Jordan Burroughs is set to take on Frank Chamizo this Thursday in New York City, and I can’t remember a Beat The Streets card that I’ve been more excited for. In fact, I can't remember a super match that had this many implications and gravity surrounding it. 

Watch Beat The Streets LIVE on FLO

 Thursday, May 17 | New York City

While we all love to think of Beat The Streets as an awesome exhibition for a good cause, one can’t help but think of the ramifications that this could have on the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, later this year.

Here are a few things to keep in mind for Thursday's match.

Step-Outs Are JB’s Best Friend

The action area of an international wrestling mat is 9 meters in diameter. When United World Wrestling (then FILA) started enforcing a strict step-out rule about 10 years ago, I’m not sure the governing body understood just how important it would wind up being to the sport. 

Although a step-out is only one point, the impact of the rule on the in-match tactics is really what plays into JB’s skill set. It’s not really any mystery that Jordan Burroughs has one of the most powerful double legs of all time, but one of the things that makes that double so deadly is that his opponent must turn back into him instead of simply turning away and going out of bounds. 

Chamizo has some of the heaviest hip in wrestling and he’s going to need them if he wants to keep from either stepping out or getting doubled to his back. 

Keep It Simple

Chamizo's ability to scramble has a tendency to make great wrestlers look bad. One thing that I’ve noticed is that a lot of the scrambles that Chamizo drags people into are coming off of their control tie. 

If I were Burroughs, you couldn’t pay me enough to take an underhook or a 2-on-1 against Chamizo. He’s simply too good at defending those positions. 

JB will more than likely level change, stiff arm, and strike from the outside—and if he does I like his chances. 

Behind The Dirt: Chamizo's 2-On-1 D:

Intangibles 

There are factors that go into a win that are extremely hard to quantify: for instance, home crowd, conditioning, and game-ness. If one of these factors weren’t enough, Chamizo has all three working against him. 

First, Jordan Burroughs has walked a well-worn path on the carpet leading up to the BTS mat. This will be his eighth time headlining the card (he’s 7-0, by the way). Presumably one of the reasons that JB makes his way back to New York City every year is because he gets to wrestle in front of his friends and family coming from Willingboro, NJ, which is only 80 miles away. 

Next, we, as a country, have a much better baseline of cardiovascular conditioning than the rest of the world. When it comes time for the World Championships, everyone will be in great shape after being in camp, but most of our athletes train all year round. 

Then there's the fact that JB is simply clutch. Last year at the World Championships, Burroughs was losing in every match that he wrestled. In his qualification match against Ali Shabanau of Belarus, he was losing with less than 30 seconds left before pulling out the win.