Wrestling is similar to boxing in some respects. Worldwide, the most celebrated weight class is the super heavyweight division, where the world's best big men battle for World and Olympic titles.    It was not all that long ago that the United States had difficulty in the highest weight division. Sure, the U.S. could win medals, but taking the gold at super heavyweight was an honor for other nations.    The nation that has dominated at super heavyweight since they became a world wrestling power in the 1950s was the Soviet Union, and now its modern day successor, Russia. There have been many years in the last half-century that the Russians claimed the super heavyweight gold medal in both freestyle and Greco-Roman the same year.    The two most important names in super heavyweight wrestling are freestyle star Alexander Medved and Greco-Roman star Alexandre Kareline. Medved won 10 World and Olympic gold medals to set the standard in the 1970s and Kareline claimed 12 straight to make history in the 1990s. Both won three Olympic gold medals.    The Russians take great pride in these two heroes, displayed once again as they were showcased during the recent World Greco-Roman Championships hosted in Moscow, Russia. If you flip through the results of international wrestling, you will find numerous other Soviet or Russian super heavyweights that won gold medals.    So, how can it be that the United States has won the last three World-level gold medals at super heavyweight? In Greco-Roman? How can that be?    Kareline's amazing unbeaten streak was snapped on September 27, 2000, when unknown American Rulon Gardner upset him in the Olympic gold-medal showdown, winning the deciding clinch. It was the biggest story at the Sydney Olympics. A year later, Gardner returned at the 2001 World Championships, pinned the new Russian star in the quarterfinals, then claimed the World gold medal. This year, a different American super heavyweight, Dremiel Byers, was able to throw all five of his opponents on the way to the 2002 World gold medal.    "The Russians hate that we keep winning," says Steve Fraser, USA Wrestling's National Greco-Roman Coach. The fact that Byers won his gold on Russian soil in Moscow must have stung even worse.     An Olympic champion himself, Fraser has been a key reason that America has become a world power in Greco-Roman, as well as an invincible nation at the highest weight class.     Fraser won his Olympic gold in 1984, the year that the USA broke through at super heavyweight on the Olympic stage. The U.S. won both super heavyweight golds that year in Los Angeles, with Bruce Baumgartner claiming the freestyle title and Jeff Blatnick winning at Greco-Roman. People may try to downplay this great achievement with the fact that it was a boycotted Olympics, but a closer look should give both of these trailblazers a little more credit.    Blatnick defeated Tomas Johansson of Sweden in the 1984 Olympic finals (Johansson's silver was later stripped when he failed the doping test). Johansson returned from his disgrace to win the World gold medal in 1986, the last non-Russian to hold the title until Gardner's dramatic victory in Australia.    Baumgartner's achievements make him one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, as well as one of its best big men. Before he retired in 1997, Baumgartner earned five gold medals, three at the World Championships and two at the Olympic Games. His 1986 World title was America's first World Championships gold at super heavyweight in either style. His 13 World-level medals broke Medved's record of 12, later to be tied by Kareline's 13 medals. It was Baumgartner that made the United States an annual contender at super heavyweight in freestyle, and, indirectly, played a factor in the U.S. development in Greco-Roman.    Baumgartner so dominated American super heavyweight freestyle wrestling that in 1989, one of his U.S. freestyle victims decided to switch to Greco-Roman. Matt Ghaffari, a naturalized U.S. citizen who competed at Cleveland State, needed just two seasons to become America's top Greco-Roman big man. Using a style of constant pressure and tremendous conditioning, Ghaffari brought the U.S. into annual contention at the World level among Greco-Roman big men.    Before his 2000 retirement, Ghaffari won the most World medals of any U.S. Greco-Roman athlete with four. Alas, none were gold medals, with three silvers and a bronze. The reason he was shut out from the gold was that Ghaffari competed during the years of Kareline's dominance. Ghaffari's 1-0 overtime loss in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games finals to Kareline was one of the most celebrated events of the entire Atlanta Games.    Ghaffari's dream of gold was never achieved, but his regular U.S. challengers have taken the baton and carried it to the finish line. Although both Gardner and Byers made U.S. teams late in Ghaffari's career, it was not until Gardner beat Ghaffari in the 2000 Olympic Trials in Dallas that the transfer of power had truly occurred.    A few months later, Gardner had a memorable run to the gold at the Olympics, and the Americans have not released control since. With both Byers and Gardner as World gold medalists, it marks the first time in U.S. Greco-Roman history that there have been back-to-back U.S. gold medalists in the same weight class. (In freestyle, you have to go back to 1995-96 when Terry Brands and Kendall Cross won the 125.5-pound gold medal in successive seasons).    In freestyle, the retirement of Baumgartner did not end the U.S. influence at super heavyweight. The second U.S. freestyle World Champion was crowned in 1999, when super-athlete Stephen Neal, with his freight-train double-leg takedown, claimed the World title, beating veteran Andrei Shumilin of Russia in the finals. Neal is now busy blocking other big men as a professional football player on the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.    In the other post-Baumgartner years, the USA was close but fell just short of the medals in freestyle. Tom Erikson was fourth in 1997, and Kerry McCoy was fourth twice (1998, 2001) and fifth at the 2000 Olympics. Since the U.S. is very competitive every year, the national team is disappointed when it does not medal at super heavyweight.    Russian big man David Moussoulbes has run off a three-year streak in freestyle, winning the gold at the Sydney Games and capturing the next two World titles. Since the USA did not attend the 2002 World meet due to a threat on its team, nobody will ever know if McCoy would have been able to stop the Russian streak at two. With the 2003 World Championships set for U.S. soil, there will be great hope that this will be the year that an American reclaims the freestyle title at super heavyweight.    Russia's success at the highest weight class is no surprise, a testament to their rich wrestling heritage. The fact that the USA is a gold-medal threat every year in both styles among super heavyweights is something that our nation should be very proud about.       Note: TheMatside View will appear on TheMat.com on Tuesdays.