputed MMA artist Ben Askren, who is currently recovering from a life-altering lung transplant, chimed in with his advice on how to deal with injury claims during such high-stakes wrestling matches. “Fake injuries in international wrestling are problematic,” Askren wrote to his X profile, adding, “My suggestion 90 seconds total time 1st time- no penalty 2nd time- Caution + 1 3rd time DQ Failure to return to the center of the mat is auto injury time.” Askren has some strong opinions and really, they are for the greater good!

But what is the current way the injury calls are being handled and is it really fair that Henckel exited the competition with the silver instead of the gold?

The rules on injuries that Ben Askren hopes to rewrite and William Henckel’s chances for gold next year

As per the United World Wrestling’s rulebook, though players are able to request a timeout for an injury, during which time they “Must stand in their corner. They can cover their shoulders with a towel or their dressing gown and receive advice from their coach” they can’t get away with a fake injury, especially when it comes to blood.

Further down in the document it states that “if a wrestler interrupts the bout without any blood or visible injury as determined by the competition doctor, 1 point will be awarded to the opponent. The bout shall resume immediately.” However, point or not, William Henckel still lost out on a gold, but this doesn’t seem to have phased him or his outlook too much.

“Tournaments like this are full of things that don’t go your way. They’re full of adversity and you have to face it head-on and kind of look past it.” Henckel said after the loss. So hopefully he is going to head back to training, where he will work to fight past distractions like unnecessary time-outs that are bound to come up every now and then, unless Ben Askren actually manages to change the rulebooks via his X account.