When a Talented Footballer Discovers Weightlifting... ft. Karlos Nasar - UNLOCKLED Ep. 9 WWC '24

[@big_jake_lifts_weight]

I got the privilege of sharing a warm up platform with Kolbi at USA Nats earlier this year. I can tell you all that he has the potential to be the greatest male American weightlifter of all time. The strength he possesses doesn't seem human. His speed is unbelievable when you see it in person. This young man is built different.

[@georgewins8818]

You have just entered Clown World. Without even mentioning Tommy Kono or John Davis, there are over a dozen weightlifters from the golden era of American weightlifting, whose shoes this guy couldn't tie. As for Tommy and John, they compare favorably with Naim, Lasha, and Alexeev and were arguably greater. In fact, Tommy managed to pull off something that no other Weightlifter has ever duplicated and that probably will NEVER be duplicated. The only other weightlifter who even came remotely close was another American from the golden era. Fun fact: Tommy also won 4 Mr. Universe titles, even though he was an actual athlete and not a bodybuilding clown. He beat the bodybuilding court jesters at their own game without even playing. He just showed up, struck a couple of stiff poses, and collected his trophy. PS I am not a 'Merkin Jingoist. I grew up in wondrous awe of the Big Red machine spearheaded by Alexeev and Rigert, but the Americans of 1946-1956 and, to a lesser extent, adjacent years, were something truly special to behold. Are you at all familiar with Olympic Weightlifting before, say, the year 2020? How old are you?

[@jdco024]

if he works in his technique he could be great

[@big_jake_lifts_weight]

@jdco024 he's already on a world team and a 2 time national champ after training for a little over 2 years. I think he's already past great bud 🤦‍♂️

[@MultiPain101]

@@georgewins8818 How old are you? You seem like the kind of person to always go on and on about the "good ol days", instead of appreciating young new talent. You're the real reason this sport is getting set back in the US as is. Absolutely criminal and you should be ashamed of yourself

[@kevinhammack3915]

Kolbi- “ if I can deadlift it I can clean it”. Mark Rippetoe slowly nods as a single tear rolls down his cheek.

[@danilopedraza]

snatch = half of deadlift clean = deadlift

[@cysilver]

absolute chad statement

[@LTP-102kg]

kolbi is gonna be something special man i swear..

[@eloiishya]

This comment is talking about Kolbi, who is 102-109kg classes. You seem to be talking about Karlos. Or perhaps you misread because the reply didn't make any sense

[@josephfeliciano6415]

He already is. He clean and jerked 227. More than wes and it's only been 2 years but yes he will be more

[@1vootman]

For years a lot of people have said in America that there's great talent in football and if we can get one of those guys into weightlifting we would win medals... well here's that guy

[@lofigeo9890]

Yeah but look at money difference

[@davecronce3127]

Exactly. The violent explosiveness and power it takes to play college ball is insane. If half the guys who didn't makeit to the NFL tried weightlifting, we would be the premier men's weightlifting country without a doubt.

[@JundRaptor]

@@davecronce3127 Watching footballers power clean 180+ kg with no real WL training is insane. Kolbi started weightlifting a little over two years ago and now he's at Worlds Even if USA WL becomes a "failed NFL" pipeline we would have no shortage of podium contenders in the heavies

[@emcarpenter5206]

The US could absolutely be dominate again internationally if there was any real incentive for more talented athletes like this to get into weightlifting. If we take Kolbi as an example, he did say he is after stipends but you have to assume he would have stayed with football if he could make the NFL. I figure he either wasn't quite on that level in football, or he just discovered that he enjoys lifting more or maybe bit of both. I feel like there must be loads of really talented guys out there who can't quite make it in a different sport to where they can make a living on it but probably very few of them even realize that they could likely do what Kolbi is doing and get a stipend in weightlifting. The sport has grown in the US compared to what it used to be though so maybe we are beginning to see the start of that here.

[@JundRaptor]

@emcarpenter5206 A major issue is that the stipend is almost non-existent in that they don't even fully cover training, recovery, equipment, travel costs, etc. This is opposed to other countries that have WLing as full time state sponsored jobs

[@jaxonsevero1045]

If Kolbi gets his technique down he’ll easily be the goat of American weightlifting

[@emcarpenter5206]

He must have people behind him who can get him there because it's already quite good for the short time he has been at it! Clearly incredibly strong and he is already learning how to properly apply that strength.

[@SuperYoungjb]

@@emcarpenter5206 He trains with Preston Powell. He trains under Wes Kitts at his Be Somebody gym in Knoxville. I always see him training with Morgan McCullough who many see as having a very promising international career as he gains more experience. And he appears on the Training with Legends training vlog at Norik Vandanyan's Colorado gym.

[@francesco_pesi]

The fact that hes there and knows nobody is hilarious

[@tsalt]

lmfao yea

[@RammaRITOORITO]

I've seen enough, Kolbi is the future

[@SuperYoungjb]

Kolbi was first noticed by some random person on instagram who videotaped him doing a 405lb clean and jerk with bad technique at a commercial gym. Dude stopped the entire gym from what they were doing so they could watch. Video amassed over 200k likes back in 2022.

[@Daywalker78]

That pause front SQ at 230 looked like he was playing around, sheesh 😮

[@jacobk1655]

This guy is what they call in Sikastan "yakked"

[@exacompto]

The first part of the video is very beautyful. Very good choice for the song.

[@mikara518]

omg, the intro with Karlos, the song, the competition... pure art, thank you for the beautiful editing!

[@TimSumpton]

Production quality on the intro is awesome!

[@J3susChrist]

"stay disciplined and keep on working" 💪

[@G-man9902]

Love the intro

[@kas3dot0]

Can't wait to see what Kolbi can do on the platform.

[@tfwwhennofitlitgf3300]

USAW needs to hold on tight to this guy. don't even let him consider going back to football

[@JohnDoherty-dl2fz]

Kolbi power cleaned 190 in high school. Man life ain’t fair. That’s a pretty good deadlift for high school. How far did he go in American football? College? High school? You never say. Did he go to a pro camp? What happened? You can be the 1000th best football player in the US and make a 100X what the best stipend you get from USA weightlifting.

[@justinmadair]

Wow. I love Kolbi's spirit!

[@adamkorson8382]

I had the pleasure of training w/ kolbi a bunch of times and he’s such a nice dude but at the same time the biggest and strongest person you’ll ever see 😭

[@G17-k6f]

He's only been snatching and c&j since April 2022? That's crazy 😮

[@lowgan8962]

any idea why king rostami didnt compete? or did i miss anything

[@frederik0147]

Iran federation blocking him competing for Kosovo

[@dirnkerr]

@@frederik0147 his training hall lifts wouldve won him the comp lmao

[@manueljn1094]

Dude Kolbi is an absolute monster. I know he wont be at medals this time (maybe C&J) but he will get there for sure I have no doubt about it

[@frankdelaglio]

This kid got me sooooo hyped! Let's fucking goooo!

[@TheSkatingreptile]

Imagine only finding out what other top-level weightlifters are lifting AFTER you've totaled 400+ 😭 just say the record is 500 and he might have a crack at it.

[@brianholt594]

If this guy doesn’t get hurt he will be an Olympic champion I have no doubt

[@amazingpillowfort]

Absolutely hyped for Ferg!

[@amitev]

Karlos would have won the gold even in the 102kg with this result.

[@rufusl-g9848]

"If you can deadlift it you can clean it" is wild...

[@johnescobar9951]

Where are Akbar Djuraev?

[@lucabayne2874]

taking some time off after olympics

[@ventsislavstefanov4928]

Do someone know the track of the first seconds?

[@drez8888]

Me and the devil by Soap&Skin

[@ihekendukwe]

I'm all about the Pisarenko build. If he still looks like this after a full olympic quad... We're in for a show...

[@emcarpenter5206]

Would be epic to see another super that weighs below 130! I bet Kolbi could C&J at least 250 at that kind of bodyweight. Or who knows, maybe he can reach that as a non super one day.

[@keithcollier5271]

Congratulations 👏👏👏

[@NamedAfterTexas]

Where can I get one of those tank tops he's wearing? They're so cool

[@wolfofthesteppes]

Kolbi's name should be in the title of this video. You don't have to put Nasar's name on every video.

[@mattday9201]

Lets goooooooooo. America on top baby!!!!!!!!!!

[@sakaue]

best shape of any 109 ive seen lol

[@J3susChrist]

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 🦅🦅

[@Frogman125]

2 years of lifting, imagine 2 more, he'll be at the top of the heap.

[@shawnnaylor482]

What is that awesome epic song

[@muhammadhanif4113]

The guy is a unit,he just need a coach with good technique.

[@ConnoisseurOfExistence]

Nice.

[@robschilke]

Future GOAT

[@Tembru]

Kolbi doesn't have traps he has a whole cage.

[@Eloi1108]

are we gonna be seeing another Olivia-esque kind of rise?

[@kas3dot0]

I hope so.

[@gtiz8730]

Kolbi2028!

[@UofO08]

The world better be careful, if America can recruit athletes from football, it’s game over for the weightlifting world.

[@SirRHFrost]

🦨

[@NUFCtillidie9]

You just know Kolbi is going to get butchered by the refs for those elbows. Nothing they like more than to invalidate a lift because if a twitch

[@LucasDimoveo]

“Football athletes won’t make good weightlifters” says the Europeans. Y’all don’t know. You just don’t understand how strong these guys are Edit: my man really said “if you can deadlift it you can clean it” 😂🤣

[@01chohan]

Literally no Europeans have said that

[@APJ9000]

As an american, just think about what you write. Europeans would never say 'Football athlete' and think about American Football.

[@JohnDoherty-dl2fz]

The great Vardanyan did say if “I can rack it I can jerk it. “.

[@patrickhopkins5626]

Kolbi moves 120 like I move 20.

[@d_page]

he really must tren hard to get into these weights in two years time

[@koftli8997]

tren doesn't give you technique buddy

[@d_page]

@@koftli8997 He is jacked and strong as fuck. His technique is actually not on point and could be a lot better. He muscles every rep because he can and to be honest it is super impressive. P3D's dont do magic tricks - they just help get you the edge and its what is all about.

[@jeromevalantino1810]

sir, with all due respect, get out of here with this salty bullshit

[@d_page]

@@jeromevalantino1810 how is that salty? he is not a technician, he uses brute force in a pure display of pure raw power - this guy is a freaking horse lol how come everytime someone mentions PEDs people looses their minds and do ad hominems to shut down somebody's speech?

[@Robdutton91]

@@d_pagehe wasn’t replying to you. He was replying to the same comment you replied to

[@willgazlay5711]

We call them football players in the US.

[@NatalieLawrence]

I don’t find it impressive that he doesn’t know his competitors’ names. It comes across as dismissive and insular, or just not that interested in the sport.

[@WeightliftingHouse]

You might be surprised about how many top lifters we speak to who can't name someone else in their category. It's very common for us fans to know far more about the athletes than they do.

[@Robdutton91]

It really doesn’t matter one bit. He’s there to lift and he doesn’t need to know his competitor’s names to compete against them.

[@JohnDoherty-dl2fz]

If you’re competing to win you must have some understanding of the capabilities of your opponents. How do you do that if you don’t even know their names.

[@a_nick_t]

@@JohnDoherty-dl2fz that’s the coache’s job

[@energyzer_bunny1913]

​@@JohnDoherty-dl2fz Speaking from experience, that can sometimes backfire on you. Sometimes you end up psyching yourself out because you're so worried about what your competitors are doing. Sometimes it's better to go into competition not knowing because it takes a bit of pressure off yourself and you're able to perform better.