Ellis Coleman's Amazing Flying Greco-Roman Wrestling Takedown (VIDEO)

It can't be easy for a wrestler from Northern Michigan University to go viral, but Ellis Coleman did just that at the Junior World Championships when he pulled off one of the more ridiculous wrestling takedowns you'll ever see.

Coleman went full-airborne at the whistle, flying over Mehdi Chooli Zeidvand of Iran and flipping him on his head before he could even tell what happened. Apparently, the move is called "the flying squirrel."

Not surprisingly Coleman went on to win the match, and eventually was awarded the bronze medal in his weight division.

Hat tip to Fourth-Place Medal!

(WATCH VIDEO AT TOP)

Comments

[Emily Joy Carlson]

05:17 PM on 08/13/2011

This is awesome! Chalk them Up chatted with Ellis about his new move! Be sure to check it out!

http://youtu.be/iBnjQ6kqdwA

[WrestlingDatabase]

03:26 PM on 08/08/2011

This brought back a funny memory. On my junior high wrestling team we had a kid who jumped like that, but with no move in mind. For some reason he just thought he should jump and put the other kid in a front headlock. I'm glad to see that an elite athlete like Coleman made my memory into a pretty slick move. Congrats Coleman!

[bklyn54]

12:17 AM on 08/04/2011

I saw him do the same move in a match at a fundraiser on the Intrepid. It's about 7:50 into this video. http://www.flowrestling.org/coverage/237025-2010-beat-the-streets-gala/video/334059-ellis-coleman-vs-spenser-mango

[Jim Maxey]

06:34 PM on 08/03/2011

AHH THE HUE MANATEE!!!

[Equinator]

04:33 PM on 08/03/2011

Pretty awesome move.

[frank day]

02:36 PM on 08/03/2011

Iranian dude should have fallen straight backwards.

[smoovejef]

09:11 AM on 08/03/2011

Creative display of athleticism and timing.

[ZenSufi]

11:24 PM on 08/02/2011

He jumped so high, he almost hit the debt ceiling.

[antrich4000]

08:24 PM on 08/02/2011

wrasling is kind of boring, but that was electric. I find most wrestlers not very athletic, although they are strong. This kid is very athletic, maybe he should have gone out for a real sport, like football, imagine a cornerback taking down a wide receiver with that move on a football field.

[white dude]

08:55 PM on 08/02/2011

Ever tried it? You just might find that real athletes don't play with balls.

[me again]

09:51 PM on 08/02/2011

The most conditioned athletes in the World are wrestlers. They come in all shapes and sizes and I'd put them up to any other athlete in an endurance competition.

[splinky]

10:35 AM on 08/03/2011

They are in fantastic shape. I don't know about best, though, I might have to go with boxers (in the middle weight classes), they have to go 36 min. while moving the whole time, and punching and getting punched.

Though, really, I think top level athletes in any sport are such specialists, they wouldn't be able to compete with the top athletes in any other sport (like Lance Armstrong's mediocre marathon performance), so it would probably be impossible ot compare.

[micheleweldon]

04:36 PM on 08/02/2011

That's Ellis Coleman, a 2009 grad of Oak Park-River Forest High School and he doesn't attend Northern Michigan University. He's an amazing young man, as wonderful a person as he is talented.
See my recent post, http://wrestlingmom.net/2011/08/02/we-always-knew-ellis-was-destined-to-be-great/

[moscowmotors]

03:19 PM on 08/02/2011

Nice move, except you can easily hurt yourself doing it. Also, there are so many counters to it. You could turn in and end up slamming him Normally this would be illegal, but under these circumstances, I don't know? It would be easy to grab the back of his legs and fall back pinning him. You could drop to your knees, slamming his head to the mat. Still, there only a few who could attempt such a move. The fact he took third has me thinking some wrestlers countered.

[splinky]

10:37 AM on 08/03/2011

Yeah, it seemed to me that the coach (or assistant? Trainer?) of the guy who got pinned was saying something to him to the effect of "you fell for THAT?"

[Tiffany Scully Kinder]

02:23 PM on 08/02/2011

Awesome move. I caught this out of the corner of my eye on TV this morning, and glad I could see it again. Nice job, kid!

[tdelgregg]

02:09 PM on 08/02/2011

Good move, but the average wrestler will break his own neck trying to copy this. Better leave it for the top tier wrestlers.

[tksensei]

03:14 PM on 08/02/2011

Not a matter of "top tier." Just a bad idea and that kid got lucky with it.

[tdelgregg]

06:11 PM on 08/02/2011

His coaches didn't look surprised though. I wonder whether this fellow actually practiced the move or just got lucky. Either way, there will be copycats and unnecessary injuries.

[kevinbeair]

01:49 PM on 08/02/2011

that's called a sunset Flip, common move in the WWE, but not often done like that.

[thorgdthndr]

01:43 PM on 08/02/2011

Yea the move is awesome but should be illegal. When he breaks someones neck then they will stop it!