Iran wrestling news

[Undefeated]

https://www.varzesh3.com/news/2137618/واکنش-تند-دبیر-به-تغییر-تابعیت-ستاره-سنگین-وزن

Masoumi is really under pressure. Dabir said the federation won’t issue a license for Masoumi to wrestle for another country. Dabir is very upset. He said they’ve given and will give release permits to our level two and three wrestlers to leave, but Masoumi is a top-level wrestler and must wrestle for Iran. He also threatened that if Masoumi doesn’t attend the upcoming training camps, he will be removed from the national junior team as well.

[shiraz321]

He just has to wait 2 years from the date of asian champs 2025 and then he doesn't need permission. They threatened to remove him from the u23 team if he doesn't attend the camp. Not sure how much leverage they have over him when he has won a hundred age group world championships. 

[Undefeated]

I get why Dabir wants to stick with his top guys, but looking at it objectively, it’s hard to see how Masoumi beats Zare anytime soon. The last match showed he’s still behind Zare both technically and physically. Personally, I’d love to see both of them at the Worlds and the Olympics

[GrandOlm]

18 hours ago, Undefeated said:

I get why Dabir wants to stick with his top guys, but looking at it objectively, it’s hard to see how Masoumi beats Zare anytime soon. The last match showed he’s still behind Zare both technically and physically. Personally, I’d love to see both of them at the Worlds and the Olympics

Masoumi should look out for himself. This system's backwards way of selecting wrestlers has chased many great competitors out of the sport. No one is going to remember his loyalty when he's 36 and retired with no world level medals. It's the Zare's who will get cushy jobs and respect.

Unless they are paying him a handsome amount that will leave him set for life, I'd take the 3 year hit. Wait it out and go win world and olympic medals. Even if you never beat Zare, don't waste away your entire career.  

[Undefeated]

1 hour ago, GrandOlm said:

Masoumi should look out for himself. This system's backwards way of selecting wrestlers has chased many great competitors out of the sport. No one is going to remember his loyalty when he's 36 and retired with no world level medals. It's the Zare's who will get cushy jobs and respect.

Unless they are paying him a handsome amount that will leave him set for life, I'd take the 3 year hit. Wait it out and go win world and olympic medals. Even if you never beat Zare, don't waste away your entire career.  

Exactly!

[Gene Mills Fan]

6 hours ago, Undefeated said:

Exactly!

Why he would have to give up 3 years of medal opportunity is the crime

[nhs67]

Honestly, were Masoumi to want to take another route - he should be looking at other ways to monetize himself until he can get the transfer in full-effect.  Hopefully he can still train 100%, because he is easily Top 3 (and has been).  If he can still 100% train wrestling, while also making money on the grappling or fighting scene - he should do it.  This way he is not tied to the wrestling federation in Iran for livelihood and survival.

[Undefeated]

2 hours ago, Gene Mills Fan said:

Why he would have to give up 3 years of medal opportunity is the crime

Yeah it’s unfair -but if we were running the wrestling federation ourselves, it’d be hard to just let go of one of our top guys. Dabir (who was an Olympic and World champ himself) wants to keep 125 competitive.

[Undefeated]

1 hour ago, nhs67 said:

Honestly, were Masoumi to want to take another route - he should be looking at other ways to monetize himself until he can get the transfer in full-effect.  Hopefully he can still train 100%, because he is easily Top 3 (and has been).  If he can still 100% train wrestling, while also making money on the grappling or fighting scene - he should do it.  This way he is not tied to the wrestling federation in Iran for livelihood and survival.

Actually, I doubt he really needs to make money right now. His dad’s well-off, and in Iran it’s pretty normal for families to support their kids financially for years - sometimes even into their 40s.

[Shibboleth]

Here is the relevant clause:

 

Quote

In case the federation of origin is opposed for any reason to a wrestler’s or referee’s change of sports nationality (to be confirmed in writing), the change will still be granted if, or until after a period of three (3) years since the last participation in any international competition as defined in article 2 (excluding international tournaments) has elapsed. In such case, the training compensation fee and the fee to UWW will be due

So, in case of Masoumi he would be eligible to compete starting April 2028. This means that he likely can still participate in regional olympic qualifiers and world olympic qualifier - provided the dates are similar to 2024 and provided his new country doesn't qualify prior to April 2028. 

But if he burns the bridges, he probably is not allowed to train in Iran for these years neither, so he'll have to move to that new country to train (Armenia? Azerbaijan?).

There are other issues too. Because Masoumi is Talysh, he doesn't quite want to transfer to Azerbaijan because the Talysh minority is not treated well there - this won't apply to him obviously but as a principle. Armenia is ok, but it doesn't really have a good training situation for heavyweights. Usually heavyweights always have an issue with training partners because there aren't many high level big guys in a given training room.

It's quite something to decide.

[shiraz321]

Is he Talysh? I never heard that he was before.

[nhs67]

57 minutes ago, Undefeated said:

Actually, I doubt he really needs to make money right now. His dad’s well-off, and in Iran it’s pretty normal for families to support their kids financially for years - sometimes even into their 40s.

I would still want him to be relevantly active.  Taking two years off at a critical time of your development hinders your peak performance capability long-term.

[Undefeated]

25 minutes ago, nhs67 said:

I would still want him to be relevantly active.  Taking two years off at a critical time of your development hinders your peak performance capability long-term.

He might end up staying in Iran. But the decision isn’t entirely his - his father, who’s a former wrestling champion himself, also plays a big role. And there’s always a chance people around them could sway his dad with nationalistic pressure. They’re really in a tough spot. The regime’s supporters - who usually act like Iran’s history started with Islam - suddenly turn into proud defenders of thousands of years of ancient civilization whenever a top athlete considers leaving. They flood them with patriotic comments, callouts about "betraying the motherland," and throw around the word "traitor" to guilt them into staying. Then once they’ve messed up the person’s future, they vanish like they were never part of it.

[shiraz321]

Apparently it is done.

 

[Undefeated]

[Undefeated]

What happened to Ahoora Khateri?
 

 

[shiraz321]

14 minutes ago, Undefeated said:

What happened to Ahoora Khateri?
 

 

He is still around, just failed to make the junior team this year. He is at 61kg now. Maybe if the guy they send to asian juniors this weekend at 61 flops they will give him another chance. 

[Undefeated]

10 hours ago, Undefeated said:

He might end up staying in Iran. But the decision isn’t entirely his - his father, who’s a former wrestling champion himself, also plays a big role. And there’s always a chance people around them could sway his dad with nationalistic pressure. They’re really in a tough spot. The regime’s supporters - who usually act like Iran’s history started with Islam - suddenly turn into proud defenders of thousands of years of ancient civilization whenever a top athlete considers leaving. They flood them with patriotic comments, callouts about "betraying the motherland," and throw around the word "traitor" to guilt them into staying. Then once they’ve messed up the person’s future, they vanish like they were never part of it.

Just like I predicted - about those people’s reactions (some of which were posted on this site). By the way, this site has a long history of censorship and only publishes comments that agree with them.

* It’s not all about medals, Mr. Masoumi - many fell behind a champion, but didn’t turn their backs on their country.
‌*‌ Now we realize what a big heart Kamran Ghasempour really had.
* Doesn’t matter - he used to lose in the trials, now he loses on the world stage.
* There was no injustice - you lost to Zare fair and square in head-to-head matches. So what’s all this drama about?
 

Edited July 11 by Undefeated

[Window12]

5 hours ago, Undefeated said:

Just like I predicted - about those people’s reactions (some of which were posted on this site). By the way, this site has a long history of censorship and only publishes comments that agree with them.

 

Shame he did not sign up for Israel - he not only would have annoyed the regime supporters more but also would had the added bonus of guaranteed winning over Zare in future encounters.

[Undefeated]

38 minutes ago, Window12 said:

Shame he did not sign up for Israel - he not only would have annoyed the regime supporters more but also would had the added bonus of guaranteed winning over Zare in future encounters.

It’s all hypocrisy. Supporters with double standards who call themselves patriots - but what they really mean by patriotism is loyalty to the Islamic Republic. Go bring back Khamenei’s advisors’ kids from IMPERIALIST America to the homeland. They stole the country’s wealth and left, but they’re not called traitors. Meanwhile, Masoumi, who goes with his own money, is labeled a sellout! Enough of this nonsense.

Edited July 11 by Undefeated

[Window12]

2 minutes ago, Undefeated said:

It’s all hypocrisy. Supporters with double standards who call themselves patriots—but what they really mean by patriotism is loyalty to the Islamic Republic. Go bring back Khamenei’s advisors’ kids from IMPERIALIST America to the homeland. They stole the country’s wealth and left, but they’re not called traitors. Meanwhile, Massoumi, who goes with his own money, is labeled a sellout! Enough of this nonsense.

Shame for Masoumi to have to wait for 3 years though. Hopefully we see him in Olympic qualifying and other tournaments in the meantime 

[wrestlingfan22]

19 hours ago, shiraz321 said:

Apparently it is done.

 

It is funny to me how he seemed to be between Armenia and Azerbaijan as his next destination. If he does go with Azerbaijan he will have Armenia and Iran as major haters now. 

[shiraz321]

18 minutes ago, wrestlingfan22 said:

It is funny to me how he seemed to be between Armenia and Azerbaijan as his next destination. If he does go with Azerbaijan he will have Armenia and Iran as major haters now. 

Lol, not sure how many wrestling fans are even in Armenia for them to hate on him. But he made the right choice. I would think Azerbaijan has better training partners and opportunities. Their program seems better funded to me. Only reason Armenia would have been cool is they are far less successful than Azerbaijan in Freestyle. He could have got them some medals they never won before, maybe even an olympic gold . I don't think most Iranians hate him either, just a few weird people, many of whom have left Iran themselves. 

[Shibboleth]

If Masoumi actually transfers to Azerbaijan it's gonna be a big F U to Meshvildishvili who is a reigning olympic bronze (when the other bronze and gold retired) and also reigning European champion. Probably Meshvildishvili is # 4-5 in the world after Zare, Hendrickson, Masoumi and... who else? Yea he's 4. And he's not that old and gonna be out of the picture forever. And he can't transfer again because he's already a transfer.

[Window12]

7 minutes ago, Shibboleth said:

 4-5 in the world after Zare, Hendrickson, Masoumi and... who else? 

I think you are kidding right about Hendrickson- he must undisputedly be world number one at 125kg freestyle. I would not accept anything less than number 1 !