John Brzenk VS Rustam Babayev - Qual. + Open final - Nemiroff 2009 - World of Armwrestling.com

I've got a couple of questions about this match.
The guys who were there, it looks electric, what was the atmosphere like in the room
Did anyone get the opportunity to speak to John and Rustam before the match
Recently Andy made a comment say "Rustam is real", what did he mean

I was presenting the event but you could feel that the atmosphere in the Hilton Hotel right before the match was BUZZING.

Andy, Ted and myself had been hanging out with John all weekend up to that point as usual and during our evening meal on Thursday night he said that he was really looking forward to pulling Rustam for the first time and interested to see what he could do with him.

He was not actually expecting that Rustam would stay in the overall as he had withdrawn from the Left HAnd on Friday BUT backstage as the overall started we were actually discussing that Rustam would be with him in the final as Denis and Andre had WRECKED each other in the Heavyweight Final.

John tried a controlled Top on the first start and had some fun letting Rustam set before dragging him out of it before Rustam fouled out then in the final John Hooked with him and controlled Rustam pretty comfortably dispite letting him get Sweet and then attack John flat out. John said that he felt TREMENDOUSLY POWERFUL inside and is one of THE MOST EXPLOSIVE pullers that he has ever pulled against.

As for Andy's comments he will explain that I'm sure BUT anyone who can make Brzenk think is very much THE REAL DEAL.

Babyev is in my opinion probably the most powerful Light Middleweight Armwrestler of all time.

EXTREMELY tight game in all areas and almost invincible at his weight class

Thanks Neil for the feedback.
For John to speak of Rustam in this regard shows the level of respect, even
between these weight classes.