Ion Oncescu

[simon]

This guy pulled out at a local event here in California this past weekend, he is very strong and quite a nice guy, Ion and Kenny Hughes went back and forth quite a bit at 198 both hands, the event was very competitive in every class.

[simon]

For anyone that did not know this is the Romanian individual that Engin and Aredeo where discussing on this board several weeks ago.

[Alper Cosar]

Hi Simon,
How much does he weigh? Who won? Was it easy win? Hook or outside? Details pls...

[Amedeo Goga]

Hey Simon, how are you ? I have been telling my buddies, Chris Myers and Mike Selearis for 2 years now, how great this Oncescu is, and I should add without any serious table time...

When I met him in 2002, he told me that he had never pulled on an armwrestling table, except in a competition, that he had never practiced at home with anybody....Maybe he was lying, but the way he positioned at the table, he definately had no experience....But he had brute strength, and I could not hold him at all...Both Chris Myers and Selearis said that I was a girl, and when they would meet him, they would avenge me....

Oncescu is a mountain climber, and that's how he gets his hand strength...

Are u saying that he actually beat Kenny Hughes in an official match ? I find that hard to believe, unless Kenny underestimated him, just like Cvetan Gvashnevski the bulgarian world champion...But after he realized that Oncescu is no slouch, and took him seriously he beat him twice in a row, but not easily, and he had to strain to get those wins...

There was a competition in Romania on Aug 22, about 3 weeks ago....There were two top notch bulgarians that went to this competition....

Cvetan Gvashnevski, who is the defending world champ at 75kg, and the european champion, and Golemanov, a heavier bulgarian champion at about 85 kg, who was second at the European championships, and they both flashed Oncescu, because they had dealt with him before....

Golemanov beat Cvetan Gvashnevski in the overall and took the prize of $ 300 US dollars, which is huge in Romania...

Simon, please give me your cell number, I would like to call you and find out more details about this match going back and forth, between Oncescu and Kenny Hughes...Here is my cell if you decide you want to call me, if you have free minutes 917-407 2123. Thanks in advance for your time and details !!!
Thanks, Amedeo

[simon]

Ion was 198.

Kenny has been battling some significant injuries for some time now, so this certainly was not a 100% Kenny Hughes but he is always dangerous, every match took a long time with a couple of fouls and restarts, the straps etc, there were no easy matches. They went everywhere outside, inside, deep inside, everywhere.

Ion is very strong and he has a very quick snatching type of hit. He had a long hard day pulling 2 classes right and left, he finished second both hands in the supers and first both hands I think, in the 198's, this is where he had his wars with Kenny, (going 2 and 1) in each, I finished 3rd right 198 and 4th in the supers, (I also finished first in the 176 class) in the overall right Ion lost to the supers winner outside, fairly quickly then I had a long match with the super winner inside, then outside then back inside again. Just trying to give a bit of perspective on him compared to everyone else.

Ion is vulnerable to a good outside move from someone with a good hand and a quick start in my opinion, mostly due to his lack of experience, he is a very tough puller though with a lot of heart, now he just needs some time to learn the sport.

[simon]

Quick correction, Kenny beat Ion 2 out of 3 left but Ion beat Kenny 2 out of 3 right, the pictures are at the link Murray Bowles posted on here for Paso Robles.

[Bill Collins]

It’s always nice being the referee you get the best spot in the house, Ion is defiantly a puller with heart, and one of the most easiest armwrestler to set up, and very respectful to his opponent and all involved. I warmed up with Ion he has a lot of power any spot on the table, made me want to come out of retirement.

As Simon mentioned when Ion and Kenny pulled they went inside, outside, on top, deep, shoulder you name it they did it.

When Ion got pulled outside he stretch himself out a bit, he didn't have a whole lot of weak spots, where he couldn’t recap.

My personal opinion, going 2 right and 2 lefts back to back, killed his hand and had a hard completing a finsih, to much of a pump. He finished 2nd in the overall but probably would of took 1st if he had and extra 10 minuets to rest, lucky for Kenny and Ion I’m retired cause they would have been fighting for 2nd and 3rd.

He told me that he’ll try to make Reno.

[enginterzi]

Gashevski at 165 crushed Ion (220)in a second 3 weeks ago.just wanted to compare Kenny with Gashevski.

[Florin Butusina]

Hy all!!!!

I am a friend of Ion and i talked with Amedeo yesterday and he told me that Oncescu pin Georgi with 14-6 for Ion!!
After that he pin Chris Myers with 17-3 for Ion!!!
Tvetan is VERY strong , Golemanov too , but i think that Ion can pin them in MAX 1 year

[enginterzi]

Christopher,how did you feel Ion?

[enginterzi]

Florin,were you there when Tzvetan Gashevski flashed Ion in an eye blink?

[Amedeo Goga]

Ion was just in NYC untill today Engin...I was hanging out with him on Thursday 9 and Friday 10....

Oncescu told me personally that he had been hunting the day before he lost to Tzvetan Gashevski on Aug 22 and he did not feel 100 %....He did not want to take anything away from Tzvetan, and told me that he has no experience in the straps, and that the bulgarian knows how to use the straps perfectly to his advantage, and even if he wasn't tired Oncescu does not think he has enogh knowledge on how to beat Tzvetan Gashevski .....

On Thursday Sept 9, I took Oncescu for a practice run at Chris Myers's shop....Oncescu had only 4 days of rest since the tournament he had with Kenny Hughes, and he complained about soreness in both of his arms.....

But Chris Myers was not himself also, because he just had surgery to his jaw, and was still feeling the effects of anesthesia....Also Georgi, who happens to be one of the strongest team New York members was there....Georgi also complained of some sort of injury to the two fingers in his right hand....

Mike Selearis had something to do and was not able to show up for this evening's practice.....

Left handed Oncescu beat Chris Myers pretty handly, but Georgi was beating Oncescu pretty much most of the time left handed...

But right handed was a different story, and if there is any doubt to my story, I have the video tape, so there won't be any doubts as to what the truth really is....

The first match Oncescu had was against Georgi....Oncescu won in a flash!!!! The rest of the matches were not always finished, as they would slip, and we had no strap, but almost all the time Oncescu was in the advantage in the winning position....Out of maybe more than 20 matches, I would say that Oncescu would have won maybe 16-4 against Georgi....

Oncescu vs. Chris Myers the first match Oncescu won in a flash....I was very impressed with his win, because he was pretty spent from pulling with Georgi all those matches....Chris Myers came about 20 minutes later after the practice had began....Out of 20 matches, Chris Myers won maybe 3 matches, with all others favoring Oncescu...Chris was able to win if he would get Oncescu in a deep hook...Otherwise Oncescu was able to blast through his fingers.....As I have stated, Chris was nowhere near his optimal force, but neither was Oncescu, since he was torn up by Kenny Hughes and also by Georgi....

Georgi is the only man from team NYC to beat Mike Selearis in an official match, which happened about 8-9 months ago....Chris Myers sais that Selearis has not been beating Georgi lately at practice, not even once...

What's most important about this new guy, is that he did not get off the table at all...Oncescu pulled both, Chris Myers and Georgi, without losing his hand at all...He was faster and quicker than both of them, even thou they would have time to rest while the other took on Oncescu...All three were a puddle of sweat....

As Chris would affirm what I have said, this man's endurance is unbelievable....I just wish he would get more experienced in the straps, where he got beat easily as Engin says by the bulgarian world champion, Tzvetan Gashevenski....

Engin please tell me how did you lose to Tzvetan ? Was it in the straps, or the hook, toproll or sidepressure ?

[enginterzi]

i believe that the reason that he s good without strap is because his fingers must be so strong by rock climbing and he can use his hand freely without strap.when it comes to strap time then we are talking about wrist and back pressure and as far as i have seen his matches against Gashevski he doesnt have them.i also saw this when he competed at Europeans.as John said,'technique needs to be accompanied with strength to effectively execute it..'.

[Amedeo Goga]

According to Chris Myers and Georgi, Oncescu has a great wrist and awesome backpressure....I guess Oncescu does not know how to apply his strength in the straps....

Engin, you did not answer my question, how did you lose to Tzvetan Gashevski

[enginterzi]

you can not be sure how strong a wrist is as until it gets pressure by strap! ok,Gashevski had a real high grip and super back pressure and i did the same.normally im very fast too but since what happened to me unfairly day before with left hand i had no sleep and motivation left.so he reacted much faster and hit SO strong!!!! when my arm got 4 inches to the pin pad his wrist got bended back,then he went back and hit,and back and hit 4 or 5 more times but everytime he hit he was losing his hand and arm angle more and i was having better position.because his hits were becoming weaker.but everything was happenning so fast for me to react and when i realised that it was my turn to move my elbow just got a little out of pad for an eye blink and i got foul.at the restart he didnt put pressure as much as he did at the first match and i made a big mistake and did the same.with the go i felt an incredible hit and my elbow tendon got injured i heard strange clicks while my arm was slowly went to the pad.this s how i lost to him and then i also lost to the Russian whom i beat in an eye blink a match before i pulled Gashevski.