"Don't think I wrestled to the best of my ability"- Jax Forrest gets real ahead of highly anticipated clash against Vito Arujau

Ahead of his highly anticipated clash with Vito Arujau, Jax Forrest talked about his potential against the world champion wrestler. The teenage wrestler will be clashing with Arujau for the final spot in the US wrestling team bound for the World Wrestling Championships 2025.

Podcaster Justin Basch recently shared an excerpt of his conversation with Forrest held a couple of months ago on his X account [formerly Twitter], where he acknowledged that he needs to perform better than he did at the Open if he wants to represent the US team at the Senior World Championships.

In his podcast session with Justin Basch on the 'Baschamania' show held in late April 2025, the teenage wrestler mentioned,

"So I kind of like I put in my Instagram caption like, 'I'm just gonna surrender the outcome', and you know, I, that's just literally what it was you know, during the match, and then even after the match. You know, I was telling myself, you know, the first thing I was telling myself was I really didn't. I don't think I wrestled to the best of my ability. Like, my immediate thought was I'm gonna wrestle better [than] Vito to beat Vito," Forrest said. [10:15 onwards]

Jax Forrest will be clashing in a best of three bout with Vito Arujau on July 14. The winner will proceed to represent USA at the Wrestling World Championships, which would be held in Zagreb in Croatia.

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Jax Forrest opens up about his performance in the US Open final

Jax Forrest opens up about his performance in the US Open Championships final 2025 [Image Source : Getty]

Jax Forrest recounted his bout with Seth Gross during the finals of the US Open Championships. Gross had taken an early lead before the former bounced back to win the match, as well as the title.

In his conversation with FloWrestling, the teenage wrestler remarked,

“During the break, I walk over, and the first thing I'm saying is like, ‘Holy cow, I am so tired’. Like, I remember just being so tired. I was only thinking about being tired. My body was just going and wrestling."

Forrest explained how the exhaustion surprisingly helped him in his clash against Gross. In his words,

“Like, being tired and being like that helped me because I wasn't thinking about any shots or anything—I was just going. And I was like, ‘Man, I'm tired'. And my dad and Coach Jodi are like, ‘No, you're not. You're doing good'. I was like, ‘No, Coach. I'm tired, I need some water'."

Jax Forrest was last seen in action at the Pan American Championships. The teenage wrestler won the gold medal in the men's freestyle wrestling [61kg] category.