Iran wrestling news

[Truzzcat]

This is probably USA's best u20 team ever but I think Iran is clearly second and they probably have the best team going into seniors this year.

[Lucho]

I had a look at the archives and the last time we didn't win a u17 FS gold was 2015 so this was our worst performance in 10 years in FS. In saying that though Russia also did not do that well they only had 2 golds (Omarov 110 and Dzebisov 92). The US has been really really strong at the junior levels in recent years and I reckon that's because of the amount of high level FS clubs opening up across the country. From memory Ben Askren has one that is producing some solid guys. Our U20's don't look really impressive either so I doubt we will win a gold there as well. What's more surprising is India's heavies beating us in both FS and GR, looks like Haryana has realised they can also send their big boys to wrestle. At the end of the day what matters is senior level titles and I'm hoping the boys can get it done in September.

[Lucho]

14 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

This is probably USA's best u20 team ever but I think Iran is clearly second and they probably have the best team going into seniors this year.

I think USA, Russia and Iran are pretty balanced in seniors tbh. I think Russia has 2 powerhouse wrestlers (Sidakov, Sadulaev) whilst Iran and USA have 1 each (Zare, Lee respectively). However, Russia's team seems a lot weaker with less depth and even Sidakov and Sadulaev are competing against Valiev and Tazhudinov so gold isn't guaranteed for them. Whereas I think USA and Iran have more depth across the 10 weight classes. Iran's guys are pretty experienced at this point relative to their ages. I think its ultimately going to come down to whether USA and Iran win the weights they are expected to (57, 125) and whether they can get guys on the podium in the other weights. Russia will struggle a lot this year imo as 74 and 97 are quite deep weights nowadays and arguably the best russian guys don't even compete for Russia anymore.

[Window12]

Is Hassan morphing into Reza? I guess this is what he has to do to have a shot at 97

Edited 18 hours ago by Window12
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[shiraz321]

We should get a gold at juniors. Maybe 86 and/or 79. Will be interesting if Yousefi  at 79 can beat that Turkmen kid after the good year he has had at the senior level or if he still loses to him badly like last time. They changed a few of the wrestlers after asian juniors ( 61, 65, 79, 125). 

[Undefeated]

2 hours ago, Window12 said:

Is Hassan morphing into Reza? I guess this is what he has to do to have a shot at 97

Man, he’s really packed on the weight. Wish he’d made the move earlier - I would’ve loved to see him wrestle Sadulaev when he was at his peak.

[Truzzcat]

15 hours ago, Lucho said:

I think USA, Russia and Iran are pretty balanced in seniors tbh. I think Russia has 2 powerhouse wrestlers (Sidakov, Sadulaev) whilst Iran and USA have 1 each (Zare, Lee respectively). However, Russia's team seems a lot weaker with less depth and even Sidakov and Sadulaev are competing against Valiev and Tazhudinov so gold isn't guaranteed for them. Whereas I think USA and Iran have more depth across the 10 weight classes. Iran's guys are pretty experienced at this point relative to their ages. I think its ultimately going to come down to whether USA and Iran win the weights they are expected to (57, 125) and whether they can get guys on the podium in the other weights. Russia will struggle a lot this year imo as 74 and 97 are quite deep weights nowadays and arguably the best russian guys don't even compete for Russia anymore.

Iran feels like they have 4 legit gold medal threats without having to go through a ton of mental hurdles. Ghas,Zare,Firouz,Amouzad And I think they will have a great shot at medaling at 61,79,97. USA has 1 gold favorite as you mentioned and 4 guys with shots imo at 61,74,86,92 but I do not think any of them would be on paper favorites and will need to wrestle the best they ever have. Of those 4 weights I think there is a chance all but zahid do not medal as well. I also do not expect a medal at 65,70 (although Kaipanov going 74 helps),79 and I would not be shocked if Snyder does not medal I think he is clearly behind Azarpira,Taz,Sadulaev now.

[Undefeated]

Did you guys follow the Ion Corneanu tournament today?

I honestly don’t get why our guys are even going to some of these tournaments. I mean, we all know what the situation’s like back home - folks are dealing with all kinds of financial and economic pressure. You’d think the federation would try to manage its expenses a bit better.

Now, I’m not naive enough to think that if they didn’t waste the money on pointless tournaments, it’d magically get spent on the people. But at least they could send our wrestlers to better events… or throw some support to the wrestling boards in remote provinces.

Take a few months ago - they sent Azarpira to the Sassari tournament. How many matches did he wrestle? Just one, against a guy from Moldova! Anyone here know how much that trip cost?

And now Ion Corneanu tournament... Seven Iranian wrestlers went. The level was so low the federation’s website kept editing and re-editing the results - they didn’t even know how to cover this embarrassing event.

Example: the 97 kg bracket had only three wrestlers - two Iranians and one guy from Romania, the host country! Most other weights had two, maybe three competitors max.

And you all know how it goes - when the federation sends a team, they send about twice as many “security” and “protection” staff as actual wrestlers, just to make sure no one tries to defect. Plus the coaching staff… and a few mystery folks nobody talks about.

I seriously don’t see the point in wasting time and money on tournaments like these.

[Lucho]

14 hours ago, Window12 said:

Is Hassan morphing into Reza? I guess this is what he has to do to have a shot at 97

Its gonna be really hard for him to make the team at 97kg tbh. Azarpira is really good and is developing into 97kg very nicely. Even if he makes the team internationally there is Snyder, Tazhudinov and Sadulaev. Can he realistically beat 2 of those 3 guys to win gold?

[Lucho]

7 hours ago, Truzzcat said:

Iran feels like they have 4 legit gold medal threats without having to go through a ton of mental hurdles. Ghas,Zare,Firouz,Amouzad And I think they will have a great shot at medaling at 61,79,97. USA has 1 gold favorite as you mentioned and 4 guys with shots imo at 61,74,86,92 but I do not think any of them would be on paper favorites and will need to wrestle the best they ever have. Of those 4 weights I think there is a chance all but zahid do not medal as well. I also do not expect a medal at 65,70 (although Kaipanov going 74 helps),79 and I would not be shocked if Snyder does not medal I think he is clearly behind Azarpira,Taz,Sadulaev now.

I don't think Ahmad Javan is really good at 61kg but I agree with the rest of what you said. I feel like you are underestimating your US guys. Wyatt Hendrickson, Vito and Zahid Valencia are gold medal threat wrestlers alongside Spencer Lee. It's going to be an interesting worlds especially since neither David Taylor and Yazdani are competing at 86kg it looks super open. I think Kadiev, Ramazanov, Kadimagomedov, Ghasempour and Valencia are competing which is crazy. 

[Lucho]

6 hours ago, Undefeated said:

Did you guys follow the Ion Corneanu tournament today?

I honestly don’t get why our guys are even going to some of these tournaments. I mean, we all know what the situation’s like back home - folks are dealing with all kinds of financial and economic pressure. You’d think the federation would try to manage its expenses a bit better.

Now, I’m not naive enough to think that if they didn’t waste the money on pointless tournaments, it’d magically get spent on the people. But at least they could send our wrestlers to better events… or throw some support to the wrestling boards in remote provinces.

Take a few months ago - they sent Azarpira to the Sassari tournament. How many matches did he wrestle? Just one, against a guy from Moldova! Anyone here know how much that trip cost?

And now Ion Corneanu tournament... Seven Iranian wrestlers went. The level was so low the federation’s website kept editing and re-editing the results - they didn’t even know how to cover this embarrassing event.

Example: the 97 kg bracket had only three wrestlers - two Iranians and one guy from Romania, the host country! Most other weights had two, maybe three competitors max.

And you all know how it goes - when the federation sends a team, they send about twice as many “security” and “protection” staff as actual wrestlers, just to make sure no one tries to defect. Plus the coaching staff… and a few mystery folks nobody talks about.

I seriously don’t see the point in wasting time and money on tournaments like these.

Who even was sent to Romania? Why aren't we instead sending more guys to ranking tournaments? At the very least I feel like we should be sending guys to Yarygin for FS and also send 2-3 guys per weight class to ranking series tournaments especially for greco. The federation clearly has money to spend so might as well do it when there is the best possible competition apart from worlds and olympics. I didn't even know we were sending guys over there as none of the Iranian wrestling outlets even talked about it.

[Lucho]

14 hours ago, shiraz321 said:

We should get a gold at juniors. Maybe 86 and/or 79. Will be interesting if Yousefi  at 79 can beat that Turkmen kid after the good year he has had at the senior level or if he still loses to him badly like last time. They changed a few of the wrestlers after asian juniors ( 61, 65, 79, 125). 

Yeah I had a look at the roster and it looks like 86kg is Abolfazl Rahmani and 79kg is Mehdi Yousefi. I feel like at the minimum we should win 2 golds. Alp Arsalan Begenjow I think is the turkmen guy right? I'm hoping he gets to wrestle him again as I really like Yousefi I think he has a bright future for us but the turkmen guy is legit. I think Ahora Khateri is back which will be interesting to see. I'm hoping he ends up surprising us and win gold but that will be incredibly tough to do. At this age group and above US, Russia, Japan and India out develop us in the light weight categories. Do you know much about the 65 guy? I think its the first time I've seen his name.

[Truzzcat]

42 minutes ago, Lucho said:

I don't think Ahmad Javan is really good at 61kg but I agree with the rest of what you said. I feel like you are underestimating your US guys. Wyatt Hendrickson, Vito and Zahid Valencia are gold medal threat wrestlers alongside Spencer Lee. It's going to be an interesting worlds especially since neither David Taylor and Yazdani are competing at 86kg it looks super open. I think Kadiev, Ramazanov, Kadimagomedov, Ghasempour and Valencia are competing which is crazy. 

Wyatt can compete with any of the top guys barring maybe Zare but his style lends him to giving up points and if he finds himself in a hole against a stingy european I think that could be trouble. I think USA is in an incredible spot for 2027/2028 maybe even 2026 but I believe we have 7 guys who have not competed at senior worlds and its just hard to have crazy expectations for them because for the most part we do not do a good job at competing often overseas.

edit: I am largely basing how I feel about Javan on his match against Suda which I honestly think he should have won and I think Suda is the on paper #2 going into worlds.

Edited 2 hours ago by Truzzcat

[Undefeated]

http://iawf.ir/?th=contentdetail&PageCode=81751

Look at these two pics - in both of them, first and second/third place are Iranians, and the other spot is a guy from either Romania (the host country) or somewhere else, I’m not sure

---

 

Now, if I were the head of Iran’s wrestling federation, the only way I’d send my wrestlers to a tournament like this is if Romania was paying me a fat stack of cash… or if the wrestling trip was just a cover for sending over something else.
I’m not trying to sound like some conspiracy nut, but seriously - how else are you supposed to look at this?
And Romania’s already kinda known as the Islamic Republic’s backyard. Remember that judge they dragged over from France to Romania, and then he just “fell” out of his hotel window?

And I have no idea how the federation had the guts to post the following picture. This is straight-up a meme.
I'm guessing that’s Abolfazl Mohmadi, right? The federation’s own post says he got silver - and yeah, you can see the silver medal on him - so why the heck is he standing on the gold podium? Where’s the guy who actually won?
This picture is a meme all by itself.

Edited 2 hours ago by Undefeated

[Window12]

2 hours ago, Lucho said:

Its gonna be really hard for him to make the team at 97kg tbh. Azarpira is really good and is developing into 97kg very nicely. Even if he makes the team internationally there is Snyder, Tazhudinov and Sadulaev. Can he realistically beat 2 of those 3 guys to win gold?

Yes I agree - it’s going to be difficult to get a world medal for him but I guess he is going to give it his best shot and there may be surprises if he does manage to reinvent himself and adapt his style. I worry about him wrestling Sadulaev as our wrestlers have had injuries after wrestling him( I think Goliej knee got hurt badly? and it was rough for Ghassempour too I think). I see him winning ranking events and medal at Asian championship though relatively readily so he has things that he may reasonably be expected to achieve.

Edited 1 hour ago by Window12
.

[Lucho]

1 hour ago, Truzzcat said:

Wyatt can compete with any of the top guys barring maybe Zare but his style lends him to giving up points and if he finds himself in a hole against a stingy european I think that could be trouble. I think USA is in an incredible spot for 2027/2028 maybe even 2026 but I believe we have 7 guys who have not competed at senior worlds and its just hard to have crazy expectations for them because for the most part we do not do a good job at competing often overseas.

edit: I am largely basing how I feel about Javan on his match against Suda which I honestly think he should have won and I think Suda is the on paper #2 going into worlds.

Yeah I think the US guys' biggest problem is translating their style to international wrestling initially but I think that's largely being overcome with FS being more integrated into US wrestling from an earlier age. Also the new gen of coaches like J'den Cox are going to be passing on their knowledge as well so I don't think its going to be a major problem by the 2028 olympics as you said but I think you guys will still be a force this year too. When it comes to Iran light weights they are incredibly inconsistent one tournament they look unbeatable and another one they look like its their first time wrestling on the mat. Ahmad Javan is quite young and I think he has potential to be a medal threat at 61kg but that largely hinges upon him not being leg laced back to Iran every time he gets taken down. Considering he isn't Mazani as well I'm curious to see his performance. His province Khorasan Razavi has been doing quite well in the lighter weight classes at junior levels domestically so it would be nice to see their hard work bring home a world medal.

[Lucho]

54 minutes ago, Undefeated said:

http://iawf.ir/?th=contentdetail&PageCode=81751

Look at these two pics - in both of them, first and second/third place are Iranians, and the other spot is a guy from either Romania (the host country) or somewhere else, I’m not sure

---

 

Now, if I were the head of Iran’s wrestling federation, the only way I’d send my wrestlers to a tournament like this is if Romania was paying me a fat stack of cash… or if the wrestling trip was just a cover for sending over something else.
I’m not trying to sound like some conspiracy nut, but seriously - how else are you supposed to look at this?
And Romania’s already kinda known as the Islamic Republic’s backyard. Remember that judge they dragged over from France to Romania, and then he just “fell” out of his hotel window?

And I have no idea how the federation had the guts to post the following picture. This is straight-up a meme.
I'm guessing that’s Abolfazl Mohmadi, right? The federation’s own post says he got silver - and yeah, you can see the silver medal on him - so why the heck is he standing on the gold podium? Where’s the guy who actually won?
This picture is a meme all by itself.

This is really strange tbh. However it sort of tracks with what they've been doing in recent years. It seems that they are trying to establish soft power within the wrestling world by inviting other countries' wrestling teams to Iran and sending their own guys there as well. From memory Tajikistan, Hungary and Armenia have brought their wrestling teams to train in Iran with our senior guys. I reckon they must have received some sort of benefits to send these guys there either financially or politically. Dabir was talking about making the wrestling federation self funded and developing revenue streams so I imagine this might be a part of that either directly or indirectly. 

[Lucho]

15 minutes ago, Window12 said:

Yes I agree - it’s going to be difficult to get a world medal for him but I guess he is going to give it his best shot and there may be surprises if he does manage to reinvent himself and adapt his style. I worry about him wrestling Sadulaev as our wrestlers have had injuries after wrestling him( I think Goliej knee got hurt badly? and it was rough for Ghassempour too I think). I see him winning ranking events and the Asian championship though relatively readily so he has things that he may reasonably be expected to achieve.

Its interesting that apart from the one off matches against Snyder and Tazhudinov, the only other guys who have been able to nearly beat him have been our own (Goleij and Ghasempour). With all due respect to both guys Yazdani is a class above them both so you would expect Yazdani being capable to beat Sadulaev. From now on his team should be analysing and developing game plans on how to beat the top guys at 97kg and preparing him for when he steps back onto the mat. I know that Mohammadian is now a coach so maybe him and Reza Yazdani can work alongside him to prep for the transition to 97kg. The only thing that matters to Iranians is world and olympic medals and Asia is pretty shallow at the heavier weight classes even if you are Russian transfers. But its possible the first Yazdani vs Tazhudinov match up will happen at Asians in 2026/2027. 

[Window12]

26 minutes ago, Lucho said:

It’s interesting that apart from the one off matches against Snyder and Tazhudinov, the only other guys who have been able to nearly beat him have been our own (Goleij and Ghasempour). With all due respect to both guys Yazdani is a class above them both so you would expect Yazdani being capable to beat Sadulaev. From now on his team should be analysing and developing game plans on how to beat the top guys at 97kg and preparing him for when he steps back onto the mat. I know that Mohammadian is now a coach so maybe him and Reza Yazdani can work alongside him to prep for the transition to 97kg. The only thing that matters to Iranians is world and olympic medals and Asia is pretty shallow at the heavier weight classes even if you are Russian transfers. But it’s possible the first Yazdani vs Tazhudinov match up will happen at Asians in 2026/2027. 

With his shoulder I’m happier seeing him wrestling Tazhudinov than Sadulaev till he has settled as I think it will be more technical and less physical with Tazhudinov. I’m also ok with him starting at the shallow rather than the deep end. Some ranking events etc will be good preparation.