I 100% understand the excitement that we are feeling with Bolen being the new (presumed) #1 at 184, but this just feels wrong to me.

Zahid is an all time great, and possibly a 3x National Champ and Hodge winner and now he’s out. And that means Bolen won’t get a chance to face him. I don’t think Bolen would have won (or even had a real chance), but Mekhi was in the same boat last year, and we saw how that ended.

I guess it just feels wrong seeing the celebrations that he’s out for a recreational drug. I’d much rather see Bolen wrestle him and potentially lose than win without facing possibly the best wrestler among all weights in the country. If it was a PED, I’d feel completely differently, but none of us know what’s going on in Zahid’s life and to celebrate our guy moving up because of Zahid’s demons just doesn’t sit well with me.

Maybe I’m an outlier in this, but I was looking forward to them facing off and I feel like the wrestling world was robbed.

And before the “rules is rules” crowd responds, think about how bad his problem must be to be willing to risk everything you’ve worked your whole life for (keep in mind he hasn’t qualified for the trials yet, and winning the NCAAs would’ve been his ticket), just for a hit. That has to be excruciating for him (and his family who always seemed like really decent and supportive people).

And if that doesn’t work for you, just remember that we were all young and stupid once and no one ever found out about our bad choices for one reason or another.

TLDR: We were robbed of a chance to see Bolen go up against an all time great, and we shouldn’t be celebrating that. I promise you Hunter isn’t.