Despite being a two-time world bronze medalist, Nick Gwiazdowski still has room for improvement. In order to prepare himself for another run at a world title, he needs to use Final X as reps for one of his fatal flaws.

In every match Gwiz lost in 2018, he held a lead in the final minute. Think about that, with less than 60 second to go, he held a lead in every match he didn't win last year. So his ability to manage late match situations is perhaps his biggest potential area of growth, and fending off the leg attacks of a young and hungry Gable Steveson will be excellent practice.

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The Minnesota freshman took Adam Coon down six times between their two matches in Raleigh. His greatest asset is his footwork, not just the raw speed he has, but how light he is on his feet, the timing, and the precision with his steps, all of which were on display against Coon at World Team Trials.

Coming up through the ranks, Steveson's credentials exceeded his opponent's. Gwiz was a late bloomer, not placing in Fargo until after his junior year of high school, never making an age-level world team, and not making the Trials finals until after Tervel Dlagnev retired. Meanwhile, Gable went basically his entire high school career without losing a match, winning three age level world titles in the process, predicated heavily on his leg attacks and go behinds.

I'm not sure what precisely causes theses losses, but it needs to be a point of emphasis for both athletes, and all of Team USA generally. Holding leads late is such a crucial skill, and perhaps it is one that needs to be developed early on.

Perhaps the most egregious and frustrating of Gwiazdowski's losses was in the quarterfinals against Zhiwei Deng of China. The perception once draws came out was that the two-time NCAA champ had been gifted a ticket to the finals, which was probably presumptuous given how difficult international wrestling is, but the feeling was there.

Now, the way Gwiz lost that one was a chest wrap, something we haven't seen Gable do much of. What we have seen Steveson do is score the way Oleksandr Khotsianivskyi did in Dogu or Jamaladin Magomedov did at World Cup. They both attacked Gwiz's lead leg (right), but the Ukrainian went righty collar tie to shot and the Azeri went under Gwiz's same side tie. The latter also used a secondary tie up from that on his winning takedown late.

Part of what makes Gwiz special is his willingness to stay on the offense, and his ability to get the tree trunk legs of other massive heavyweights off the ground. It's very obvious that heavyweights have gotten more athletic and more leg attack dependent, which also means counter defense and efficient shot counts are more important as well.

This article is also nitpicking, because the New York native is an extremely high level, highly credentialed wrestler in the prime of his career. He does a lot right, which is why he's won two world medals, two Pan Am golds, two NCAA titles, won medals at two Ranking Series events, and helped Titan Mercury win a World Clubs Cup title.

In America, he's beaten all of the top heavyweights since 2017: Zach Rey, Dom Bradley, Adam Coon, Tony Nelson, Bobby Telford, Nathan Butler, and Derek White. Internationally, he was the top seed at last year's world championships and is currently #5 in seeding points with one Ranking Series event to go. He's 7-2 at the world championships and is unquestionably one of the 10 best heavyweights on earth.

The world championships are in September this year in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, and if Gwiz wins he'll probably compete two more times before then. So he'll have plenty of time to practice protecting leads against quality competition. But this Saturday at the RAC will be perhaps his best opportunity to begin prepping himself to hold a late lead against someone trying to steal a world title chance from him.