European Championships 2026

[GrandOlm]

UWW has entrants on their site. 

Geno is not listed at 125 kg. Is he retired? It's been over a year now. Would make sense to go out on top with his age and style. Sad and Uguev are entered. https://uww.org/article/european-championships-2026-entries

[Gantry]

I heard that Geno went into politics from an Uber driver of all people, not sure if true. 

[bnwtwg]

Geno retired. Can't blame him for going out on top after getting knocked off the mountain for a few years. Amazing career, loved watching him wrestle like a 74 who is just way too tall.

[SweetButteryLou]

9/10 weights look like a Russian is going to win

[GrandOlm]

Geno is in parliament. I found his profile https://parliament.ge/en/parliament-members/8453/biography. Geno received the Karelin/Taymazov treatment. I've never heard of a wrestler coming back from this type of retirement. He's done. Amazing what an Olympic Gold medal can get you. Many of these countries put so much stock into the olympic gold. 

So Zare is all alone and unchallenged? No one is near his level. Is he going to sweep this cycle and possibly the next one? This is not a good weight for Russia so unless America produces someone, it could be a long time. 

 

[bnwtwg]

7 hours ago, SweetButteryLou said:

9/10 weights look like a Russian is going to win

A return to old fashions...

[Truzzcat]

57kg: Musa over Bazarganov
61kg: Uguev over Haryutunyan (banger last year)
65kg: Mamedov over Bashir (great match)
70kg: Baev over Heybatov (excited to see toprak and Gaidarli)
74kg: Salk over Bizhoev
79kg: Kadi over Mykhailov (usmanov looked terrible last time I saw him)
86kg: Kadiev over Dhzioev
92kg: Gadzi over tckoev
97kg: Saddy cakes over Givi
125kg: Musaev over Meshvildashvili

[SweetButteryLou]

9 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

79kg: Kadi over Mykhailov (usmanov looked terrible last time I saw him)

Has Usmanov looked bad ? I know last years worlds he was upset in back to back matches but he won the Yarygin a few months ago … has he lost anything else ? He seems to be the guy if he’s 100% on he should be the favorite 

[Truzzcat]

1 hour ago, SweetButteryLou said:

Has Usmanov looked bad ? I know last years worlds he was upset in back to back matches but he won the Yarygin a few months ago … has he lost anything else ? He seems to be the guy if he’s 100% on he should be the favorite 

I thought he looked quite poor at worlds the Levi match he did not want to wrestle and while Saipudinov is good thats a match I would generally expect him to win every time. He lost to Dhizoev up at 86kg that the melo ranking series and I kind of throw out teh Yarygin that weight was pretty weak he wrestled a 19 year old Khaniev (who is extremely good but had competitive matches at the u20 level last year) in the finals and won with one exchange and I would imagine by finals time he probably had 5+ kgs on Khaniev who is coming up for 74kg.

[Wrasslin]

Here's who I've got. I'm not pretending the Russians are anything other than Russians here, so they all get a (RUS)

57kg: Musa (RUS) over Tuskaev (RUS) - one takedown decides this one
61kg: Uguev (RUS) over Haryutunyan (ARM) in a close (but entertaining) one
65kg: Mamedov (RUS) over Tevanyan (ARM). I think Mamedov is arguably the best in the world at 65kg
70kg: Heybatov (AZE) over Baev (RUS)
74kg: Bizhoev (RUS)(I'm a fan) over Bayramov (AZE), who trick knees his way to the finals
79kg: Usmanov (RUS)(regains his form) over Gadzhiev (AZE), who also trick knees his way to the finals
86kg: Kadiev (RUS) over Gamkrelidze (GEO) in a tougher match than Kadiev might want
92kg: Gadzimagomedov (RUS) over Maisuradze (GEO), who is what I wish I looked like
97kg: Saduliev (RUS) over Macharashvili (GEO)
125kg: I don't care who wins this weight- surprise me

The award for worst sportsmanship by a country, has to go to Armenia, whose wrestlers always find new reasons to throw tantrums

The award for most laying around the mat after a defeat goes to Azerbaijan, who are guaranteed to 1) do a lot of laying around and 2) probably also a lot of losing

[GrandOlm]

On 4/16/2026 at 4:36 PM, SweetButteryLou said:

9/10 weights look like a Russian is going to win

That's really bad for freestyle. Even during the soviet era, at least other groups could win the silvers and bronzes. Now they wins those too, just with fake flags.

 

[GrandOlm]

I think Riza is going to sleepwalk his way to beating the "record" (he won't really due to a technicality, but UWW and the Turks will say he did, so everyone will just go along with it).

Europe is still pitifuly mediocre 130 kg. I have no faith that Vitek and Kamparov can challenge him. Who would have predicted that Russia's best wrestler over almost  two decades would be a - needs everything to go his way to win gold type. Oh and he also has persistent weight and motivational issues to boot.

(I forgot about Hlinchuk. He still had that awkward teen looking physique at the last worlds. Maybe he matured sufficiently and can surprise everyone). 

Edited April 18 by GrandOlm

[GrandOlm]

Well Riza won. When your biggest challenge is a 5 ft 11,  26 year old who has never won a world level title.... There are 3 people in Iran who could beat Riza. The Turkish federation pulled some strings to get their boy back in after his steroid oopsie, let's see how near 40 Riza progresses. I don't see him beating Mirzazadeh at the olympics.

This has to be at least the 5th time in a row that Heiki Nabi has lost 1-1 in the first round. Kamparov is a big basic plodder. Semenov is still the most talented and highest ceiling of Russia's 130 kgs. It's too bad he can't stay disciplined. Semenov is not a generational wrestler, but he could have won a lot more in his career. 

Milov is having some Indian Summer in his career. Peaking in his late 20s  Sargsyan is undersided for 97 kg, but Russia is a shadow of the old Soviet machine and he's the best they have. Sargsyan gets emotional when he loses. A lot of pressure. He's had some terrible Ls, Sargsyan lost to one of the Sterkenburg brothers (no disrespect but a Russian rep shouldn't be losing to either of them). 

Bisultanov won 87. I've long said Bisultanov is the most talented of the current 87 kg wrestlers and the closest to being Beleniuk's heir. Noivikov was really lucky to win gold at those Olympics. If they wrestled that tournament again, he could have left without a medal. 

Emelin won at 63. He's old for a greco light weight. Competing in a tweener category. 

Other than Bisultanov, I don't think any of these (olympic weights) Euro champions are the best at their weight class. 

[juniorvarsity]

Sadulaev is entered. Looking at ranking series points, he can earn 15,000 points with gold at Euros and currently has 13,000. If he wins, that puts him in the 8 through 6 range for ranking series points depending on how others do. Hopefully he can land at 6 or 7 since it is unlikely Snyder will give up first place with the most points. 

The Georgian and Azerbaijani are there, who both have a few bronzes and silver at past worlds/Olympics. 

[juniorvarsity]

Did Micic announce retirement? Did I miss that?

[LJB]

Micic only wrestles tourneys in Serbia...

[LJB]

Tibilov and Aghajayan went to war in the finals of 60kg...

Firat almost pulls the huge upset of jafarov until a late par terre and leg foul seals it for jafarov...

crazy medal matches so far today...

[bnwtwg]

14 hours ago, juniorvarsity said:

Did Micic announce retirement? Did I miss that?

He tore his knee immediately prior to the '24 olympics. Wasn't ready yet for worlds last year and is on the wrong side of 30 as of a couple weeks ago - last I knew is that the heart is there, the body not as much. Never left his shoes on the mat but the opportunity was been robbed from him. Hell of a way to go out on top through that gauntlet in 2023.

[LJB]

The only times Micic had senior success was at 57kg in Serbia in 2022 and 2023…

His only other tourneys outside of Serbia during 2022 and 2023 he wrestled 65kg…

[juniorvarsity]

14 minutes ago, bnwtwg said:

He tore his knee immediately prior to the '24 olympics. Wasn't ready yet for worlds last year and is on the wrong side of 30 as of a couple weeks ago - last I knew is that the heart is there, the body not as much. Never left his shoes on the mat but the opportunity was been robbed from him. Hell of a way to go out on top through that gauntlet in 2023.

I figured enough time had gone by to be back from the knee injury - it's been almost 2 years since summer of 2024. Outside looking in, seems like he's done if he isn't wrestling this year, but apparently no real update from him?

[Tyler Perry]

14 hours ago, juniorvarsity said:

I figured enough time had gone by to be back from the knee injury - it's been almost 2 years since summer of 2024. Outside looking in, seems like he's done if he isn't wrestling this year, but apparently no real update from him?

Where did he announce it? Did he?

[Tyler Perry]

Is Sebastion Rivera done wrestling?

[Gene Mills Fan]

2 hours ago, Tyler Perry said:

Is Sebastion Rivera done wrestling?

what would Puerto Rico be doing there?  Pan-Am's?

[bnwtwg]

2 minutes ago, Gene Mills Fan said:

what would Puerto Rico be doing there?  Pan-Am's?

Reverse Spanish Inquisition?

[Spladle08]

Brackets/draws are out on UWW, some really interesting clusters of talent at a few weights.


Mamedov vs Tevanyan second round is fun
As is
Salkazanov starting with the Veliev (Belgium) vs Bizhoev winner (Bizhoev 9x out of 10).



I wish I knew more about this sport