Shibboleth

You can only change your competing nationality once.. so if Russia-Bulgaria transfer is complete (and I assume it can't be rolled back if the money is paid, documents exchanged etc), then Mamedov is stuck with Bulgarian wrestling nationality forever.

Mamedov was clearly angry with the Russians for not letting him compete in Paris. I assume that he made a deal with Russians - he was missing the Olympics due to political pressure and in return they were signing the letter of attestation (so letting him leave Russian Federation). All the injury talk is distraction. He did not take part because he was moving countries. He hasn't represented Russia after Seprember 2023 - 2 full years. Last year, or maybe earlier, he started the process for changing federations to Bulgaria, which paid at least 260,000 USD, and most probably much more informally, to Russia. Then at some point leadership in Bulgarian federation changed and they don't want the transfers to represent Bulgarians - only locals. We are in this moment - now if you have a solution please present one.

Here's the quote from the Bulgarian Federation: The naturalization of Shamil Mamedov is a result of decisions of the previous leadership of the federation and does not affect the current leadership. Although he is a sure medalist of major championships and has a high sports class, he is not registered in the federation and will not be registered by the current leadership. This is in accordance with the policy that is consistently implemented - to impose and develop Bulgarian athletes. https://www.bul-wrestling.org/новини/11101-позиция-на-българската-федерация-по-борба-относно-казусите-с-ален-хабулов-цска-георги-иванов-димитровград-и-шамил-мамедов So it sounds like unless Bulgarian Federation leadership (or their position) changes, forget the 2026 worlds -- Shamil Mamedov will never get to wrestle a competitive match in a UWW tournament, or even inother tournaments which would demand a say-so from the national federation from the country he is registered under.

Said who? Wasn't Bulgaria one federation that tried to block all the transfers or even transferred athletes like Ramazanov and Novikov? -- why would they allow new transfers in their team, particularly from Dagestan?

Did Iran announce their U23 team for the U23 worlds next month? They didn't compete at the U23 asians so hard to say who is on that team

Yea let's say Geno is out of the picture, maybe not formally retired. He's 100% not going past 2028. Same with Gable, he may try LA olympics but that's it for freestyle wrestling for him. Parris is out of the picture as well for now. As for Hendrickson I think he's #3 in the world now, after Zare and Masoumi. Maybe #3 Iranian (who is that?) can challenge him? I don't think so. As for the rest - Deng I think is also retired. He's 37. Kurbanov, the 3x Russian champ, Henrdickson teched the only time they met. Manashvili I think he'll manhandle. I think Meshvildishvili will give him a good match but lose on points. I think he's clear #2 this year - and before Masoumi and Zare both compete, and before maybe Geno comes back or someone else enters the fray. The new Turkish big guys are promising, and also Kurbanov may actually improve

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.

Here is the relevant clause: 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.

Yea, I meant to say that Iran won't wrestle because their country is bombed, they can't get out of the country, they consider that wrestling is not something that's important now, etc. Altough Palestine participates in sports tournaments even though their country is half destroyed and torn apart. Iran doesn't wrestle Israel because they don't recognize it and don't want to legitimize it via competing. (neither does most of the Arab world, but they still wrestle Israel). Iran recognizes US and they will wrestle -- whenever Iran is back in competition. Russia wrestles Ukraine (and Ukraine wrestles Russia). They don't shake hands though - that could also be modus vivendi for Iran-US matches.

I don't think they will show up this year.

Wonder if Iran withdraws from international competitions now

Of course there's an out in case of Russia. How do you think Mamiashvili got his house, car, etc? You pay the bribe to your former federation so they sign off on your transfer. It's an open secret.

2:0 Lee 1:2 McKenna 0:2 Diakomihalis 0:2 Mesenbrink 2:0 Haines 2:0 Dake 0:2 Hidlay 0:2 Snyder 0:2 Hendrickson 0:2 Jimenez 2:1 Taylor 0:2 Rodriguez 2:0 Maroulis 2:0 Winchester 0:2 Miracle 2:0 Kilty 0:2 Blades NC 0:2 Welker

https://sportaran.com/en/post/otec-amirreza-masumi-pomimo-armenii-est-i-drugie-varianty/

They used to. a few famous Russians wrestled for Armenia in late years in their careers. Khadzhimurad Gatsalov and Georgy Ketoev did. Armenia's last medalist at heavyweight is also an import - Levan Berianidze, a Georgian. Bronze in 2017 world. I think he's retired now as he probably weights way something closer to 150 kg or more.

+2 or more? Ghasempour may be really ghassed at 86 scratch weight. I think these wrestle-offs must happen at scratch as well...

57 KG Liam Cronin

Hard to imagine him coming back. He's way over 79 kg at this point. Coming back at 86 vs Dake and Marsteller is even worse

He is, he's a world team member at for 2023 and 2024. There are I think 3 or 4 WT members at each weight. There are probably around 20-30 wrestlers qualified for each weight I assume. If you got a lot of free time you can make lists for each criteria - they are here 2023 Senior Men’s Freestyle World Team Member 2024 Senior Men’s Freestyle National Team Member 2024 U23 Men’s Freestyle World Medalist 2024 U20 Men’s Freestyle World Medalist **2024 U17 Men’s Freestyle World Champion** (must be age-eligible) November 2024 Armed Forces Men’s Freestyle World Medalist **Top 4 U.S. finisher at the November 2024 Bill Farrell International** (if not already qualified) Medalist at February 2025 UWW Ranking Series events #1 or #2 Top 3 finisher at the March 2025 NCAA Division I Championships Top 7 finisher per weight class at the April 2025 Senior Men’s Freestyle U.S. Open Championships Medalist at the May 2025 Senior Pan American Championships p.s many young athletes have already signed in on this -- Lockett, Duke, Bassett I think, maybe Mirasolas

All but one finalist (Nachyn Mongush of Tuva, a region close to Mongolia, so Asia) are from the Caucasus region - Dagestan, Ossetia, Georgia and Armenia. The Azeri finalists are also transplants. Turkey in particulare has regressed spectacularly, and bona fide Europe is basically done with freestyle, there's nothing you can do about it. Sorry there is also Chechnya - all the "French" wrestlers are Chechen migrants into France. They are a bit different from other transplants, as they have moved to France in childhood or were even born there (so are 2nd gen migrrants) from the 1990s Cheechen war. As for others like -- Tuskaev, Abakarov, Valiev, Kurugliev, Tazhudinov, Shapiev, Osman Nurmagomedov, Salkazanov, Tsabolov, Ramazanov, tens of others --- these are basically Dagestanis or Ossetians with passports of other countries. They have little or no connection with the country they represent.

Thanks.. So here's the rundown: 57 - Ali Momeni - same as Zare - if he wins Takhti he's in, otherwise, winner of Takhti will face Momeni at int'l tournament or face to face 61 - Ahmad Mohammadnezhad is skipping all the trials and is shoo in 65 - Rahman Amouzad - similar do 61 Amouzad is in 70 - Shakeri and Momeni are in pole for this. If someone else wins Takhti, that someone else will have to have playoffs with the better of the former two (this makes sense?) Also, where is AM Yazdani 74 - Emami - same treatment as Momeni. 79 - Nokhodi in pole position. So, if Yousefi wins Takhti he'll get playoff with Nokhodi, but 1 down. (so it's like best of 3 but Yousefi starts 0-1, so he was to win 2 in a row). If someone else wins then that someone else has to go through Yousefi first (at a ranking tournament) and then same best-of-3 arrangement with Nokhodi. I guess Nokhodi is exempt from Takhti considering he was recently operated. There was some clause about Babaei which I don't quite understand. 86 - Ghasempour has the arrangement similar to Momeni and Emami 92 - Firouzpour is in without trials (like 61, 65) 97 - Azarpira exempt from Takhti due to injury/recovery. Winner of Takhti has to prove himself at a ranking tournament and then get the playoff vs Azarpira, best of 3 down 0-1 (similar to 79 kg) If I understood it correctly - If Goleij specifically wins Takhti, then he gets to prove it through 1 ranking tournament and then compete with Azarpira at another ranking t. (?) I didn't understand this bit. 125 - Zare - Arrangement similar to Momeni, Emami, Ghasempour

Can you link the full procedure? Iran wrestling proodecure is as Byzantine as it gets lol

This from Iran's 2022 WTT -- Masoumi is what 17? lost 11-3. This is when he went a bit over the board with the shenanigans. This is from ranking series last year. It's closer in terms of score, but not really. I can't find the 3rd one.

What is the h2h then? I think Masoumi lost to Zare once at an international tournament and then a couple times internally?

No there is no one. There's probably Tier 1 with Zare and Masoumi and then Tier 2 or even Tier 3 guys after that. Zare vs Masoumi, --- Masoumi is yet to beat Zare .I think hes 0-3 or something.