Lucho

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.

If Dake can bulk up before Final X I can see him beating Valencia, if not I don't think he can. Valencia has filled himself out as a true 86kg and has arguably the greatest 86kg in Taylor coaching him.

From what I've seen against Iranian guys (Azarpira and Rahmani) he was mainly using his strength against them to control centre. Him and Vafaeipour both start off strong but fizzle off due to their poor gas tanks. Do I think Valencia is a bad wrestler? Absolutely not and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins gold this year at worlds but he is definitely not a technician by any stretch of the imagination.

I honestly don't really rate him that much and he sort of reminds me of Zahid Valencia. He doesn't seem that good technically and just tries to physically out muscle guys. I think he alternates between 86 and 92kg at least in the league so I'm not sure what weight he will compete in. Regardless I think he would probably podium but not win the tournament. I would think one of Noruzian, Soheili, Rahmani and Soleimanian will probably have their breakout tournament and win it. The more pressing question is if Ghasempour isn't competing does that mean he can't make 86kg? I would really like him to make 86kg as that would make our team really stacked but I also don't think its going to happen...

Apparently Nonoka Ozaki (Olympic silver) and Kaisei Tanabe (Asian champ) came to Iran recently for a week long training camp with our freestyle guys which is quite cool to see. I hope some of our guys also go to Japan for a training session as well. I'm not too familiar with WFS so I can't comment too much on Ozaki but I have watched Tanabe wrestle before and its interesting to see he apparently was training with Amouzad and the other Iranian 65s. I have a feeling he could be the guy Amouzad could face in Zagreb for worlds. Also Ebrahimzadeh is wrestling at 70kg at Takhti whilst Ghasempour and Savadkouhi are not competing. It will be interesting watching 70kg considering Sina Khalili, Mohammadreza Shakeri and I think Mohammadali Amouzad will also be competing at that weight. With Ghasempour and Savadkouhi out then Abolfazl Rahmani should win by a considerable margin at 86kg unless I'm forgetting someone.

Mirzazadeh is like 25/26 years old and Yousefi is 27 I think. Relatively speaking for 130kg Greco they are still quite young. I think your analysis is pretty spot on regarding the three. However, since UWW might be changing the passivity rules for the worlds and olympics Mirzazadeh might be at a disadvantage. Especially since Yousefi and Hedayati have both looked really really good recently. But given Greco's trajectory in recent years it would be hard to see anyone aside from Iran having strong enough 130s to challenge any of these three. The only prospects I can think of would be Hamza Bakir of Turkiye, the U20 Ukrainian and another junior Hungarian as potential threats. Even Semenov is like 30 so he could still be around for a couple more years but I don't see him drastically improving at 33/34 to beat these guys entering their primes.