A shocking video has emerged that captures the moment a youth wrestler delivers a sucker punch to his opponent after being defeated in a bout, sending his rival crashing to the mat. The brutal sucker punch came following the completion of the match when both the youth wrestlers were about to shake hands in front of the referee.
The incident happened in Oak Park, Illinois during a third-place 125-128 pound match at 2023 Beat the Streets Developmental FS tournament, according to TMZ Sport. The video of the incident has since viral, with viewers left in shock by the unprovoked and brutal attack.
Down in One Blow
Cooper Corder, who was competing on behalf of SPAR Academy and was sporting an orange singlet, defeated Hafid Alicea, a student from Maine West High School. The eighth-grader won by a scoreline of 14–2.
Following the completion of the match, the referee brought both competitors to the middle of the mat to shake hands, as is customary in wrestling, and declare Corder the winner.
However, things went horribly wrong when Alicea pretended to shake Corder's hand but instead gave him a powerful right hook to the face, knocking him to the ground.
Parents were utterly furious with Alicea and yelled at him before rushing over to help Corder. In order to prevent a confrontation between parents and students from getting out of hand, the referee escorted Alicea from the matside area.
Corder seems to have come out of the incident a lot better than initially feared, only suffering a nose injury.
Leaving Everyone Shocked
Corder is believed to have to wear a face mask during his next matches, however.
"He is making the best of the situation and is already back to training"' SPAR Academy founder Justin Pearch told TMZ Sports.
"As you may know, wrestling matches can get heated but nothing leading up to the punch would give cause to such bad decision-making on the opponent's part.
"It's not tolerated in our sport and Spar Wrestling will never condone that behavior."
According to reports, the Oak Park Police Department has joined the investigation and is now participating.
It is not known what prompted Alicea to sucker punch his rival. Sources said, there was no provocation from Corder, who displayed complete sportsman spirit throughout the match and won on fair ground.
According to reports, Alicea probably felt humiliated after the defeat given that he didn't stand a chance in front of Corder, which is evident from the scoreline of the game.
