Joe Colon had beaten Nahshon Garrett multiple times going into Final X. The matches were extremely competitive, but Colon always seemed to finish with the upper hand. It seemed as if it would be more of the same after Colon took the first match.
Going into the second match, the safe bet would have been placed on Colon to punch his ticket to the World Team by winning the best of three series with another victory over Garrett. However, Garrett came out firing and was able to stop Colon’s offense to secure a victory over Colon in the second match.
Now, the series came down to a third and final match, and after seeing Nahshon Garrett get a win over Joe Colon, there were several questions. Did Garrett just get lucky? How would Colon respond after losing a match to Garrett despite already beating him multiple times? Could Garrett do it again?
Going into the third match, it was clear that Garrett was on a mission, and was able to put to rest any doubts that people had concerning his victory over Colon in the second match. With his first two takedowns, he was able to transition straight into a gut wrench to earn eight points within the very first minute of the match, and Garrett ended the match with a third takedown to secure the tech-fall in only one minute and sixteen seconds into the first period.
Simply put, Garrett looked astounding, and he was able to earn a one-sided victory over an opponent who had beaten him multiple times in a high stakes match to earn himself a spot on the United States World Team. Moreover, Garrett solidified himself as a contender to earn a medal for the United States at Worlds.
It can be extremely easy, and maybe even natural, to assume that just because someone has beaten you before, that they will beat you again. There are so many excuses as to why we lost the first time that can run over and over again in our minds that could cause us to lose a match before we even step out on the mat.
Nahshon Garrett could have easily fallen into that same trap. What allowed him to win is that he denied that impulse and refused to fall into the trap of repeating past mistakes.
Every match that you wrestle is new. Just because you have lost before does not mean that you will lose again. Learn from your mistakes and move on!