He bullied him around the ring, and his thumbing and butting left Hackenschmidt covered in blood.

Hackenschmidt left Cochran ’ s management to tour Australia, and then sailed to America for an extended tour and a rematch with Jenkins at the Madison Square Garden under catch-as-catch-can rules, which Hackenschmidt by now preferred.

He bullied him around the ring, and his thumbing and butting left Hackenschmidt covered in blood.

German wrestler Fritz Konietzko came to Tallinn in 1897, and Hackenschmidt fared better this time.

Showing his contempt for Gotch and for American wrestling in general, Hackenschmidt was not in the best condition.

The wrestlers stood on their feet for two full hours before Gotch was able to get behind Hackenschmidt and take him down.

Gotch tore him off the ropes, threw Hackenschmidt down and rode him hard for three minutes, working for his dreaded toe hold.

The wrestlers then retired to their dressing rooms before coming out for the second fall, but Hackenschmidt refused to return to the ring, telling the referee to declare Gotch the winner, thereby relinquishing his title to the American.

" Hackenschmidt later reversed his opinion of Gotch and Americans in general, claiming to have been fouled by Gotch and victimized in America, and calling for a rematch in Europe.

Hackenschmidt himself ignored it completely in declaring, the day before the match, that he was " fit to wrestle for my life " and was " satisfied with my condition and confident of the outcome.

Gotch's measurements for his 1911 victory over Hackenschmidt were: Age-33 ; Weight-204 pounds ; Height-5 ', 11 "; Reach-73 "; Biceps-17. 5 "; Forearm-14 "; Neck-18 "; Chest-45 "; Waist-34 "; Thigh-22 "; Calf-18 ".

But in America Tom Jenkins had been rather easily beaten by Hackenschmidt, so there was no American to capture the nation ’ s fancy until Gotch ; and none of the other great wrestlers had either the amazing physical attributes or the gift for self-promotion that Gotch possessed.

Showing his contempt for Gotch and for American wrestling in general, Hackenschmidt was not in the best condition.

The wrestlers stood on their feet for two full hours before Gotch was able to get behind Hackenschmidt and take him down.

Gotch tore him off the ropes, threw Hackenschmidt down and rode him hard for three minutes, working for his dreaded toe hold.

The wrestlers then retired to their dressing rooms before coming out for the second fall, but Hackenschmidt refused to return to the ring, telling the referee to declare Gotch the winner, thereby relinquishing his title to the American.

Although he at first called Gotch " the greatest man by far I ever met ," and explained how his muscles had become stale and his feet had given out, and that he knew he could not win and therefore conceded the match, Hackenschmidt later reversed his opinion of Gotch and Americans in general, claiming to have been fouled by Gotch and victimized in America, and calling for a rematch in Europe.

According to Hackenschmidt, his sparring partners for this match were Americus ( Gus Schoenlein ), Jacobus Koch, Wladek Zbyszko and Dr. Roller.

Hackenschmidt himself ignored it completely in declaring, the day before the match, that he was " fit to wrestle for my life " and was " satisfied with my condition and confident of the outcome.

Following his second defeat at the hands of Gotch, upon returning to England Hackenschmidt was preparing for a match with Stanislaus Zbyszko to take place the following June, but when he began working out he felt such pain in his right knee that it was painful even to walk.

As he aged, Hackenschmidt also expressed a high regard for his old opponent, Tom Jenkins, by then the wrestling coach at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Hackenschmidt was already hospitalized at St. Francis Hospital in Dulwich, a suburb of London, when he died on February 19, 1968.

* 1968 – Georg Hackenschmidt, professional wrestler ( b. 1878 )

* Hack squat, a variant of the squat exercise, known in Germany as Hacke ( heel ), popularised in the English-speaking countries by Georg Hackenschmidt.

* February 19 – Georg Hackenschmidt, strongman and professional wrestler ( b. 1878 )

Frank Gotch vs. Georg Hackenschmidt at Comiskey Park

After trading the title with Jenkins and Fred Beel, Gotch set his sights on the World Heavyweight Championship, then held by the undefeated Georg Hackenschmidt.

Upon defeating Jenkins, however, Hackenschmidt ignored Gotch's challenge and sailed home to England.

Gotch and Hackenschmidt finally met on April 3, 1908, at the Dexter Park Pavilion in Chicago.

While on their feet, Gotch made sure to lean on Hackenschmidt to wear him down.

Hackenschmidt complained to the referee of Gotch's foul tactics and asked that Gotch be forced to take a hot shower to rid his body of an abundance of oil, but the referee ignored the complaints and told Hackenschmidt he should have noticed the oil before the match began.

At the two-hour mark, Hackenschmidt was forced against the ropes.

Hackenschmidt had trained to avoid this hold, which he did, but the effort took his last remaining strength.

Hackenschmidt quit the fall.

" He is the king of the class, the greatest man by far I ever met ," Hackenschmidt said.

The night before his second match with Hackenschmidt, he attended a Chicago Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field with his wife and in-laws and took his seat down front.

Gotch met Hackenschmidt again on September 4, 1911, at the newly opened Comiskey Park in Chicago, which drew a crowd of nearly 30, 000 spectators and a record gate of $ 87, 000.

The rematch is one of the most controversial and talked about matches in wrestling history, as Hackenschmidt injured his knee against Roller, his chief training partner.

Years later, wrestler Ad Santel told Lou Thesz that he was paid $ 5000 by Gotch's backers to cripple Hackenschmidt in training, and make it look like an accident.

However, according to Hackenschmidt himself, the injury was accidentally inflicted by his sparring partner, Dr. Roller, when trying to hold Hackenschmidt down onto his knees and Roller's right foot striking Hackenschmidt's right knee.

Only on 2 July at the Royal Albert Hall the Russian Lion faced the American champion Tom Jenkins, a vastly underrated wrestler who would prove to be Hackenschmidt ’ s toughest opponent to date, under Greco-Roman rules.

Cochran took Hackenschmidt under his wing and booked him into a match in which Hackenschmidt defeated another top British wrestler, Tom Cannon, for the European Greco-Roman Heavyweight Championship.