How Real Woods Beat Brock Hardy | WTT Finals 2025

So Real Woods and Brock Hardy both made their way to the finals, Real Woods beating a very tough Jesse Mendez, 2x NCAA champion, Brock Hardy getting over the young phenom that is Bo Bassett. Those were 2 very interesting matches, let’s see what happens here between the victors.

Barely 10 seconds into the match Woods goes from a wrist to a lefty single, times it perfectly, just as Hardy was going for a collar tie with his right, sneaks right under that tie up and catches him very off guard. Woods keeps the ankle tight, keeps his elbows in, which minimizes any chance for Hardy to 1: get a good whizzer, his arm can’t go that deep behind the shoulder because Woods’ arms are like a t-rex, and 2 square his hips up to get back to a sprawl. So Hardy is left here with very little options. Very good positioning out of Woods.

Woods does reach for that far hip, which I usually don’t recommend, you run the risk of your opponent getting an overhook, pulling you up and away from the shot into more of an upper body situation. However, if you have this good of an angle, your inside shoulder is past the hips, it doesn’t matter that much. Woods comes up with the ankle and keeps the hips tight, uses a hip pry with his left hand to whip Hardy down to the mat and secure his takedown. Just a very well calculated takedown, not much Hardy could have done. Hardy does come up to his feet in a standup, which is strange in freestyle, they usually don’t do that. He gets an escape but in freestyle that doesn’t count for any points. 2-0 Woods.

Couple seconds later, Woods does a super heavy snap with his left arm and pulls Hardy into a snapdown. Hardy really needs to grab the hand on the chin with both of his, isolate, push it down, and get free, but he waits too long, maybe a bit too worried about that overhook on the right that’s fishing for a head and arm, tries to clamp it out, but Woods gets anyways.

Hardy starts looking for an underhook or maybe a shot on the right, trying to get something to stabilize himself, he knows that a head pinch is coming soon so trying to grab the elbow here while Woods has the head and arm would be foolish. Isn’t able to get anything, Woods does a super nice head pinch, keeps everything tight, pressure on the head with his hips, rolls under, arches his back, feet to back, 4 points, bringing the score to 6-0. And we’re like 40 seconds into the match.

The period does run out without another score, but not for lack of trying, they get into multiple engagements, but no one is able to get anything.

10 seconds into the second, Hardy goes snap, underhook, looks for what I call a baseball throw, when you throw the underhook forward and snatch the near single, but Woods dodges. Woods pummels in, as if to get an underhook of his own, but kind of just posts on the arm, maybe it was trapped and so he wasn’t able to get all the way through. Hardy drops to that near ankle which is super close to him, easy shot, pulls it in but slips off and so Woods has a front headlock now. Woods digs the left knee behind the arm here, which is a super sneaky way to circle around your opponent, Cory Cooperman was the first person I saw show it, super slick, but Hardy finds his way to a high crotch, lifts, and they run out of bounds. I’m not sure why the point was given to Hardy, I see the ref show for grounding, doesn’t raise any points, the table must have taken control of that one and awarded a step out point idk.

1:55 in the match, Woods takes a lefty low leg single, from space, but Hardy has no reaction for it, so he gets there easily, comes up with it right away which stops Hardy from getting a defensive position going, goes tree top but elects to just let it go to get behind and go for the takedown. Things are getting super slippery here due to the sweat factor, so it was about all he could really grip onto. Hardy attacks a high crotch as they fall to the mat, but has no real leverage on it, 8-1 Woods.

Woods is given some time on top, locks up a high gut, around the chest, fakes the left side, then goes right, digs the leg under, almost slips, but does a super nice back arch to get Hardy to roll through, giving him the 10-1 lead. Kind of a funny thing to complement, but Woods’ back arches through some of these situations have been super strong this match.

Minute ten left in the match, Woods going for that knee behind the arm trick again from a front headlock, and again Hardy is able to reach up for that high crotch grip. I think Woods isn’t circling around with it quickly enough, maybe high leg over that right leg so it’s not within reach and dig behind that near arm with his right arm faster. He’s trying to hard to control the situation before he progresses which is giving Hardy the time to get to his leg.

Woods is able to get that leg free and start circling behind, but isn’t able to dig fully, Hardy gets a piece of that leg yet again, lifts and puts Woods to his hips, takedown, 10-3, and then keeps the legs tied up, rolls backwards for a leg lace, 10-5.

Woods pokes Hardy in the eye here, caution point, 10-6 Woods. Hardy chases hard but isn’t able to come up with anything, so the match ends. Then Woods punches Hardy in the face after the match is over! Just kidding, in celebration, apologizes, gets his hand raised, makes final X.