Rare footage of Chris Weidman's 2006 win over Ryan Bader

In the quarterfinals of the 2006 NCAA Wrestling Championships, Hofstra's unranked and unseeded Chris Weidman pulled off a shocking upset of Arizona State's returning All-American Ryan Bader. Weidman won an action-packed match to advance to the 197 pound semifinals (where Jake Rosholt would smash him very quickly), solidifying a top-six placement and his first All-American finish.

Earl Smith, the purveyor of college wrestling mega-information resource website D1collegewrestling.net, was kind enough to allow Bloody Elbow to pillage his collection of old wrestling footage. We found this gem of a match, and now share it with you, the readers. Below, the fabled wrestling bout appears.

You can see the relevant scoreboard labeled '2' behind the wrestlers. Weidman opens the scoring with a slide-by takedown, followed by an escape from Bader, and then another slide-by takedown. This leaves the match at 4-1 Weidman in the middle of the first period (takedowns are two points, escapes are one point).

After an extended bit of riding from Weidman, Bader appears to reverse Weidman late in the first period with the really weird, and slick, hand-in cutback from bottom, pictured below.

The referee deems that Bader did not hold the position long enough to establish the reversal, or near-fall points. Instead, Bader gets one point for escaping Weidman's control. Bader then goes behind Weidman for a takedown to level the match at 4-4, except, bizarrely, the scoreboard reads 5-5.

The first period ends and the wrestlers begin the second period on their feet. Weidman then scores the moves of this match with a foot sweep off a defended slide-by which briefly puts Bader on his back. The takedown appears in slow motion below.

Once again, the referee awards no back points, but Weidman goes ahead 7-5 with the takedown. Bader later escapes to leave the match at 7-6 at the end of the second period.

The third period begins with Bader in the down position. The ASU wrestler earns another escape to tie the score at 7-7. Though at this point the scoreboard registers the same number of points for both wrestlers, Weidman has over two minutes in riding time which will give him an additional point at the end of the match (wrestlers can earn a single point for a one-minute aggregate riding advantage). Bader recognizes that Weidman effectively has the lead, and pushes the pace, looking for the go-ahead takedown. Weidman defends deftly, and even manages a counter takedown as time expires with the Hofstra wrestler ahead 10-7.

The observant viewer and MMA fan will notice guest appearances from C.B. Dollaway in the match preceding Weidman's, Jake Rosholt in the match following Weidman's and a dreadlocked Phil Davis wrestling on the far mat behind Weidman.