Austin DeSanto vs Arsen Harutyunyan - Two Men, Something to Prove

One has RAF gold, the other is one of the best wrestlers in the history of his country. Can Austin DeSanto, the RAF Bantamweight Champion, take out Armenia’s international powerhouse, Arsen Harutyunyan at RAF13?

University of Iowa’s Austin DeSanto stands a perfect 3-0 under the RAF banner. His tech fall victories over Nico Megaludis and Nathan Tomasello showed the RAF fans what he’s capable of but it’s his most recent 3-1 victory over Reineri Ortega that DeSanto has fresh on the mind.

Similarly, Arsen Harutyunyan introduced himself with a 14-4 tech over Caleb Smith before edging out Ben Davino 6-5 at RAF11.

Both men are capable of dominance but are sitting on uncharacteristically narrow victories in their last matchups. There’s an inherent urge to bounce back and get back to championship form for both men. Add a bantamweight title to the mix and you’ve got a recipe for Match of the Night honors.

Few people have a bigger chip on their shoulder in the sport than DeSanto. Always in Spencer Lee’s shadow in high school, ran out of Drexel and never hoisted an NCAA trophy. His entire life has been made up of pushing himself to prove people wrong. Following his out of character 3-1 victory that saw little offensive output from DeSanto, he promised the fans a stronger performance his next time out and it’s time to collect.

He has one of the most fan-friendly, aggressive, offensive-minded styles. What does it look like when he unlocks yet another gear?

Harutyunyan is seemingly impossibly skilled at hand-fighting and holds a very efficient offensive output. He has run through competitions and won medals by tech falling his way to gold medals. He strikes with precision, speed and doesn’t need spectacular sequences to earn his hardware.

At only 26 years old he has already amassed countless medals due to an extreme comfort against almost any style and position on the mat.

Even in his small sample size on the RAF mat he has notched points with singles, doubles, counter-wrestling and more. His defense and positioning allows him to move between any situation without giving opponents easy openings and it’s his natural instinct and control of the mat that lets him take care of the rest.

Both men have styles that have made them a thorn in the side of the sport’s best for years. How do they stack up against each other?

DeSanto needs to make the first exchange ugly. While he likely can win a technical match, the path of least resistance is to add more resistance. Make the match chaotic before Harutyunyan can impose his preferred rhythm.

Harutyunyan’s greatest strength is controlling the terms of engagement. DeSanto has always been a high-volume, aggressive wrestler with an arsenal built around snaps, two-on-ones and more. Rather than standing and feeling his opponent out, the Hawkeye will need to initiate quickly. The objective isn’t necessarily to score immediately, it’s to prevent Harutyunyan from establishing clean hand-fighting.

Can DeSanto initiate as well as defend multiple attacks he will likely be en route to another high-scoring victory.

Harutyunyan needs to make DeSanto reach. With how fast and furious DeSanto attacks, overextensions come at a greater cost. Can Harutyunyan utilize his unorthodox stance he can make DeSanto pay early and often.

He should also look for DeSanto to straighten up too far and shoot for legs to maximize offensive efficiency. Harutyunyan has the speed to make DeSanto pay if he becomes too spread out or upright in his stance while pressuring. This can come in handy, especially with how deep the Armenian’s bag of tricks is.

Both men have some “bouncing back” they’d like to do and even with perfect records, they’re both wrestling like they’re out to end a losing streak. With RAF gold on the line on top of this, there’s no real indication of what we’re about to see.

Catch Austin DeSanto vs Arsen Harutyunyan LIVE at RAF 13, Friday, September 18 ONLY on FOX Nation!