WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Purdue Wrestling's Matt Ramos shocked the world at the NCAA Semifinals.
Ramos is a redshirt sophomore and became a Boilermaker after two years at Minnesota.
Ramos was very familiar with the three time national champion Spencer Lee from Iowa.
He used to look him up and watch his moves, and in January, he got a chance to wrestle him. Ramos had three words going through his head.
"Don't be surprised. Just treat it like a normal match. Forget about the outside factors, okay? I looked up to him when I was younger, but now in this situation, I'm wrestling. I was wrestling him early on in that first match, and I was winning, and something hit me with shock. I'm like, I'm winning, and I kind of stopped wrestling."
Ramos was pinned the first time around, and he took that personally. At the NCAA Semifinals, Ramos was trailing seven to five with under a minute to go in the final period. He knew he had to make a big move to snap Lee's 58 match win streak.
"If something opens up, I'm going to go for something dangerous. And one of my moves in freestyle wrestling opened up. I just locked in and committed to that and executed that attack. The first thing I wanted to look at was my coaches, because they've helped me so much get to that moment, and I've visualized it before that match happening. I've lowkey had dreams like National Finals against him, and I've just had a lot of things that I'd like to bring it into the air, so I think that helps a lot."
Ramos speaks his goals into existence. He told his close friends and family that he was going to beat Lee and shock the world. He did just that.
"I don't like to be cocky in any type of way, so sometimes talking about something that you want to happen could come off that way. But I just tell myself, I'm going to do this. It's going to happen."
Spencer Lee's mom went viral for breaking her glasses after her son's loss. But the Ramos family was crying tears of joy.
"My mom, she was, like, tearing up. My mom's very emotional. I think I get my emotions from her. So I started tearing up. It's one of those whys of why I'm doing this, and it contributes to those matches. Like, why am I doing this? It's because I want my family like that. I want my family to go through those emotions. It's fun. I want to make them happy. I want to put on a show for everyone."
The upset was all over social media, and Matt Ramos quickly gained national attention. His phone was blowing up with messages, and he still couldn't believe it.
"It didn't really hit me till I was in the airport and people kept wanting to take pictures of me. And I told myself, I'm like, I forgot I did something historical for national, like NCAA wrestling, there's always work to be done, but it's great to reflect on where you started and the work that's been done."
Ramos said moments like these are exactly why he became a Boilermaker.
"I wouldn't have committed to Purdue if I wouldn't have thought that my goals wouldn't have came true. So I really trust everything with what Purdue wrestling has, what Purdue University has to offer, and I really believe in the system. And what's going to happen in the future is going to be amazing."
