Spencer Lee hit a barrier that no amount of takedown drills would help him with. While promoting the Real American Freestyle wrestling event Nov. 29 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, the Franklin Regional graduate needed many takes to get the proper amount of “smack talk” committed to video.

Lee, who was the Olympic silver medalist in the 57-kilogram weight class in 2024, was happy to attempt it to try to grow the sport.

That’s what the 27-year-old is interested in.

“I think it’s tough for wrestlers,” Lee said. “Even when I was doing the media stuff the other day, they wanted me to talk crap about (Andrii) Yatsenko like MMA. We don’t do that. It took 15 times to say something that could remotely be seen as crap talk. I’m excited to wrestle a strong opponent.”

There are plenty of others participating on the Windy City card who are more versed in doing the talking.

The main event features a 175-pound middleweight championship matchup between two former UFC title challengers — Chad Mendes and Michael Chandler — who have extensive amateur wrestling backgrounds.

There will be two other championship matches: a women’s featherweight bout between Olympic silver medalist Kennedy Blades and Alejandra Rivera and a men’s featherweight battle between Real Woods and Jordan Oliver.

The event in Chicago will be live streamed on Fox Nation.

Lee’s opponent for a 135-pound bantamweight match is Yatsenko, a Ukrainian wrestler who earned a bronze medal at the 2017 World Championships in Paris.

Lee, who has a 41-3 record in freestyle, is looking to get back to past habits following his ninth-place finish in September at the World Championships in Croatia.

“The tournament didn’t go well for me,” Lee said. “I have the toolkit to do what I can do in the sport. (Coach Tom Brands) and I have talked about things to work on in general with my lifestyle. I want to try to get back to my roots. I was trying to do different things, but I want to go back to how I was doing things in college.”

Lee felt like he was too focused on load management recently and now has been focused on wrestling more. He said that the training is harder, but he sees no other path.

“It gets harder,” Lee said. “This is what we do, so we have to make it work no matter what. There is no other option. There is only one option, and that is to do it.”

Yatsenko originally was scheduled to wrestle at Real American Freestyle’s card last month in State College against Franklin Regional graduate Nico Megaludis.

Megaludis ended up wrestling Austin DeSanto, an Iowa teammate and PIAA rival of Lee’s, at Bryce Jordan Center instead.

Lee said that one of the Japanese coaches who trains with the Hawkeye Wrestling Club in Iowa City, Keisuke Otoguro, has a connection with Yatsenko.

Yatsenko beat Otoguro in a match at the 2014 Cadet Worlds, where Yatsenko won the gold medal at 54 kg.

“(Otoguro) said to get payback for him,” Lee said. “I’m not a big scouter. I try to focus on my own style.”

Lee also doesn’t want to talk any more smack. He’s ready to fill another role as goodwill ambassador.

“I’m excited to compete and interact with the fans,” Lee said. “I’m hoping as many people show up as they can. I told them I will stay as long as I can to take pictures. That’s what we are there for, to entertain and to compete the best we can.”

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