Iran wrestling news

[Irani]

Disappointed in the Yossefi loss.  That and the Sina Khalili loss in the finals may end up costing Iran the team championship. 
It is amazing how far apart US an Iran are from the rest of the field.

 

[Irani]

Sina Khalili loss in the finals

https://fb.watch/C_A8U3jw0I/?mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e

[shiraz321]

Sina did well overall. It was a silly challenge on that takedown which was clearly correctly scored as 4. He also  seems to always get the first takedown in his losses. He could win junior worlds at 70kg next year but apparantly he is going to 74 next year and that weight is a totally different beast from 70. Interested to see how he progresses. 

 

Rahmani breaking his hand seems to have impacted him a lot. He went on a great run earlier in the year winning asian champs, the takhti cup and then losing a close one to Ghasempour and now seems like a shell of that guy. He had a harder time winning asian juniors than asian seniors, lol. He seems so flat in his past 3 tournaments ( asian juniors, junior worlds and u23 worlds). 

[Irani]

US wins first place, and Iran takes second

Congratulations to the US team and our friends on this board for such an impressive win.

 

[Gene Mills Fan]

respect to both teams and I was empowered by the Iranian sportsmanship! esp. in some losses(maybe due to injury)! 

[Irani]

13 minutes ago, Gene Mills Fan said:

respect to both teams and I was empowered by the Iranian sportsmanship! esp. in some losses(maybe due to injury)! 

The best part for both teams is how young the good performers are

we have 18 and 19 year olds medaling in the U23 category, this bodes well for the future of the kids who doing so well in this category as teen agers.

[Irani]

On the Iran side, here are the ages of some of the good performers, excluding the 22 year olds.

• Sina Khalili -silver- 19
• Youssefi - bronze -20
• Rahmani - Bronze -19
• Mohammad Nejad - Gold 18

US side

• Lilledahl - 20
• Forrest - 19
• Duke - 19
• Haines -21

Edited October 27, 2025 by Irani

[MPhillips]

Here is the eligibility of team USA.

Lilledahl- Three more years eligibility
Forrest- Four more years eligibility
Blaze- Four more years eligibility
Duke- Four more years eligibility
Mesenbrink- One more year eligibility
Haines- Two more years eligibility
Welsh- One more year eligibility
Barr- Two more years eligibility
Kouekabakilaho- Zero/one more years eligibility
Herrera- One/two more years eligibility
 

Copied and pasted from another site...

[Lucho]

15 hours ago, shiraz321 said:

Sina did well overall. It was a silly challenge on that takedown which was clearly correctly scored as 4. He also  seems to always get the first takedown in his losses. He could win junior worlds at 70kg next year but apparantly he is going to 74 next year and that weight is a totally different beast from 70. Interested to see how he progresses. 

 

Rahmani breaking his hand seems to have impacted him a lot. He went on a great run earlier in the year winning asian champs, the takhti cup and then losing a close one to Ghasempour and now seems like a shell of that guy. He had a harder time winning asian juniors than asian seniors, lol. He seems so flat in his past 3 tournaments ( asian juniors, junior worlds and u23 worlds). 

Khalili going up to 74kg may as well end his chances of winning a world medal at seniors imo. if he can't beat Heybatov he will have a rude awakening once he starts wrestling against Takahashi, Valiev, Sidakov, Salkazanov, Carr etc. If he can drastically improve his technical ability (doubtful) and bulk up (more likely) sure but he will get murdered if he wrestles like how he did at U23 worlds.

[Lucho]

Also Yousefi and Rahmani did end up coming very different to U23 worlds unfortunately that different was flat and poor. I'm really worried about the future of our freestyle guys they are getting so many injuries at a young age as a result of sending them to so many of these tournaments. I really hope the coaches don't ruin our few bright spots in this crop (Yousefi, Rahmani, Mohammadnezhad and Khalili). I still think that Dorostkar should be replaced and Reza Yazdani should take his spot. We weren't able to win the majority of our must win matches this year at both U23s and seniors especially against the US wrestlers. Can we also start developing some light weight wrestlers I'm tired of watching them get pinned and teched in the first round every year. It's embarrassing that a country of such wrestling history is so bad at producing competent light weights.

[Truzzcat]

I think Iran had an incredible year across the board. Rahmani still kinda looks like a kid to me in some aspects physically I think he is going to continue to improve immensely. Khalili is a freaking monster, he let the heybatov match get away from him but hes what 19? Elahi had a great Yarigin I depise how he wrestles, I think it is super boring and he is not impressive to watch but it works. Nezhad may actually be able to do what Masoumi could not and in a few years dethrone Zare.

[Irani]

48 minutes ago, Truzzcat said:

 Elahi had a great Yarigin I depise how he wrestles, I think it is super boring and he is not impressive to watch but it works. 

Can you please rephrase the above portion of your post?  I do not quite follow what you are say, and since I respect your POV, I want to make sure I understand

[nhs67]

11 minutes ago, Irani said:

Can you please rephrase the above portion of your post?  I do not quite follow what you are say, and since I respect your POV, I want to make sure I understand

He acknowledges that Elahi had a great Yarigan.  He then said that he doesn't like his style of wrestling because it is boring, but gives credit that it does work despite being boring.

[shiraz321]

11 hours ago, Lucho said:

Khalili going up to 74kg may as well end his chances of winning a world medal at seniors imo. if he can't beat Heybatov he will have a rude awakening once he starts wrestling against Takahashi, Valiev, Sidakov, Salkazanov, Carr etc. If he can drastically improve his technical ability (doubtful) and bulk up (more likely) sure but he will get murdered if he wrestles like how he did at U23 worlds.

Who knows. Takahashi himself flopped at 70kg at u23 worlds (lost to Amir Yazdani) and is now a monster at 74. We will see. I think Khalili is a very talented wrestler. I would like to see him at 70 or 74 juniors next year. But he said he is moving up. 

Edited October 28, 2025 by shiraz321

[Truzzcat]

9 hours ago, Irani said:

Can you please rephrase the above portion of your post?  I do not quite follow what you are say, and since I respect your POV, I want to make sure I understand

Yes sorry, Elahi's results have been great however I find his style unpleasing to watch.

[bnwtwg]

15 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Here is the eligibility of team USA.

Lilledahl- Three more years eligibility
Forrest- Four more years eligibility
Blaze- Four more years eligibility
Duke- Four more years eligibility
Mesenbrink- One more year eligibility
Haines- Two more years eligibility
Welsh- One more year eligibility
Barr- Two more years eligibility
Kouekabakilaho- Zero/one more years eligibility
Herrera- One/two more years eligibility
 

Copied and pasted from another site...

Bo Bassett, no more years of eligibility. He is now eligible for Veterans.

[Irani]

Iran FS team trainjng session before the world championship

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQH1KbGDsUX/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

[Irani]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQUxF1DCHew/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

For my friends who do not read Persian, the post blames Iran’s second place on Arash Yoshida’s father.

it says if he had married an Iranian woman, Iran would have won first place

[BaldHeadedShannon]

24 minutes ago, Irani said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQUxF1DCHew/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

For my friends who do not read Persian, the post blames Iran’s second place on Arash Yoshida’s father.

it says if he had married an Iranian woman, Iran would have won first place

I find this very funny but I cannot laugh react.

[nhs67]

2 hours ago, Irani said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQUxF1DCHew/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

For my friends who do not read Persian, the post blames Iran’s second place on Arash Yoshida’s father.

it says if he had married an Iranian woman, Iran would have won first place

[Lucho]

Wrestling has started at the Islamic Solidarity Games. Our Greco boys wrestled at 60kg (Ali Ahmadi Vafa), 67kg (Saeid Esmaeili), 77kg (Amir Abdi) and 87kg (Gholamreza Farokhi). At 60kg, Ahmadi Vafa got teched by Ganiev but he then beat Nihat Mamadli to win bronze, 67kg Esmaeili teched his way to the final including Aref Mohammdi and the Uzbek guy who won worlds at 63kg this year, he then beat Jafarov 8-3 in the final. At 77kg, Amir Abdi he teched Ulvu Ganizade and beat Abdullo Aliev but lost to Makhmudov in the final by fall. Farokhi also won at 87kg but not super convincingly. Overall Greco at this tournament is super high level this year so these results are quite good even if its technically "off-season". Interesting to see whether Abdi gets the 77kg spot or not going forward. Saravi and Hedayati will compete today at 97 and 130kg respectively. 

[Irani]

Other than Hedayati in heavyweight, this was definitely Iran's A team.

The Hedayati / Mirzazadeh situation is reminiscent of the Massoumi/Zare situation.  It will be interesting to see how it will play out

The GR competition for Gr in the Islamic games with Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkey is more competitive than freestyle with US, Japan and Russia missing.

Edited November 20, 2025 by Irani

[Lucho]

2 hours ago, Irani said:

Other than Hedayati in heavyweight, this was definitely Iran's A team.

The Hedayati / Mirzazadeh situation is reminiscent of the Massoumi/Zare situation.  It will be interesting to see how it will play out

The GR competition for Gr in the Islamic games with Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkey is more competitive than freestyle with US, Japan and Russia missing.

Yeah I completely agree and I think most if not all of the countries sent their best guys to the tournament. I'm a little annoyed that Saravi was sent to this tournament. I feel like it would have been better for another 97kg to compete here. His main competition is from Sargsian, Alexanyan and Rosillo. Also what are your thoughts on Amir Abdi, his results were quite impressive until the final do you see him taking Alireza Abdevali's spot for next year? Also another interesting match up will be Mohmedi vs Farokhi at 87kg as both are top tier wrestlers. 

[Lucho]

In freestyle I also would've preferred if Masoumi competed instead of Zare and maybe also rest Rahman as well. Of course I think the Masoumi ship has sailed unless something drastic occurs. I'm worried these tournaments are going to cause unnecessary wear and tear for our boys especially whilst their competition are resting and recovering for World's next year. 

[Irani]

13 hours ago, Lucho said:

. Also what are your thoughts on Amir Abdi, his results were quite impressive until the final do you see him taking Alireza Abdevali's spot for next year? Also another interesting match up will be Mohmedi vs Farokhi at 87kg as both are top tier wrestlers. 

To be honest, I am not familiar enough with GR to make an informed comment.

13 hours ago, Lucho said:

In freestyle I also would've preferred if Masoumi competed instead of Zare and maybe also rest Rahman as well. Of course I think the Masoumi ship has sailed unless something drastic occurs. I'm worried these tournaments are going to cause unnecessary wear and tear for our boys especially whilst their competition are resting and recovering for World's next year. 

I agree with everything you wrote above