Lucho

If he doesn't compete at 86kg it will be a shame because he is truly one of the best in the world p4p and deserves an olympic gold. I don't think there is anyone on the planet right now at 86kg who can beat him he is way to strong and dynamic for the field. If he doesn't compete at 86kg, I imagine Kadiev will run through worlds Tazhudinov style which will also be fun to watch I guess.

It really seems to be a clash of styles, he is way too one-dimensional and that's what makes it so difficult for him against them. In all fairness the Japanese guy wasn't really trying to wrestle so there wasn't much he could do. Each match of their 65kg trials is going to be an Olympic final. Having Otoguro, Kiyooka, Ogino, Tanabe and potentially Ono all in one weight class is actually stupid.

Oh no I fully understand that the majority of the time it is the athletes wanting to be able to compete at worlds and olympics. These guys are phenomenal competitors and will do anything to get an opportunity at a world/olympic medal. My main frustration comes from the fact that the system in place makes the whole process feel like countries are just buying athletes. If for example these guys genuinely wanted to be qatari, polish or whatever that's fine but after the tournaments are over they come back to their home countries so its not actually like they are contributing to their new country's sport aside from the medals. For example Ali Arsalan who is an Iranian who won a world championship for Serbia trains in Iran during the off-season. I'm fine with coaches from other countries developing the sport but buying athletes devalues the achievement and national pride associated. When the Iranian guys win gold in worlds/olympics their home towns erupt in celebration. I doubt anyone in Poland would care that much if a Dagestani guy wins them a world gold, probably an Olympic gold yes but even then they probably won't be too receptive of that either. given the optics of the situation.

Also on the more frustrating news Aref Mohammadi (Iman Mohammadi's brother) and Shahin Badaghi will be competing for Qatar going forward in Greco. As much as I understand that this is a job for them its ridiculous that countries can buy talent instead of develop it themselves. I know I've already talked about this but a simple alternative can be to just have 2 reps per weight class per country at the world champs. This way the level of the competition is better as we truly have the best guys on the planet competing. No disrespect to any of the athletes of the smaller nations but "international" wrestling is just Russia, Iran and US guys competing for other countries with a sprinkle of the Caucaus and Japan. Regardless Asian champs is going to be interesting...

Its good in a way as our two styles have two different provinces with the majority of the talent. Obviously more competition would be better for the sport overall but having a look Fars and Tehran province didn't do bad at all. IIRC Fars ended up having some guys win senior nationals and Tehran had some junior champions here as well. I just think Mazandaran and Khuzestan have too many high level coaches and clubs compared to everywhere else. Even if one or two provinces have standout guys its nothing compared to those provinces who have like 20 different guys in each weight class. Hopefully the Geraei's get into coaching after their careers are done and we have Shiraz producing more olympic and world medalists. I am silently hoping Kermanshah, Kurdistan and Lorestan start to consistently produce guys as well. Then I think we would match Russia with both quantity and quality of guys.

I've heard that Ghasempour will be competing at 86kg for worlds as he has been called up to the camp as an 86kg rep but he won't be cutting a significant amount of weight until the worlds so he wrestles at 92kg in the ranking tournaments. I really want him to compete at 86kg and Firzoupour at 92kg as they would be clear favourites for gold. I don't think Ramazanov or Valencia are capable of beating him, he is a tier above them. The question is moreso can he even make 86kg or will be weight cut be too much like Azarpira going down to 92kg.

Ahh I think I mixed him up with Yousefi. Regardless I think we should see a wrestle off between Khalili and Elahi for the spot imo. Also the list for Muhamet Malo came out and the team we have sent for both free and greco looks good most of the big names are there (Amouzad, Ghasempour, Zare, Esmaeili, Ali Geraei and Mirzazadeh).

That's a really stupid decision imo. 70kg should be a wrestle off between Elahi and Khalili, Elahi at least deserves a chance given he won Iran nationals and neither of them looked particularly impressive in Zagreb. In fact I would argue Karampour should also be given a chance to compete as well I'm pretty sure he ended up winning U23 worlds last year considering the other two didn't win gold. For 97kg I would like to see Hajiloueian wrestle between Azimi and Babaloo as well. I don't know how Azimi is going to look wrestle well at 97kg when he looked lifeless at 92kg... Dorostkar proving again he has no idea what he is doing and that Reza Yazdani should take over as HC.

I completely agree with you, Greco especially at 130kg is not very competitive internationally. But also look at the last 10 olympics. 8 of them have been won by 2 people. Even in the worlds Riza Kayaalp until fairly recently was winning world champs relatively comfortably in Lopez's absence. Its just very difficult to find guys athletic enough to be not only able to be 130kg but also willing to do Greco over Freestyle. I think Europe isn't where top level Greco is anymore I think it would be fair to say Asia has the most competitive Greco (Iran, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Japan etc). I think Hedayati however can shape up to be a generational talent if he can beat Yousefi and Mirzazadeh in the next 2/3 years he is only 20 years old and I could see him dominate for a decade. But yeah the future of Greco isn't looking very good unfortunately unless other countries start investing more in the sport it could be at risk of getting scrapped in the Olympics.

Greco hasn't had a dominant country since the Soviets because the talent pool was equally distributed amongst the eastern bloc during Soviet era. We can see that now with it being split between Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria etc in terms of top tier wrestlers. In saying that though I would argue Khuzestan which is the province most of Iran's Greco talent is from would be the closest equivalent to a Dagestan or Mazandaran for Greco. I think in the next 5-10 years Iran will pull away and be the best with Azerbaijan and some other countries having contenders in some weight classes. But still I didn't expect one country to have 3 of the top 5 guys in a weight class in the modern era that's just ridiculous.

Semenov got teched by Yousefi. Iran well and truly has the best heavyweights on the planet. What a contest it will be deciding who goes to worlds. Mirzazadeh, Hedayati, Yousefi and Fatihtazangi are all monsters.

I'm all for growing the sport because that means potential for more weights at the olympics and greater product but having countries essentially buy talent is stupid. Why does Azerbaijan who has a strong wrestling program need to bring in Dagestani's? It's just bizarre that this has been allowed for so long and I'm glad they are changing it. You can't take an international tournament seriously when it looks like the re-run of the russian nationals. Unless these guys actually have roots to the countries they are transferring to (i.e, familial lineage) these transfers shouldn't be allowed period. It also undermines local talent development which is much more important for growing a sport from the ground up.

I think domestically public perception is split between Zare and Masoumi for the spot tbh. Kind of like Yazdani and Ghasempour. Personally I think the top 3 heavyweights are Zare, Geno and Masoumi in that order but I can see arguments for Geno over Zare. There is no argument for Masoumi over Zare as Zare has beat him every time when they have wrestled. I think its mainly Mazandarani's rooting for Zare and Gilani's for Masoumi with everyone else like me just wanting to see the best for our guys regardless of who competes. In saying that though 2028 the 125kg olympic qualifiers for Iran might as well be the olympic final...

This ranking series was quite interesting imo with regards to where these guys sit in comparison to the other senior team members. Khalili and Khateri still need more time to grow physically before competing at senior level and the Rezaei brothers need way more time training before they can be counted on for world/olympic level aspirations. At least Yasin tries to do something Ali is a lost cause at 74kg. Unfortunately Azimi still has a long way to go if he wants to be a contender (looks like my hype for him was misguided unfortunately). To my surprise the 61 boys did well though hopefully one of them becomes a medal contender in this weight class. What's quite concerning to me is the crazy number of Russian transfers for other countries it looks like Slovakia and France have imported Ossetia and Chechnya respectively. This isn't good optics for growing the sport unfortunately.

I read somewhere that he is 24 but I think it makes more sense he is 22 I stand corrected. Still I have soft spot for Azimi compared to the other wrestlers in his age range and I think he can do well if given a chance. I guess we will see who is better in Zagreb anyways. I personally rank Azarpira first, Firouzpour second, Azimi third then Hajilouian based on wins and accolades. Babaloo would have been in the conversation if he didn't fall off a cliff in the last 18 months or so but he did end up second in nationals this year so maybe a come back for him? Overall our depth is getting a lot better nowadays so it's actually a good thing a guy like Azimi will be struggling to make the team.