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That guy has three NCAA titles, three B1G titles, three PA HS titles, U17 Gold, U20 gold x2, two US titles, and Pan Am gold. If that's a lifetime of falling on the big stage, we should all be so lucky.

Was thinking about it. Everything he had gone through - the lifetime of falling short on the big stage. High school, NCAAs, Olympics, getting ragdolled last year as the overwhelming favorite, tore his knee three times... and it happened again to him training for worlds this year. When he was going for a ride to tech fall city yesterday, he could have looked like when he had Gilman at OTT. He could have seen his career flash before his eyes, given up, and he wouldn't be in pain anymore it would all be over. Instead he had the heart of a champion. You can't teach that. That's just big freakin balls.

Close. The original InterMat was started by Tom Owens in 1995. He created databases that tied wrestler IDs to their names and had an entry/import database that was a bit convoluted to someone who didn't build it. In the early days, he put everything behind the paywall, since college sports sites weren't super prevalent at the time and Sports Information offices were still faxing and rarely e-mailing them out. There was a lot of manual entry in the early years. Tom also had a pretty robust webstore, which sold gear. Tom also used that database for The Predicament, giving the Iowa site the same kind of infrastructure. Tom sold the site to the NWCA, with Brute as co-owner, in 2004. He stayed on for a year and then stepped away. The NWCA hired me in the summer of 2005 and I took over operation of the site under the NWCA from 2005-2008. After the prevalence of those school sites, Tom didn't have the dual results fully paywalled after that, making dual scores free and basic tournament results free, usually linking to brackets he'd scanned or PDFs that were attached. The deep dive profiles and feature articles and recruiting rankings were the only things paywalled. After the three wrestlers died in 1997, the NCAA made sweeping rule changes and the NWCA developed and patented the weight management program. One of the byproducts of that was the recording of results along with the weigh-in data. On NWCAonline, there was a separate database system called the NWCA scorebook. By this time, Tom's original database was starting to lose its relevance for full season results, since the scorebook was supposed to have them. Merging the databases was a bit wonky, but the dual meet entry portion was still part of the InterMat site even after I left for Wrestling 411 after the 2008 season. This is where we get into the crossover discussion. One of my nightly tasks was entering the dual meet results - manually - through the old database since the coaches and SIDs were often 2-5 days behind logging that stuff into the scorebook. To have it "timely" and to keep InterMat "in the lead" with results, I'd spend hours updating results from my apartment, my buddy's house, from the bar (if that bar had wifi). It even prompted my best friend to say "What bad D3 dual are you updating now," as I cracked open a Yuengling Lager at his coffee table. I also had a freelance budget where I'd pay people like the Pirate to help me enter results on those heavy weekends. I had 2-3 people that were assigned certain duals/leagues, so we could attack that data better. There was another website that would wait until I took all the results from my e-mail and from scouring websites nightly and just straight copy them, in order, every night. When I inquired about it, the response was "results aren't proprietary!" as if it was a defense for them just straight ripping off my hours of work. Sure, the results themselves aren't proprietary, but rather the display. So no matter what, the hard work you put in, sometimes as part of your job, sometimes on your own (like my old Virginia-based Mat Talk iteration) will be ripped off, copied, and often presented as "better." I've been using a lot of AI tools to help code operation systems, portals, and to tie in my long-running historical research and logging of results that have never shown up on the internet and some that have. I've had to institute various types of protections to try to make sure that doesn't get scraped and just ripped on to someone else's site. So from a perspective of someone that's put in countless paid and unpaid hours chronicling and displaying results and placement data for the sport the last 30 years, I can side with WS to where their work should be compensated and when almost the same data shows up on another side, nearly instantaneously, it's like "why are we cannibalizing ourselves?" I used WrestleStat one year for my Preview Guide. It was good data, but it also didn't align fully with some things the qualification process needed. They've gotten so much better with their results over the years. Dan and Greg are great guys and work tirelessly because the sport needs it. They deserve and have earned our support and our consumer dollar. Sites like baseball-reference have paid staff. They have people that are paid for that work, which enables them to offer it, with their business model, free to a degree. Major college sports also have requirements for live stats, giving the NCAA a repository of live data that they sell that API to CBS, ESPN, Fox, all the sports sites. In college hockey, they also require live scoring, so sites like College Hockey Inc., USCHO, and CHN - sites similar in scope to what we have with Flo, InterMat, et al - pay for that API to display scores on their sites in near live time. Wrestling does not fully have that and the NCAA doesn't require it for wrestling, since their Genius/NCAA Live Stats software can't really get a good ROI on the R&D it would take for them to build that for wrestling and have enough paid schools to justify building it out. We have too many nuances - matches that don't count, team competitions, open competitions, invitational team-scored competitions. So many variables that aren't like team sports where it's "Team A vs. Team B" - go. I still hope for a day that we can have official results from an NCAA/NAIA/NJCAA sponsored repository, but until then, we'll have where it lives. I have my own results backend and historical backend. I don't market it. I put it places where I can quickly access it, but I also don't want the time I spent building those pages and formatting and organizing that data to be ripped off. I also pay the Pirate an annual 'license fee' to use the results he sends out and compiles on his own time, because that has value. So yes, I'm using someone else's compilation for things, but I'm also paying that person for the rights to use it. We don't have a sport that's flush with "money" in the business of wrestling, so when I say it kind of hurts to see people just bailing on WrestleStat because they simply want their time compensated, I say it from a position that I've been there before. When you're paid to do something, there's a degree of responsibility and ownership that comes with it. Someone who jumps in, does something cool for free, then fades away. A lot of sites have come and gone over the years, usually when people go to college, get married, have kids, get a new job that's not as flexible. I've thought about shuttering the Preview Guide because it gets constantly shared by one person who buys it and then gives it away to 40 other people since data is so readily available now, sending a 15MB file isn't painful anymore. If everyone who actually read the preview guide actually paid for it in the way they were supposed to, I know I'd have a lot more financial resources to make it better. Imagine how much better this sport could be if we did invest in the time people Dan and Greg at WrestleStat, rather than recoil in horror at someone wanting to be paid for the hours of time that thousands of people benefit from? Yes, this is preachy. Yes, this is judgmental to a degree, since I've literally lived through this scenario several times. It's why its important as a sport that we support ourselves with the places who spend the money to do things. Ripping off streams and posting them for free takes money away from our sport. The number of people who will claim "more eyes will see it" if its free don't realize that gratitude doesn't pay the bills. I'll get off my soapbox now and tell everyone to get off my lawn. Yours in wrestling, JB

I'll throw my hat in the ring. Here are my predictions for freestyle this year. For the record I know I'm going to be completely off for 90% of these predictions. But I'm going to let my Iran tinted glasses make the decisions. 57: Gold: Spencer Lee Silver: Tuskaev Bronze: RBY and Khndzrtsyan In all fairness I don't follow this weight class too closely but no Higuchi, Aman or Abdullaev have made this weight class a lot weaker. I feel like Spencer Lee is the most complete wrestler out of the field and if in form is the best guy on the planet. North Korea and Armenia are probably the two guys that can beat him but I think he will get the job done this year. 61: Gold: Uguev Silver: Blaze Bronze: Abdullaev and Abakarov Not much to say here Uguev is one of the most dominant wrestlers of his generation. Blaze is still too inexperienced to hang with him. The rest of the field is good but not as good as the top 2. 65: Gold: Amouzad Silver: Sujeet Bronze: Mamedov and Magomedov Very tough weight class to predict. But I think this is the most likely scenario to unfold. 70: Gold: Akmataliev Silver: Ochir Bronze: Heybatov and Ibragimov This weight class is a lot more stacked than I realised. A lot of really good wrestlers here. But I think Akmataliev wins worlds and Ibragimov goes on a tear before losing by pin to Ochir in the semis who then proceeds to lose a mind numbing match in the final. Khalili probably gets to repechage and drops a close match to one of Ibragimov or Heybatov and gets fifth. 74: Gold: Aoyagi Silver: Yazdani Bronze: Salkazanov and Sheriev No Sidakov and no Zhamalov apparently. Either way Aoyagi I think is the most complete wrestler here. Salkazanov is good but I don't know whether his gas tank will hold up. I'm hoping Amir Mohammad Yazdani has a good tournament since he beat Emami who ran the field at Asian Games. 79: Gold: Nokhodi Silver: Khaniev Bronze: Haines and Gharedaghi I think its Nokhodi's time to finally win a world title. Again 79 like 70 is pretty stacked with good wrestlers. Overall Nokhodi's experience makes him the most well-rounded wrestler here. 86: Gold: Ghasempour Silver: Ramazanov Bronze: Kadiev and Dzhioev Honestly could go either way here. I think Dake loses an early match to Dzhioev or Kadiev who then loses to Ghasempour/Ramazanov. In the final I'm hoping Ghasempour avenges the Paris Olympics loss and wins his third world title. 92: Gold: Hidlay Silver: Amanula Gazdhimagomedov Bronze: Firouzpour and Kurugliev Hidlay is the best guy in this weight class. Not much to say here tbh. Kurugliev being here makes things interesting though. 97: Gold: Snyder Silver: Sadulaev Bronze: Yazdani and Yoshida Very tough one. I don't see Yazdani, Yoshida or Tazhudinov winning worlds its between Snyder or Sadulaev. Either way I think Snyder will get the job done. Snyder looks very ready for worlds this year. 125: Gold: Zare Silver: Sharipov Bronze: Siyar and Kassimbek Zare is the best in the world. Kassimbek will definitely cause him problems though.

Some interesting tidbits about Arash Yoshida. Only 22 years old. He's Iranian/Japanese. His father is a former Iranian wrestler (Javed Esfanjani). Left Iran and started a wrestling club (Ichikawa Koshti Club) outside of Tokyo. Where Arash and his brothers trained in traditional Iranian wrestling techniques. Another wrestler for Japan (Keyvan Gharedhdaghi) also has an Iranian father and Japanese mother and won the Asian Championships this year at 79kg in his first major senior tournament beating Olympic Champion Zhamalov. He also recently took Silver at the U20 Worlds. Unfortunately he had to pull out of the Senior Worlds due to a knee injury. Not sure if he trains at the same club at Arash Yoshida. *Shared from another.

Trying to be realistic for the USA finishes. Here are my quick picks for Gold and USA finishes: 57 - Lee (USA) 61 - Uguev (RUS) Blaze (USA) - DNP 65 - Sujeet (IND) Bassett (USA) - DNP 70 - Retherford (USA) 74 - Aoyagi (JAP) Green (USA) - DNP 79 - Nokhodilarimi (IRN) Haines (USA) - Bronze 86 - Ghasempour (IRN) Dake - DNP 92 - Firouzpourbandpei (IRN) Hidlay (USA) - Bronze 97 - Sadulaev (RUS) Snyder (USA) - Silver/Bronze 125 - Zare (IRN) Hendrickson (USA) - DNP

I think the US under performance is being exagerrated by folks here. Most of your guys are very very young competing against very experienced senior level guys. Its pretty natural for young wrestlers to struggle. A lot of the guys who have medalled in Iran's team have been competing at U23 circuit for 2 or even 3 years now. Karampour, Khari, Rahmani and Yousefi being notable examples. U23s is a big step up from U20. If anyone thinks guys like Basset and Lilledahl aren't future world medalists you would be lying to yourself. Also you guys sent a weaker team this year compared to last year for some reason. Why wasn't PJ Duke competing for the spot at 70? I also feel the excessive publicity and film that surrounds your guys has a negative impact tbh. Basset has been surrounded by media since he was like 15 so much so even guys in Iran knew about him at junior levels. I honestly like a lot of the US guys more so than the Russian team. Khaniev and Akhmadinov spent more time on the floor sleeping then wrestling against our guys. At least you guys wrestle to the final whistle.

All times Eastern, with local times in parenthesis. Saturday, October 31: Sacred Heart at Hofstra, 2:00 PM Western Wyoming at Wyoming, 4:00 PM Sunday, November 1: Air Force, Bloomsburg, Bucknell, Clarion, Ohio State, Utah Valley at Clarion Open, hosted by Clarion, 9:00 AM Drexel, Edinboro, LIU, Mercyhurst at Mercyhurst Invitational, hosted by Mercyhurst, 9:00 AM Army West Point, Binghamton, Brown, Franklin & Marshall, Lehigh, Penn, Princeton, Rider, Stanford at Princeton Open, hosted by Princeton, 9:00 AM Appalachian State, Campbell, Chattanooga, Davidson, Gardner-Webb, George Mason, Illinois, Maryland, NC State, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia Tech, West Virginia at Southeast Open, Salem, VA, 9:00 AM Bellarmine, Cal Poly, Lock Haven, Morgan State, Navy, Pittsburgh, Virginia at Navy Classic, hosted by Navy, 10:00 AM Gardner-Webb, Little Rock, Oklahoma State, SIU Edwardsville at Cowboy Invitational, hosted by Oklahoma State, 11:00 AM (10:00 AM) Kent State at Purdue, 1:00 PM American vs. Central Michigan at CSU Bakersfield, 2:00 PM (11:00 AM) Michigan at VMI, 2:00 PM Bloomsburg vs. Wisconsin at Kenosha, WI, 3:00 PM (2:00 PM) Mary at North Dakota State, 3:00 PM (2:00 PM) Northeastern State at Oklahoma, 3:00 PM (2:00 PM) American at CSU Bakersfield, 4:00 PM (1:00 PM) Central Michigan at CSU Bakersfield, 6:00 PM (3:00 PM) Bucknell at Iowa State, 7:00 PM (6:00 PM)

BO BASSETT 65KG WORLD CHAMPION!!!!!!!!!

Or like me!

We finally got ourselves a 65er!

That'd work ... but would Carl let them go up against an opponent from a top team so early in the season.

The only thing he is getting closer to by the day is the world championships.

Reading 7 to 8 paragraph posts is not fun.

Matsavant.com has match histories, free without intrusive ads

I was watching this interview which I highly recommend and David talks about how at points in his career where he made his greatest strides he always had someone at his weight that was pushing him (Kyle, JB, Yazdani). It got me thinking about this crop of guys at 133 and how for one of them to truly emerge above the others as the clear guy what they are going to have to do, but at the same time how much better each of them is going to make the other and I think it could very well create the best American wrestler we have ever seen.

Dake wins with a flurry TD at end! 6-3!! Wow. To finals at 86kg. This is nuts.

Bo. My God, what a match. Down 10-3 at the break to Magomedov, Bo comes back to win 14-13.

man if only PSU could get a call.....

Good luck today, LJB

Joey Baker, Navy vs Nick Fanthorpe, ISU blood match for seventh place in 2008. Match took over a half hour with all the down time. Credit to Tony Rotundo

Yes Fix was very much worth watching for the first decade of his college career. Not so great towards the end.

because it makes it an exhibition. from this year alone - 106 - Bartlow and Deputy was for nothing. they are two weight classes apart - 113 - Analu Woode didn't make weight - 138 - the last major Mangano wrestled was at 144, last December, and he took 6th. i guess there's a chance he goes 138 this year but i highly doubt it. - 157 - Crosson and Romero was basically for nothing because..... - 165 - Howard and Miller are not the same weight so that was for nothing. Howard is 157 in two weeks. Shepherd (150) and Mastny (190/215) aren't even wrestling in high school. (and yes, i cosigned the Shepherd bout so there's some hypocrisy on my behalf there but there really was no other match to make). There's also some guys who flat out didn't earn the right to go for the #1 spot. To me you should have to have made a case why you deserve it. a lot of people can beat the #1 on any given day but what did you do to earn the shot? i can't argue with your interests....everyone likes what they like. but it indeed has turned into an exhibition as opposed to determining a preseason #1.

Spectacular showing from Lee. No wrestling the past 16 weeks. He genuinely looked like he finally found his inner peace and knows what the latest tear may very well mean. If that's it then god speed he is mentally as tough as they get for everything he has battled and kept coming back for more.

just wanted to drop in and make a comment amidst all the miserable nerds squabbling about any number of things today... super pumped for Lee... been watching that kid since the cadet days... so pleased for him to finally get his senior gold medal...

Congratulations to both of them. RBY is going through a hard time with his mother at the moment and a kid on the way, to show out like he did is impressive.

It’s not just sports; It’s international competition. Would you pull against an American in the Olympics? Your statement couldn’t be more inaccurate in International Sports. That flag means everything. I want the USA to be the best in everything. I’m blown away that any of you would consider any other way at this level.

Its not just between them. He sold camps and built a brand around being a Christian role model. You dont get to do that, make the mistake he did and pretend it didnt happen. I wouldnt want my mistakes broadcast either but I didnt build a brand around being a devout Christian and nothing ive ever done is even close to paying to cheat on my wife on mother's day weekend. Hell of a wrestler but he can miss me with the Christian schtick. Forever.

Bassett was just ONE POINT away from being teched by Magomedov... but even after the break, the Russian was sucking oxygen deeply into his intake! Mags fuel tank was rapidly going towards "E"... D3

65kg bo vs magomedov and 97kg snyder vs sadulaev were both AMAZING matches bo stuck in there and wore him down. still gives up too many points haphazardly, but you can't fault his mentality or results really proud of snyder. i feel like this is the first win over sadulaev in a long while (discounting injury victories) where he was really just strategically and tactically so sound the whole way through amazing start for team USA, and both very winnable semis

Unless your Rocco...

This is why I don't consider Penn State to be as successful as a team like Oklahoma State in the truest sense. Hiding to manufacture ideal conditions is the opposite of what wrestling stands for.

Grade Report Time A+ | Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion B- | Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history D | inflation, and make America affordable again A- | Make America the dominant energy producer in the world, by far! B | Stop outsourcing, and turn the United States into a manufacturing superpower A | Large tax cuts for workers, and no tax on tips A | Defend our Constitution, our bill of rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms D | Prevent World War Three, restore peace in Europe and in the middle east, and build a great iron dome missile defense shield over our entire country -- all made in America B- | End the weaponization of government against the American people B | Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders C+ | Rebuild our cities, including Washington D.C., making them safe, clean, and beautiful again. B | Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world A | Keep the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency A | Fight for and protect social security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age A- | Cancel the electric vehicle mandate and cut costly and burdensome regulations B+ | Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children B+ | Keep men out of women's sports C | Deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again C | Secure our elections, including same day voting, voter identification, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship F | Unite our country by bringing it to new and record levels of success Solid B- with the biggest pain to citizens is the cost of the war in Iran. Finish the war and stop meddling to bring down costs.

Jim Kelly.

Just finished S2:E1 of Stilly Boys. It's honestly just unbelievable. Behind the scenes access to the program and the documentary style series is, if nothing else, just a joy to watch. I remember coming up and desperately trying to find wrestling content to consume. This often led to watching Vision Quest because there wasn't much else out there. This is just a shout out to how cool it is for DT and the program to put such a professional quality content out for free. Will any other coaches be willing to admit that it's a great idea and recruiting tool and follow suit? Which teams would you actually be interested/willing to sit down and watch a series on? And before @ionel says it.. Yes, the PSU dodgeball doc would be legendary.

I also posted on this issue, asking if the US is a responsible host. Both your post and my own have been read over 200 times, and curiously enough, neither one has even one comment. I wanted to leave a comment on this post to let you know that I think the entire global wrestling world should be in an uproar over this issue, and the total lack of interaction on this issue is maddening. The attitude of "ignore it and it will go away" is unacceptable. I ask readers to imagine the reaction on these forums if a wrestler from the US were denied a visa in a country holding a UWW competition. The UWW should inform the US government and USAW that future tournaments will not be scheduled in the US if they continue their petty visa refusal policy for age level wrestlers. One can understand US policy in fearing overstays, but the letter from the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) clarifying the issue should have been enough to immediately change the situation. I guess we set the precedent during the World Cup in soccer when the athletes from Iran were not permitted to sleep in the US and had to travel back and forth to Mexico between competitions. Sport is supposed to transcend politics and bring people together. Congratulations to Iran for taking the U23 team title in both Freestyle and Greco Roman.

grndat

184- Waylon Cressell 141- Raney 149- Seth Mendoza is ten, but I’m uber high on him. 157- Daniel Cardenas 165- Noah Nininger 165- Alessio Perentin 197- Justin Rademacher 285- Cade Ziola

You're concerned that a relatively young adult smoked weed and isn't capable of training and leading people? I mean I have led teams of 250 scientists across the globe and good god I did way worse things in my 20s.

57kg: Kicking things off with what to me is one of the least interesting weights of the tournament. 57kg in general can lead at times to more competitive matches than one may originally assume and if anyone has a bad cut it could skew results, however I think this is Lukes weight to lose by a decent margin. Ozdamirov may be some peoples pick to challenge Luke or potentially even win however I do not think that match is at all competitive. Ozdamirov had a great u20’s last year but he was by no means dominant and had been teched a euros. Luke has also wrestled Russia’s senior rep and was winning with short time left and I do believe he has improved marginally since then. Bagirov, Rohit, and Bazarbayev are the other medal threats in my eyes, and I think Bazarbayev may be my pick to wrestle Luke in the finals and I can see that being a close match score wise. Bazarbayev largely competed at 61kg this year where he did not find a ton of success but was in some really close matches with very good guys. He has a 5-3 loss to Tavitov, a 3-0 loss to Abakarov and a 6-2 loss to Mehkitikanov up at 61kg. Bazarbayev has not wrestled scratch 57kg since 2023 u20’s where he DNP’d but did take silver in 2022. If the cut is ok I think he is probably my silver medal pick over Ozdamirov. Gold: Luke Silver: Bazarbayev Bronze: Ozdamirov Bronze: Bagirhov 61kg: This weight will be fun to watch, there are a lot of guys that I view as being very comparable however I do think Davino is head and toes above the field. Mukaida to me probably has the greatest ability to pull off an upset against Ben simply because of his offense but I think the most likely outcome is that Ben’s positioning is to good and Mukaida makes mistakes that allow Ben to blow it open. Mukaida’s accomplishments are 2x Meji cup runner up which is part of japans senior team qualification process as well as bronze at u23’s last year jax beat him 15-5. Begoyan, Zangaladze, Lopes, Atainov, Allahverydiev , Ozbek are the other medal contenders in my eyes. Begoyan gave Marcus his toughest match at u20’s last year but he acted like a POS and the ref was letting him get away with some crazy stuff I will not be rooting for him but he is certainly tough, he was selected for Armenias spot over Levik Mikelyan who is a 2x u23 euro champ. Zangaladze is the man who teched Ozdamirov at euros but ended up moving up to 61 for u20’s last year. Atainov teched Knox last year at u20’s and took bronze at u20’s he also won u23 asian gold but it was against a very weak field. Matty Lopes is a real wild card for me here. I am expecting big things from him during the NCAA season and I think this could be a glimpse at a potential breakout season. Gold: Davino Silver: Mukaida Bronze: Lopes Bronze: Begoyan 65kg:I think people are downplaying a bit how good this dield is, the flow guys mentioned that Bo likely will not have many competitive matches here and while that could be true I believe he could be in some dog fights with a bad draw. Jaskaran singh won the takiti cup last year despite being under a 3 year suspension I am not entirely sure why he thought he could wrestle but it is a notable result. Also of note is it would seem he got the spot over Kumar Mohit who won u23 Asians. Kaiji Ogino is very good and I think he has a style that matches up well against Bo I am not sure however that he can hold a pace. It seems like people are doing wrestling math and because Real beat him 9-1 last year Bo will steamroll him but I would urge you to rewatch Oginos match with Real and I also believe that was a better version of Real than Bo beat recently. Oginos results include a 7-3 win over Nishiuchi at the emperors cup. Nishiuchi is very good he beat Lilledahl a few years ago he lost to Bashir 7-5 and Sujeet 3-2 at u23’s last year. Ogino’s last two losses are 3-1 and 3-2 to Kiyooka. The other two guys in my eyes to watch out for are Akhmadudinov of Russia and Maghamedkhanov presumably of Russia by the way of Belarus. Akhmadudinov was second at Russian nationals this year losing to Abasghadzi but does have a win over Abasghadzi in the past. Magomedkhanov won euros this year and was bronze last year at 61kg losing to Blaze 15-4, he wrestled Nachyn Kuular who can be very good at times to a 6-4 loss in a ranking series event. Gold: Ogino Silver: Akhmadudinov Bronze: Bassett Bronze: Magomedkhanov 70kg: Will not be talking a ton about Jordan Williams hope he proves me wrong, but I do not think he is much of a contender here. There are 3 guys that immediately stand out here. Gaidarli, Eltemirov, and Elahi. All 3 of the guys are age group medalist and I believe on their best day could medal at seniors. Picking who would win out of the 3 is a coin flip but my lean would be Gaidarli given recent form and consistency. Some guys I would expect to make some noise are Kahkarov from Kyrgstan he is a fomer cadet world champ and Toprak who has medaled copious amounts of time down at 65kg and is supremely talented for about 90 seconds before his lungs give out. It will be interesting to see if less of a weight cut makes his cardio better. Worth Noting that PJ beat Elahi and Gaidarli last year in two very competitive matches I wanted something to boast about for USA here because I do not think J will is going to supply it. Also of note Gaidarli beat Eltemirov at u23 euros and lost to Baev 2-1 at Seniors Baev may be the favorite to win gold at seniors. Gold: Gaidarli Silver: Eltemirov Bronze: Elahi Bronze: Toprak 74kg: This weight is nasty. The heavy hitters are James, Wagin, Baitukaev, Novoruzov, Kobakhize, LJ Araujo, Ogawa Karamphour. I have seen a lot of predictions for Jayden here, and while that is not crazy I think it is worth noting that Ogawa outplaced Yoshida who beat james at u20’s in the meji cup by two rounds and Wagin was injured at u20’s. Baitukaev has no gas tank but is very very skilled he is a 4x age level medalist and has won age level Russian nationals 6 times. Kobakhize beat Novurozv for bronze at Euros Novuruzov is a former medalist and has been relatively competitive on the senior level. Karampour took silver in a 2024 bracket where Bassett was bronze teching Gaidarli (Gaidarli was not that guy then). He took third at the Dogu this year losing to Monday, He was someone I was very high on after that u20’s but has not met the hype for me but perhaps he has found his weight. Predictions: Gold: Wagin Silver: Ogawa Bronze: James Bronze: Baitukaev 79kg:Low confidence again here for USA but I do like this weight. Chandermohan of Inida is the u23 Asian killer he has won it twice but has done absolutely nothing. Yaprak is the returning silver medalist, he lost to Levi 11-1 in the finals. Saidulov got bronze last year and has done really well in Russia this year taking third at nationals and winning the Kadyrov cup. He lost to Youseffi last year who is also in the field but I think he could reverse that result. The real wild card is Christopher Minto who does not really have any freestyle accolades to point to so we have to go off of NCAA results and the Raf results which were two losses albeit to studs like KOT and Nolf both by 5 points. Kanata Yamaguchi is also in the field, he beat Dee for bronze last year at 74kg and gave Khaniev his best match of the tournament. I think he has a really small stature for 79kg which could either help or hurt him, it is going to be very difficult to get to his legs. Predictions: Gold: Yamaguchi Silver: Saidulov Bronze: Youseffi Bronze: Minto 86kg: I believe we have a 3 horse race here with Sinclair, Balanian, and Asano. Asano seems to have been competing at 92kg where he was 3rd at the emperors cup and 2nd at the meji cup. Balaian is the defending u23 champ and the #3 for russias senior team at what is a deep weight for them. Of course then you have the u20 champ this year Sinclair who I think may be our guy in 2028. Gold: Balaian Silver: Sinclair Bronze: Asano Bronze: Yagan 92kg: Gold: Kurashvili Silver: Rahmani Bronze: Kurugliev Bronze: Bagaev 97kg: Gold: Khaniev Silver: Azimi Bronze: Rademacher Bronze: Poyonov 125kg: Gold: Nezhad Silver: Merill Bronze: Karsanov Bronze: Ronak @Husker_Du @Jon_Kozak @Tyler Perry Always appreciate feedback.

I am incredibly happy for Spencer Lee. Congratulations to him and all close to him. What an amazing accomplishment to add to an already amazing stack of accomplishments. Wish I could shake his hand and say so.

I think the US is very close to clinching. Up by 30.

Bo Bassett is just a cardio merchant who should really be a sophomore senior world finalist at the perennial toughest weight and I for one am disgusted

Greetings guy. I am just at awe with the depth of everyone's knowledge in wrestling. I follow Iran's wrestling, being from Iran, at a high level. But the type of information you guys share in this forum is super amazing. I have commented in different sports forums and most of the times the level of discussion is trash talking and no technical points are ever exchanged. I just want to say that you guys are super amazing and super knowledgeable about the sport. This goes to both the Iranian and non Iranian commenters.

vibes were high in there, there was a mutual understanding that we were all there to watch wrestlers duke it out. theres a lot of small things (i can detail them more) but these were my off-mat highlights: tons of fans of all nations. iranians, armenians, russians, kyrgyz, puerto ricans, indians, uzbeks, probably way more that i didn't see, cheering for their country. ton of iranians flags, saw two armenian flags. few wrestler families supporting their kids, including the Bassett family, actually walked by them coming in. believe both families of jaskaran vs. bassett were present, the duality of jaskaran's family cheering and going nuts while bassett's family watched him lose after hanging a US flag over the railing was... a lot of "red/blue passive!" from the audience, basically the international version of yelling stalling. at some point, someone went "yellow passive!" and everyone laughed LOL. also heard "both passive!" all that yelling you hear in international competition? it's actually a dude (probably russian) from the stands screaming at the top of his lungs. pretty sure the wrestlers heard them more than their actual coaches. at one point, a group of kyrgyz dudes sat behind me and my brother to cheer on one specific kyrgyz wrestler and waved to him like they were friends (i think they were just fans). tons of wrestlers casually sat down in the stands and watched if they finished up (or were eliminated) for the day. Iran's Ebrahim Khari (61kg bronze) and Ahoura Khateri (65kg gold), strolled in and shook the hands of the iranian fans like it was an everyday thing! khari actually sat in front of me during saturday's finals; i didn't get a chance to speak to them but WOW that probably ain't happening at any other level. i saw khateri take a picture with some kids as we were leaving, he's cool like that. i'll post the on mat separately, gotta sift through the matches i saw/remember. biggest thing was how personal it felt; everyone knew everyone, and if you didn't you were still included. very cool!

Bad tournament all around leads me to think that logistics was a contributing issue, which wouldn't be the first time this would be an age group worlds issue for USAW. LL is probably nowhere near peak fitness. He already did that for NCAAs + senior run earlier this year, he probably wound down for the summer to recover, and has the same 6 month run ahead of him beginning in about 30 days. He's still a senior medal level wrestler. Bassett's losses will hopefully be motivation and build match tactics wisdom. Better U23s than senior worlds if he has to take a tough loss and DNP. And it was rightfully called out that while Woods medaled last year, he was a butthair from not even making it to Final X last year and took multiple losses since he earned a world medal. Basset is hyped to be the chosen one just like Kolat and Mocco and DT were, but his career is just beginning. Jayden James looked good, but he's young compared to the field and it showed at times. He will be a-ok and probably repping the senior team by the team he finishes his 6 in 5 NCAA career. It's awesome that the new normal expectation is Team USA wins every weight and team title, but it's not realistic. Sometimes we need to be humbled and reminded that the rest of the world is really, really, really good at wrestling.

Davino 10-0 over Mukaida who I thought was the second best guy at the weight.

Does it look like the Wisconsin commits are in a shopping buggy to anybody else?