Steve Mocco

Steven "Steve" Mocco (born December 28, 1981 in Hackensack , New Jersey ) is an American wrestler . He was an Olympic competitor in 2008 and a Pan American champion in 2006 and 2009 in the free style heavyweight division.

Career

Steve Mocco attended Blair Academy High School in Blairstown , New Jersey. There he began wrestling with coach Jeff Buxton. He also practiced judo at the beginning of his sports career . He quickly achieved success in both sports. As a high school wrestler, he was a four-time National Champion and four-time New Jersey Champion between 1998 and 2001, always in free style. In judo, he became the American junior champion in 1999 and took 3rd place at the US senior championships. He achieved all successes in the heavyweight division.

In 1997 he was also the US junior heavyweight wrestling champion. He repeated this success in 1999, 2000 and 2001. He was thus one of the most successful American junior wrestlers at national level of all time.

After moving to the University of Iowa , where he was trained by Jim Zalesky, he was also very successful as a student wrestler. He finished 2nd behind Thomas Rowlands at the US Student Championship (NCAA Championships) in 2002 , but won this title in 2003 and, after moving to Oklahoma State University , in 2005 before Cole Konrad . In 2006 he finished second again behind Konrad. At Oklahoma State University he is trained by John Smith .

On the international wrestling mat, Steve Mocco made a name for himself at a major FILA tournament in Moscow in 2003 , when he took second place in the heavyweight division of the world's elite behind Alexis Rodríguez Valera from Cuba and world class wrestlers like Kuramagomed Kuramagomedow from Russia and defeated Aleksi Modebadze from Georgia .

However, Steve Mocco initially failed to take the lead in the USA championships, or to prevail in the internal US eliminations for the 2004 Olympic Games or the World Championships. Mostly he finished second behind Kerry McCoy , Tolly Thompson or Thomas Rowlands and was therefore not used at any of these championships. In 2008 he finished 2nd in the US heavyweight championship behind Thomas Rowlands, but was able to turn the tables in the US Olympic Trials and take 1st place.

At the Olympic Games in Beijing Steve Mocco won the heavyweight division over Rajiv Tomar from India and Liang Lei from China , but then lost to Russian starter Bakhtiyar Akhmedov on points. Since this came into the final, he still got the chance to win a medal place in the consolation round. But he couldn't take this chance and immediately lost his next fight against the Iranian Fardin Masoumi Valadi with 0: 2 rounds, was eliminated and only finished 7th.

After this disappointment, he wanted to hang up his wrestling shoes and only play American football. But then he stayed with the wrestling and only had wins in 2009. He won the famous Russian "Ivan Yarigin" memorial in Krasnoyarsk and the "Aljaksandr Myadsweds" tournament in Minsk . In April 2009 he was also Pan American heavyweight champion in Maracaibo ahead of Michael Neufeld from Canada and Yonsi Sánchez from Mexico . He was also the first American heavyweight champion in 2009 before Tervel Dlagnev and Les Sigman .

He has been a mixed martial arts fighter since the end of 2012 . He currently holds a fight record of three wins out of three fights. He was able to achieve two of his victories through submission.

Steve Mocco has five siblings who like him all do sports. The most successful of these is his sister Katie , who is a member of the US women's judo team.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class
2001	4th	Junior World Championships in Tashkent	Heavy	behind Palwinder Singh Cheema , India , Jasser Nourzaee, Iran u. Bagrat Chutaba, Russia
2003	1.	Sunkist Kids-Open in Tempe (Arizona)	Heavy	before Melvin Douglas , Ken Fluckinger, bde. USA & Eric Kirschner, Canada
2003	2.	"Ivan Yarigin" tournament in Krasnoyarsk	Heavy	behind Alexis Rodríguez Valera , Cuba , in front of Kuramagomed Kuramagomedow u. David Musuľbes , both Russia and Aleksi Modebadse , Georgia
2003	2.	FILA tournament in Moscow	Heavy	with victories over Kuramagomed Kuramagomedow u. Aleksi Modebadse u. a loss to Alexis Rodríguez Valera
2003	1.	New York AC Open	Heavy	before Mike Faust, Tony Walters and others Orville Palmer, all USA
2004	1.	"Dave Schultz" Memorial in Colorado Springs	Heavy	before Sven Thiele , Germany , Mike Faust u. Dawit Otiashvili , Georgia
2004	5.	"Ivan Yarigin" Memorial in Krasnoyarsk	Heavy	behind Kuramagomed Kuramagomedow, Alexander Kowalewski u. Oleg Chorpjakow, all Russia, and Gao Fei, China
2006	1.	Pan American Championship in Rio de Janeiro	Heavy	in front of Colgar Becara, Venezuela , Disney Rodríguez , Cuba etc. Antonio Sanchez, Brazil
2007	3.	"Yasar Dogu" memorial in Ankara	Heavy	behind Fatih Çakıroğlu u. Recep Kaya , Turkey together with Alireza Kaya , Turkey, before Giorgi Nikuradse, Georgia
2007	2.	Tropheo Milone in Rome	Heavy	behind Jali Sayed Saged, Iran, in front of Les Sigman, USA, Kazbek Missikow, France a . David Lewicki, Poland
2007	1.	"Alyaksandr-Myadsweds" tournament in Minsk	Heavy	before K. Keremchanow, Kazakhstan , A. Mastepanau a. K. Bakdaulet, bde. Belarus
2007	1.	Hargobind tournament in Surrey / Canada	Heavy	in front of Les Sigman u. Pat Cummins, bde. USA & Arjan Bhullar, Canada
2007	1.	New York Open	Heavy	before Les Sigman, Mike Faust u. Pat Cummins
2008	2.	"Dave Schultz" Memorial in Colorado Springs	Heavy	behind Daniel Cormier , USA, in front of Alexei Voronin, Russia a. Thomas Rowlands , USA
2008	7th	Olympic Games in Beijing	Heavy	with victories over Rajiv Tomar, India a. Lian Lei, China a. Defeats against Bakhtiyar Akhmedov , Russia a. Fardin Masoumi Valadi , Iran
2009	1.	"Ivan Yarigin" Memorial in Krasnoyarsk	Heavy	before Soslan Gaglojew, Alan Dschampajew a. Kirill Godovchev, all Russia
2009	1.	"Alyaksandr-Myadsweds" tournament in Minsk	Heavy	in front of Ajad Lasarew, Kyrgyzstan
2009	1.	Pan American Championship in Maracaibo	Heavy	before Mike Neufeld, Canada, Yonsy Sánchez, Venezuela a. Elier Romero Camacho, Cuba
2010	1.	"Cerro Pelado International" in Havana	Heavy	before Eller Romero, Yoan Delgado u. Yan Russel, all Cuba

Note: all competitions in free style, heavyweight, since 2002 up to 120 kg body weight

National successes

year	space	competition	Weight class
1997	1.	USA Junior Champion.	over 88 kg body weight	before Daniel Walter u. Scott Wells
1999	1.	USA Junior Champion.	Heavy
2000	1.	USA Junior Champion.	Heavy
2001	1.	USA Junior Champion.	Heavy
2002	2.	NCAA championships	Heavy	behind Thomas Rowlands u. before John Lockhart
2003	1.	NCAA championships	Heavy	before Kevin Hoy, Boe Rushton, etc. Pat Cummins
2004	2.	USA championship	Heavy	behind Kerry McCoy , in front of Tolly Thompson
2004	3.	Olympic trials	Heavy	behind Kerry McCoy et al. Tolly Thompson
2005	1.	NCAA championships	Heavy	before Cole Konrad u. Pat DeGain
2005	2.	USA championship	Heavy	behind Tolly Thompson, in front of Billy Blunt
2005	2.	World Championship trials	Heavy	behind Tolly Thompson
2006	2.	NCAA championships	Heavy	behind Cole Konrad, in front of Greg Wagner
2006	2.	USA championship	Heavy	behind Tolly Thompson, in front of Thomas Rowlands
2006	2.	World Championship trials	Heavy	behind Tolly Thompson, in front of Thomas Rowlands
2007	3.	USA championship	Heavy	behind Thomas Rowlands u. Cole Konrad, before Tervel Dlagnev
2007	2.	World Championship trials	Heavy	behind Thomas Rowlands, in front of Pat Cummins
2008	2.	USA championship	Heavy	behind Thomas Rowlands, in front of Tervel Dlagnev u. Tolly Thompson
2008	1.	Olympic trials	Heavy	before Thomas Rowlands
2009	1.	USA championship	Heavy	before Tervel Dlagnev, Les Sigman u. Dominique Bradley
2009	2.	World Championship trials	Heavy	behind Tervel Dlagnev, in front of Dominique Bradley

Note: all competitions in free style, heavyweight, from 1997 to 2001 up to 130 kg, since 2002 up to 120 kg, NCAA = US American University Sports Association

swell

• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig,
• Trade journal Der Ringer ,
• US Wrestling Association website,
• "Wrestling.teamusa.org" website

Web links

• Profile of Steve Mocco at the Institute of Applied Exercise Science
• Steve Mocco in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait of Steve Mocco on USA Wrestling (English)