Lucho

It seems strange to me why at 55 and 63kg greco we kept flip flopping between guys and now at 70kg freestyle we also decided to do the same as well. In saying that Amir Mohammad Yazdani is the best 70kg in Iran as his floor is a lot better than the other guys even if his ceiling is not as good. So the coaches choosing him is not actually that ridiculous. What is bizarre is at 55kg greco where neither Dadmarz nor Shamsipour made the team and its instead Payam Ahmadi the guy who just won u20 Asians. I feel like our coaches are trying to reinvent the wheel with our selections at times. Either the guy that won the selection the first time should be the rep or don't hold selections with such promises. What benefit does it provide Keshtkar at 63 if he made the team, lost the spot and then just made the team again with less than 2 months until worlds. It's only setting them up for failure.

Hedayati and Yousefi wrestled each other and Hedayati won who then lost to Mirzazadeh to make the world team this year. Basically its because he can't beat who is in front of him domestically. Its honestly scary how much depth is in our heavyweights nowadays in both freestyle and greco. Yousefi is also already a world champ so its not like he his career has been wasted. Who knows he might end up winning a couple more world/olympic medals in the coming years just maybe not for Iran unfortunately.

I doubt Yazdani is going to make 86kg again especially if the doctors are telling him not to. Apparently Ramazanov is moving up to 92kg this year so its possible we will see a Yazdani-Ramazanov rematch in the very near future (2026) if the rumours are true. I'm interested to see Firouzpour wrestle him as he has already beaten Naifonov and Kurbanov. Hopefully he can avenge Yazdani's loss to him in the olympics. This also makes 86kg pretty open. Kadimagomedov, Kadiev, Ghasempour and Valencia all competing will be fun to watch.

Fair enough its just that 97kg is going to be stacked with Snyder, Tazhudinov, Yoshida and Sadulaev in the mix. Its very possible 1 or 2 of those guys don't medal depending on how ends up on what side of the bracket. Unless Azarpira has the tournament of his life its quite possible he will face two of Snyder/Sadulaev/Yoshida/Tazhudinov in the quarters/semifinals at least. Can he beat 2 of them back to back is my concern.

Thanks for that. Just saw Azarpira beat Bazri to make worlds team, I really have high hopes for Azarpira medalling this year at worlds but it will be tough. I'm just surprised it was such a close match (3-0). Is Bazri really that good or did Azarpira wrestle poorly? Bazri seems to have quite a lot of support within Iranian wrestling circles like Goleij and Babaei but I never considered him to be a contender for a worlds spot. I know he is a junior silver medalist but he is 27 and hasn't really impressed apart from that. It doesn't look good for Azarpira imo especially 2 months out of worlds.

Does anyone know what's going to happen with the international competitions? Is Iran still sending teams to U17 worlds, U20 Asians and the Hungary ranking series? I imagine we would be sending guys to Zagreb for worlds but I only know that Iran's greco team isn't going to the Hungary ranking series apparently.

I didn't know UWW had a process for this. However, I don't see Iran letting Masoumi leave without him renouncing his citizenship or something drastic even if Armenia or whichever country gives them some cash under the table. Ghasempour didn't do that when he was behind Yazdani at 86kg. Also with UWW tightening the regulations for 2028 and beyond I doubt there would be many countries he could realistically join, Bahrain already has Tazhudinov and he is around Masoumi's age. Azerbaijan have 95 transfers already so its either Qatar or Armenia that realistically could sign him.

At 79kg I would say Akhmed Usmanov is the best and 65kg Mammedov/Kiyooka are the best guys. I only really see 125kg, 92kg and 86kg as weights we can realistically win gold in.

Realistically I doubt Dabir will let him leave unless the federation gets some sort of compensation. Masoumi isn't Ali Arsalan he is arguably top 2 or at the very least top 3 125kg in the world. If he does leave he will be out of competition for 2-3 years. In wrestling that's a long time and there's no guarantee he will be able to win medals once he can come back. We've seen it with Gable Steveson. This sport doesn't wait for anyone.

Since moving up from 67kg he has looked really solid. I hope he ends up winning a medal this year at worlds but from memory 72kg is surprisingly quite stacked with a lot of contenders. Him and Firouzpour are really the only two I can think of that have stepped up from the recent crop of U23s (apart from Masoumi) into the senior level.

I was really hoping AM Yazdani would have made the world team but it looks like it wasn't meant to be. I don't really know why we struggle so much to find a proper 74kg rep. Emami is going to lose badly at worlds this year.

The list of athletes for the Ulaanbaatar Open has come out. Iran has sent some guys in both FS and GR. 70kg: Mohammad Ali Amouzad and Aliakbar Fazli 74kg: Hossein Abouzari, Amir Mohammad Yazdani and Younes Emami 79kg: Fariborz Babaei 97kg: Ahmad Bazri 55kg: Pouya Dadmarz and Armin Shamsipour 60: Ali Ahmadi Vafa 63: Mohammad Keshtkar 67: Gholamreza Abdevali, Mohammad Reza Gholami and Mohammad Mehdi Gholampour 72: Danial Sohrabi 77: Alireza Abdevali and Ahoura Bouveiri Piani 82: Ghloamreza Farrokhi, Mohammad Ali Geraei and Mohammad Naghousi 87: Alireza Mohmedi 97: Alireza Mirzajani, Amir Hossein Moradiyan and Mohammad Seydi Avendi 130: Amir Hossein Abdevali and Morteza Alghosi I'm not sure why we didn't send more FS guys considering greco sent guys in all weights. Its nice to see new faces in the greco scene (I think they are prepping the junior guys) whilst our freestyle coaches are being incredibly opaque with how the selection process is.

Rasoul Khadem can also be in the conversation for this as well. He had a pretty good record against one of the GOATs Makharbek Khadartsev. He got gold and bronze at the olympics and is a 2x world champ.

The name of the indian is Jaskaran Singh. You can watch the finals match between him and Yasin Rezaei on an iranian youtube channel called Iransport it also shows the 57kg finals. Amir Mohammad Yazdani moved up to 74kg now and he will be competing at Takhti cup today. He also went to Yarygin and got bronze but he still has a lot to work on imo if he wants to become a contender at 74kg.

There were some interesting results in most of the weight classes tbh. Ahmad Bazri winning 97kg beating Goleij in the quarters and Fariborz Babaei beating Mahdi Yousefi in the final was also an upset. The indian 65kg is an Asian junior champ but I don't think he has had any senior level success. I think he is coached by Amir Tavakolian and Komeil Ghasemi which probably explains why he was so good. Yasin Rezaei continues to be such an inconsistent wrestler he reminds of Amir Mohammad Yazdani. Sometimes his super offensive style works and other times it ends up costing him matches. In saying that though Jaskaran Singh genuinely could be really that good and be a dark horse contender for a world medal in Zagreb.