Mukhriddin Tilovov wins tactical final against An Baul

At the Grand Prix in Portugal An Baul got surprised by the tough athlete Mukhriddin Tilovov (UZB) in the final U66kg.

Judo fans witnessed a very tactical match between the two finalists. On one side, the frontrunner An Baul, who wanted to use his strong left arm to launch his seoi-nage techniques, and on the other side, Mukhriddin Tilovov, who made An Baul's life difficult, by blocking his arm systematically but also positively. In golden score the Korean champion had two shido to his name, while Tilovov had only one. It was actually impressive to see how the Uzbek competitor kept putting pressure on An's left arm, to push him to the third penalty. It takes a lot of energy to produce such a tactical match, but Tilovov did it and this gold medal is worth many.

An Baul is a diesel machine. It takes him a little time to find his bearings and lay down his judo which then becomes explosive. That's why sometimes it doesn't seem like he dominates the category outrageously. And yet he was a bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020, was a finalist in Rio in 2016, three times a world medallist, including one gold, twice a winner of the World Judo Masters, he is an exceptional champion.

The first match for bronze saw Serdar Rahimov (TKM) and Radu Izvoreanu (MDA) face off. After a mistake, Radu Izvoreanu got scored against with a waza-ari but there was still more than a minute on the clock, which could be an eternity and it was, for Serdar Rahimov, who during the following sequence on the floor was pinned down. It was a bronze medal, the first of this kind at this level, for Radu Izvoreanu.

In the second match for a bronze medal, Jaehong An (KOR) and Daikii Bouba (BRA) were opposed. The Frenchman scored the first waza-ari with an opportunist counterattack and caught An again a few seconds later for a second waza-ari. A little bit out of the blue, Bouba was a finalist at the World Judo Masters in Jerusalem in December. Today he confirmed that it was not an accident but rather the beginning of a series of medals at the international level.