Iran wrestling news

[MPhillips]

3 hours ago, Lucho said:

The most likely upset is Masoumi over Zare though. The more I think about it the more I see Masoumi beating him.

Why this time?

[Window12]

14 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Why this time?

Massoumi’s results have been on an upward trajectory and he seems to be entering his senior era although Zare’s strengths are his gas tank and comparatively higher experience which may still seem him through. It feels like it will be closer than previous occasions but also too close to call for me personally.

[MPhillips]

5 minutes ago, Window12 said:

Massoumi’s results have been on an upward trajectory and he seems to be entering his senior era although Zare’s strengths are his gas tank and comparatively higher experience which may still seem him through. It feels like it will be closer than previous occasions but also too close to call for me personally.

I wouldn't disagree.

I believe at 24 Zare hasn't reached his peak yet.

I also believe Massoumi is a force.

[Lucho]

15 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Why this time?

My thoughts are quite similar to Window12's but also I feel that he has matured a lot within the last couple years. He isn't making the same mistakes he was a couple years ago and he is physically more developed for 125kg than previously. In saying that Zare has a point to prove after loosing the olympic gold but I think the momentum is in Masoumi's favour. 

[MPhillips]

7 minutes ago, Lucho said:

My thoughts are quite similar

Understood. 

[nhs67]

I still want to know if they have only wrestled three (3) times.

There are no backroom matches between these two at team camps and whatnot?

[Window12]

11 hours ago, nhs67 said:

I still want to know if they have only wrestled three (3) times.

There are no backroom matches between these two at team camps and whatnot?

None that is common knowledge or overtly in the public domain. They are from two adjacent counties is the southern shores of the Caspian Sea ( Zare is from Mazandaran and Massoumi is from Gilan) so they are products of different schools and are not as a a matter of course expected to train together and have deep familiarity with each other. In fact the rivalry does seem to spill over in the social media between supporters from Gilan or Mazandaran and does tend to get a bit tribal. This is quite different to Yazdani and Ghassempour and I understand they did train at times together and were/are very familiar with each other as they are from Mazandaran school as it were.

[Lucho]

8 hours ago, Window12 said:

None that is common knowledge or overtly in the public domain. They are from two adjacent counties is the southern shores of the Caspian Sea ( Zare is from Mazandaran and Massoumi is from Gilan) so they are products of different schools and are not as a a matter of course expected to train together and have deep familiarity with each other. In fact the rivalry does seem to spill over in the social media between supporters from Gilan or Mazandaran and does tend to get a bit tribal. This is quite different to Yazdani and Ghassempour and I understand they did train at times together and were/are very familiar with each other as they are from Mazandaran school as it were.

Yeah I think the only time they would have been training together is if/when they got invited to the camp together. Since Masoumi was a junior until fairly recently they haven't really trained together. Zare vs Masoumi and Mirzazadeh vs Yousefi vs Hedayati is honestly peak wrestling. It's a shame that only one can compete per country. On a side note is Sadegh Goudarzi coaching? I know Taghavi has joined the wrestling coaching staff but we really need a proper 74kg coach our guys are genuinely useless.

[Window12]

11 hours ago, Lucho said:

 On a side note is Sadegh Goudarzi coaching? I know Taghavi has joined the wrestling coaching staff but we really need a proper 74kg coach our guys are genuinely useless.

I think Goudatzi is coaching . I randomly come across some instagram videos of him coaching but I don’t know how active he is or which club he is doing it at.

[GrandOlm]

11 hours ago, Lucho said:

Yeah I think the only time they would have been training together is if/when they got invited to the camp together. Since Masoumi was a junior until fairly recently they haven't really trained together. Zare vs Masoumi and Mirzazadeh vs Yousefi vs Hedayati is honestly peak wrestling. It's a shame that only one can compete per country. On a side note is Sadegh Goudarzi coaching? I know Taghavi has joined the wrestling coaching staff but we really need a proper 74kg coach our guys are genuinely useless.

I think Mirzazadeh is the best in the world and he probably deserves to be an Olympic Gold medalist at the next games. But he is not a young wrestler anymore, so he needs to take his chances. His conservative, low scoring style may come back to haunt him at some critical junction. 

Yousefi's unique cardio them to death approach works at 130 because there are so many poorly conditioned wrestlers at 130 kg. It doesn't fly against Mirzazadeh and it wouldn't work against an international dominant big man (there are none around right now). He needs to solve Mirzazadeh or is his entire career is going to pass him by. 

Hedayati I think has the most technical dimensions to his wrestling. He is young and has good wins at small events against the best from the rest of the world like Riza or Oscar. Looks not athletic, body composition appears spongy/high body fat, almost like a college sumo wrestler. The best wrestlers at Greco have been supremely athletic and sculpted big men like Karelin, Tomov, and Lopez, so I don't think he'll be the next destroyer. Then again if Cuba's program folds from financial pressure and Russia continues declining in Greco, where exactly is the next person going to come from to stop him (besides Iran)? 

[Lucho]

11 hours ago, Window12 said:

I think Goudatzi is coaching . I randomly come across some instagram videos of him coaching but I don’t know how active he is or which club he is doing it at.

I hope he is running a club of some sort. We need more wrestlers of the previous generation involved in grass roots coaching. Him, Reza Yazdani, Komeil Ghasemi and Mehdi Taghavi have a lot to offer for our current crop of guys. I know Ghasemi is in India at the moment. I feel like Dabir's influence in the freestyle space is preventing our coaches from doing their job even though wrestling-wise I think Dabir is doing a great job overall.

[Lucho]

9 hours ago, GrandOlm said:

I think Mirzazadeh is the best in the world and he probably deserves to be an Olympic Gold medalist at the next games. But he is not a young wrestler anymore, so he needs to take his chances. His conservative, low scoring style may come back to haunt him at some critical junction. 

Yousefi's unique cardio them to death approach works at 130 because there are so many poorly conditioned wrestlers at 130 kg. It doesn't fly against Mirzazadeh and it wouldn't work against an international dominant big man (there are none around right now). He needs to solve Mirzazadeh or is his entire career is going to pass him by. 

Hedayati I think has the most technical dimensions to his wrestling. He is young and has good wins at small events against the best from the rest of the world like Riza or Oscar. Looks not athletic, body composition appears spongy/high body fat, almost like a college sumo wrestler. The best wrestlers at Greco have been supremely athletic and sculpted big men like Karelin, Tomov, and Lopez, so I don't think he'll be the next destroyer. Then again if Cuba's program folds from financial pressure and Russia continues declining in Greco, where exactly is the next person going to come from to stop him (besides Iran)? 

Mirzazadeh is like 25/26 years old and Yousefi is 27 I think. Relatively speaking for 130kg Greco they are still quite young. I think your analysis is pretty spot on regarding the three. However, since UWW might be changing the passivity rules for the worlds and olympics Mirzazadeh might be at a disadvantage. Especially since Yousefi and Hedayati have both looked really really good recently. But given Greco's trajectory in recent years it would be hard to see anyone aside from Iran having strong enough 130s to challenge any of these three. The only prospects I can think of would be Hamza Bakir of Turkiye, the U20 Ukrainian and another junior Hungarian as potential threats. Even Semenov is like 30 so he could still be around for a couple more years but I don't see him drastically improving at 33/34 to beat these guys entering their primes.

[GrandOlm]

7 hours ago, Lucho said:

Mirzazadeh is like 25/26 years old and Yousefi is 27 I think. Relatively speaking for 130kg Greco they are still quite young. I think your analysis is pretty spot on regarding the three. However, since UWW might be changing the passivity rules for the worlds and olympics Mirzazadeh might be at a disadvantage. Especially since Yousefi and Hedayati have both looked really really good recently. But given Greco's trajectory in recent years it would be hard to see anyone aside from Iran having strong enough 130s to challenge any of these three. The only prospects I can think of would be Hamza Bakir of Turkiye, the U20 Ukrainian and another junior Hungarian as potential threats. Even Semenov is like 30 so he could still be around for a couple more years but I don't see him drastically improving at 33/34 to beat these guys entering their primes.

I am seeing that Mirzazadeh was born in 98 which would make him 30 for the next Olympics. Yeah super heavyweights are a different in that the ones with conservative styles are in there primes from like 26 to 35 (and some can win gold even up to their early 40s) and the ones with explosive games (throws, lifts) from about 25 to 32. So I'd say he has one more Olympics left (maybe 2) in his prime. 

I'm not impressed with Hamza. I think he's just a big body that is hard to score on. Kind of like Acosta. At 23 years old, great wrestlers don't get pinned by an outside reach bronze medalist. He'll medal a lot, especially in Europe,  because someone has to and he's young.

Semenov already looks like a 48 year old truck driver living on a fast food diet, I don't think he'll age gracefully. Joking aside, he's already struggled with weight, motivation, and fitness in his 20s, I doubt he will experience a renaissance in his 30s. He also has the most lift and throw based game of any of the top super heavies (which is why he's my favorite active wrestler). Those people tend to have shorter careers (ala Karelin) as it requires enormous strength exertion and is liable to be injurious . My prediction is he won't be winning golds at 34.  

[Lucho]

Apparently Nonoka Ozaki (Olympic silver) and Kaisei Tanabe (Asian champ) came to Iran recently for a week long training camp with our freestyle guys which is quite cool to see. I hope some of our guys also go to Japan for a training session as well. I'm not too familiar with WFS so I can't comment too much on Ozaki but I have watched Tanabe wrestle before and its interesting to see he apparently was training with Amouzad and the other Iranian 65s. I have a feeling he could be the guy Amouzad could face in Zagreb for worlds. Also Ebrahimzadeh is wrestling at 70kg at Takhti whilst Ghasempour and Savadkouhi are not competing. It will be interesting watching 70kg considering Sina Khalili, Mohammadreza Shakeri and I think Mohammadali Amouzad will also be competing at that weight. With Ghasempour and Savadkouhi out then Abolfazl Rahmani should win by a considerable margin at 86kg unless I'm forgetting someone.

[Window12]

6 hours ago, Lucho said:

With Ghasempour and Savadkouhi out then Abolfazl Rahmani should win by a considerable margin at 86kg unless I'm forgetting someone.

Presumably Vafaipour is not competing at 86? If he is it would be potentially interesting match up of an established veteran v talented new kid on the block. May be a bit like the old match ups between Yazdani and Tahgavi.

[Lucho]

2 hours ago, Window12 said:

Presumably Vafaipour is not competing at 86? If he is it would be potentially interesting match up of an established veteran v talented new kid on the block. May be a bit like the old match ups between Yazdani and Tahgavi.

I honestly don't really rate him that much and he sort of reminds me of Zahid Valencia. He doesn't seem that good technically and just tries to physically out muscle guys. I think he alternates between 86 and 92kg at least in the league so I'm not sure what weight he will compete in. Regardless I think he would probably podium but not win the tournament. I would think one of Noruzian, Soheili, Rahmani and Soleimanian will probably have their breakout tournament and win it. The more pressing question is if Ghasempour isn't competing does that mean he can't make 86kg? I would really like him to make 86kg as that would make our team really stacked but I also don't think its going to happen... 

[nhs67]

1 hour ago, Lucho said:

I honestly don't really rate him that much and he sort of reminds me of Zahid Valencia. He doesn't seem that good technically and just tries to physically out muscle guys. I think he alternates between 86 and 92kg at least in the league so I'm not sure what weight he will compete in. Regardless I think he would probably podium but not win the tournament. I would think one of Noruzian, Soheili, Rahmani and Soleimanian will probably have their breakout tournament and win it. The more pressing question is if Ghasempour isn't competing does that mean he can't make 86kg? I would really like him to make 86kg as that would make our team really stacked but I also don't think its going to happen... 

Valencia hasn't tried to outmuscle anyone - ever.  This isn't a good comparison.

[Window12]

1 hour ago, nhs67 said:

Valencia hasn't tried to outmuscle anyone - ever.  This isn't a good comparison.

I don’t know how old Zahid Valencia is but I would imagine he has a few good seasons ahead of him. Do you think he can now pick up the mantel for the US wrestling internationally perhaps now that some of the veterans such as JB Kyle Dake DT Kyle Snyder etc are entering or entered the final stretch of their careers?

[nhs67]

1 hour ago, Window12 said:

I don’t know how old Zahid Valencia is but I would imagine he has a few good seasons ahead of him. Do you think he can now pick up the mantel for the US wrestling internationally perhaps now that some of the veterans such as JB Kyle Dake DT Kyle Snyder etc are entering or entered the final stretch of their careers?

Until Dake loses the Best of Three to him at Final X, I am not ready to say Zahid even makes the World Team this year - let alone anoint him ready to pick the mantel up.

[Window12]

22 minutes ago, nhs67 said:

Until Dake loses the Best of Three to him at Final X, I am not ready to say Zahid even makes the World Team this year - let alone anoint him ready to pick the mantel up.

There is a Persian/Arabic idiom that roughly translates as famine of men in senior positions. I wonder if USA wrestling entering a transient such era. I guess the big name is Kyle Snyder who I presume is the odds on favourite to be in the world team. If Kyle Dake does not make it I guess the next big name for USA is Zahid or have I missed someone out?

[Window12]

4 hours ago, Lucho said:

I honestly don't really rate him that much and he sort of reminds me of Zahid Valencia. He doesn't seem that good technically and just tries to physically out muscle guys. I think he alternates between 86 and 92kg at least in the league so I'm not sure what weight he will compete in. Regardless I think he would probably podium but not win the tournament. I would think one of Noruzian, Soheili, Rahmani and Soleimanian will probably have their breakout tournament and win it. The more pressing question is if Ghasempour isn't competing does that mean he can't make 86kg? I would really like him to make 86kg as that would make our team really stacked but I also don't think its going to happen... 

I agree Vafaipour is more about muscle than technique- so I agree Rahmani should be able to get past him to cement his name as a contender for 86 kg spot 

Edited 18 hours ago by Window12
Typo

[Lucho]

16 hours ago, nhs67 said:

Valencia hasn't tried to outmuscle anyone - ever.  This isn't a good comparison.

From what I've seen against Iranian guys (Azarpira and Rahmani) he was mainly using his strength against them to control centre. Him and Vafaeipour both start off strong but fizzle off due to their poor gas tanks. Do I think Valencia is a bad wrestler? Absolutely not and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins gold this year at worlds but he is definitely not a technician by any stretch of the imagination. 

[Lucho]

13 hours ago, nhs67 said:

Until Dake loses the Best of Three to him at Final X, I am not ready to say Zahid even makes the World Team this year - let alone anoint him ready to pick the mantel up.

If Dake can bulk up before Final X I can see him beating Valencia, if not I don't think he can. Valencia has filled himself out as a true 86kg and has arguably the greatest 86kg in Taylor coaching him.