EvW 22 and Kamil Jablonski vs Michael Todd thoughts and analysis

Overall, I thought East vs West 22 was great! Based on the people that I'm really familiar with, most of these matches went how I predicted, however, Kamil Jablonski vs Michael Todd was something that I did not expect, especially in the fashion that Kamil won.

Based on how Michael Todd beat Georgi Tsvetkov, Georgi being in his best shape ever, better than the shape he was in when he fought Devon Larratt at King of the Table 9 in December 2023, where they both had a match a month prior at EvW 10 with Devon facing Denis, and Georgi facing Zaur, and improving his side pressure drastically, I expected Michael to be able to win this match by gassing Kamil out, however, not only was Kamil's endurance extremely impressive, but Kamil's gameplan was executed perfectly; we all know how to beat Michael Todd for 10+ years; the blueprint has been out for everyone to follow; you need to be strong enough to execute the gameplan though, and Kamil was strong enough. In almost the same sense that I don't think people realize how impressive Mike's win over Tsvetkov was, I don't think people realize how impressive Kamil's win over Michael Todd is as well.

The key for Kamil lied in his ability to maintain and protect his pronation, which is just a proxy for internal-rotation of the shoulder-joint, which allowed Kamil to maintain access to his side pressure and create that "wedge" that Michael Todd could not dig out of. Considering Michael Todd's overall Cupping ability is not the best, being the Summation of your Wrist-Flexion, Containment, and Finger-Flexion - his Wrist-Flexion is outstanding, just not the other two components - I think Michael climbed too high, because the more Mike climbed, the further away Mike got from Kamil's pronator area, which allowed Kamil to "wedge" his shoulder-in even more. If you pay attention closely to the match, Kamil's the first flop-presser I've ever seen that's actually been able to cause Michael Todd to redline, as in he was shaking trying to hold Kamil's surge in, I believe, the first round. I also thought Kamil's finger-flexion was going to give out eventually due to Michael Todd's Pronation and Posting-Style Backpressure, as it has made some big improvements in the last year-or-so, however, Kamil's fingertips never disconnected from Mike's hand. The last round was also ridiculously impressive by Kamil as well; Michael tried to shoulder-press, Kamil was able to not only completely control Michael Todd's pronator, but Kamil even got a great-degree of supination in there as well and, unlike most of Michael's matches, where if Mike's unsuccessful in the shoulder-roll, he ends up rolling back out, Kamil's Cup was so great that Michael WASN'T EVEN ABLE TO ROLL OUT, with his 86kg seated-pronation lift, which is a harder variation because your body can't counterbalance the weight naturally; that's one of the most impressive feats of arm-wrestling I think I've ever seen in my life.

Kamil is in an extremely interesting spot right now, being ranked #5 in the world. While I want to see Ermes Gasparini go against him as well, I think Kamil Jablonski vs. Georgi Tsvetkov would be an extremely interesting match. While Kamil completely controlled Mike's pronator and Georgi Tsvetkov was extremely close to controlling Mike's pronator, the difference here lies in the lane that Mike used. Kamil was able to completely control Mike's pronator when Mike initiated with an Inside move, whereas Georgi Tsvetkov was extremely close to controlling Mike's pronator when Mike initiated with an Outside move. Not only is Georgi Tsvetkov's center stronger than Mike's, but Georgi is probably the best, maybe other than Levan, maybe Devon, at neutralizing someone's pronator, which, again, I believe, was the key for Kamil in his match with Michael Todd 2 weeks ago. Let me know what you guys think! Is Kamil Jablonski vs. Georgi Tsvetkov a hell of match? Can Georgi control Kamil's pronator and cut off Kamil's access to his flop-press? Can Kamil hold defensively like Jerry Cadorette? Does Kamil have the strongest flop-press in the history of this sport? What do you think?