Daton Fix Faces Thomas Gilman for a World Team Spot and a Little Payback for OSU

Daton Fix heads to Lincoln, Nebraska and Final X this weekend to take on Thomas Gilman in a best-of-three series. The winner will be the World Team Member that will represent the US in the World Championships in Hungary at 57 KG this October.

The matchup is Saturday June 9 at 6 pm and USA Wrestling announced that Fix-Gilman would be the fifth match of seven that evening.

What is “Final X”? Flo breaks it down pretty well in this video

Essentially there have been a lot of other things these guys have had to do to get here, which are all broken down by USA Wrestling here and now they’re in this best-of-three matchup to determine who makes the world team.

You’ve got the young gun, Fix, gunning for the veteran Gilman, a silver medalist from last year’s World Championships. If you’re an Oklahoma State fan the added element is that you have the future of your wrestling program taking on a former Iowa wrestler. The same one who almost started a brawl in the middle of GIA with half the Cowboy wrestling team.

If you want to dive really deep in the technical side of the match Flo breaks that down here as well.

I spoke with Derek Fix and Nick Piccininni — who obviously knows Thomas Gilman pretty well — has been the guy working with Daton and prepping him through this whole process. Nick will travel to Lincoln with Daton to work out with him and warm him up.

The Friday before last they brought in Nico Megaludis, who beat Gilman for an NCAA title a few years ago, to work out with Daton as well as Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo and Olympian Sam Hazewinkel in last week to help with the prep. Daton’s definitely got some solid work in to build up for this.

Today’s workout partners #olympians #legends #thefuture #imcoming #FinalX @JohnSmithOKST @_Greatest_Ever1 @SamTheHaze @HenryCejudo @USAWrestling @FloWrestling @trackwrestling pic.twitter.com/twE6biiYNy

— Cowboy RTC (@CowboyRTC) June 2, 2018

I spoke with Daton and Derek recently and asked their thoughts on the “Final X”

Daton said “I like big matches” and “think it’s good for fans” so overall he seems to like the new format.

Derek really thinks the entire “Final X” process plays in Daton’s favor. Daton had to go to the US Open, then the World Team Trials to qualify for this. If you don’t follow closely Daton made the U23 World Team last year and only wrestled one match there which he lost. That was most of his first semester. He was sick for one open tournament so was only able to wrestle four matches in the past year prior to the US Open in Vegas. This “whole process has allowed Daton to get some matches in. These older guys don’t want that, but that’s been a good thing for Daton”.

One other thing Derek noted is it’s a true two hour weigh in where they’ll weigh in at four and wrestle at six. Daton manages his weight well and doesn’t have a big cut, so that’s not a big issue for him. I don’t know if it impacts Gilman at all.

They leave out Thursday, hit press conferences and the like Friday before weighing in and wrestling on Saturday.

This is only available on Flo, but if you’re in Stillwater and want to watch they will be showing it at the Hall of Fame.

We will show @USAWrestling @FloWrestling Final X on our big screen on Saturday at 6pm. There will not be an admission charge, but donations will be accepted. There are seven bouts scheduled with a best-of-three series in each weight class. Full release at https://t.co/yekoQ42aNx pic.twitter.com/wTMPi8x1c9

— NWHOF (@NWHOF) June 6, 2018