When the fight was over and Holm made it back to New Mexico, the city of Albuquerque was absolutely rocking and it was all for one person, the one person in the sport Woods is sure would’ve never asked for it all.
“It absolutely had a different buzz,” Woods recalled with a laugh. “The whole entire city had a different buzz. As a matter of fact, they did an Albuquerque-wide city march for Holly. It was the biggest thing that had happened to Albuquerque at the time.”
From being the quiet kid lighting up the mats to taking a step back and realizing that even in a very roundabout way he was in the background for one of the wildest moments in the entire history of a sport, it’s still hard for the common man to grasp. It’s hard to grasp what it would be like for Woods, who was training partners and even friends with the biggest names in the history of his favorite sport before blazing his own trail in NCAA wrestling.
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These days, Woods is one of the best wrestlers in the NCAA, and with each win in front of the sold out Carver Hawkeye Arena, it may be getting a little harder to impress the Albuquerque kid. But the overwhelming celebration of that window in time can never be taken away from him.
When most of us look back at “the good old days,” we’re not thinking about sharing the building, the room and definitely not the mats with the most accomplished fighters on Earth. What a life it must be for Real Woods.
“For me, personally, as a little kid, as a fan of the sport and a close friend of her, it was huge for me,” Woods said. “I was a part of that hype; I was excited to watch it.”
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