San Jose: Mongolian wrestlers best opponents in exhibition
By Eric Messinger
emessinger@mercurynews.com
Posted: 06/22/2010 05:08:10 PM PDT
Updated: 06/23/2010 10:58:09 AM PDT
In this corner, San Jose City Councilman and former cop Pete Constant. In the other corner ... a 7-year-old boy?
Constant was the good host, losing in the international Mongolian-style wrestling match Tuesday at San Jose's Tech Museum. Winner: Tuguldur Khishigbayar.
"I figured I had a chance against a 7- or 8-year-old kid," Constant quipped after his defeat.
The venue for the goodwill match was a large mat outside the museum, where a Genghis Khan exhibition opened in late May.
Constant and four students — all connected with the San Jose State wrestling team — formed one team. Opposing them were burly Mongolian wrestlers, or "bukhs," clad in their traditional costume of leather boots, small colored briefs and a sleeveless jacket called a jodag.
The matches between the bukhs and the students were tense and usually ended suddenly, owing to the Mongolian rules where even a knee down means defeat.
The uniformly enormous — well, except for Constant's opponent — Mongolian team took down the American students one by one, who jokingly compared their preparation time of "a few minutes" with finely honed Mongolian technique.
Constant, who has trimmed down 80 pounds recently, was the last hope for the American side.
When the time came to pick his opponent, Constant cunningly avoided the burly competitors in favor of Tuguldur, a Mongolian American from the Bay Area.
Constant lost. International incident avoided.
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