Lucho

How do RAF contracts work is it for a set amount of matches? If so then he can run that contract down and then compete wherever he wants to. But I doubt he will compete in these leagues next year as its so close to the Olympics.

I'm interested to see how team selection is going to work next year as they made big changes to the ranking series allocation points. They might make it mandatory for everyone to compete at Takhti and/or Iran nationals for olympic weights and then do their normal selection for the non-olympic ones. Since best performing wrestlers at ranking series get olympic quotas it doesn't make sense to send a guy who isn't going to be representing Iran at worlds/olympics. What might happen is world medalists sit out and instead the contenders have to win Iran nationals/takhti to then compete against the returning medalist. The winner then gets sent to Asians/ranking series to get ranking points so they can qualify the weight before worlds. Realistically we aren't sending anyone to the US tournament so we only have 2 ranking series we can take advantage of. I'm pretty sure that works as Iran nationals is early in the year and then Takhti is a couple months after that from memory. All these before Asians but maybe too late for the first ranking series.

I'm pretty sure Mohammad Reza Geraei wrestled at 77kg against Askerov. He has moved up by the sounds of things. Mohammad Ali Geraei has wrestled Makhmudov before and beaten him at Asian Games I'm pretty sure but that was when he was much younger. Yousefi is unlucky that he was born in an era where Mirzazadeh and Hedayati compete for Iran. If he wrestled for any other country he would be competing at worlds and olympics. I think Yousefi was Iran's first ever greco super heavyweight world champ. I don't think anyone else had won previously. 5 years later from Yousefi's win, we have had 2 other super heavyweight world champs. The depth is actually wild.

Mohammad Reza Geraei's older brother, Mohammad Ali Geraei also beat Berdimuratov 1-0 off a step out point. Considering their inactivity these are very impressive results. Askerov was a guy the Russians fans wanted to compete at Senior Worlds over Goraiev. Mohammad Reza Geraei wrestles Akzhol Makhmudov next for the PWL belt which is a match I've always wanted to see. Hopefully more of our guys get opportunities to wrestle here especially those who may not have a chance of making the national team anymore. Apparently Ali Akbar Yousefi is competing in the Bundesliga for next season and Snyder is interested to come and wrestle in Iran's league. Snyder coming to Iran would be absolutely insane.

It would probably 7-3 USA right now. USA is very very strong right now. Azimi already has wrestled Hidlay and lost at a ranking series tournament a while ago. Although he lost on criteria so it was a pretty close match. Even at 61 I don't know if Javan beats Blaze again if they wrestle.

He hasn't been wrestling that consistently though. He has been doing BJJ stuff in Dubai I think. But yeah I agree in his prime he was really good and deserved more than he got in wrestling.

I think women's wrestling will keep wrestling in the olympics funnily enough. Women's wrestling has a lot of grass roots investment nowadays with countries from non powerhouse countries investing in the sport. You are seeing western european countries contending for medals and even traditional powerhouses like Turkey, India and US building their women's programs. It's a shame Iran doesn't send a women's team as that would make the competition even better. The big thing the IOC wants is diversity in participation and women's wrestling has that. Compare that to men's freestyle and it's not really a point of comparison.

In other news, Mohammad Ali Geraei is competing in PWL against Berdimuratov who is a pretty experienced guy at international level. Would be cool to see him wrestle again. I wonder where he sits now against the rest of the field internationally. It's kinda wild that I don't even think he might not even be top 3 in Iran at 82 anymore. Apart from Farokhi, Abolfazl Mohmedi is very good. Azarshab and Mokhtari were decent as well. I think Ahoura Bouveiri has moved up to 82 as that's where he has been wrestling in the league. He might not see any chance of beating Abdevali and Oskou for the spot.

People can't expect our freestyle results to be like our greco its completely unrealistic. In freestyle there are far more competitive countries who can win medals compared to greco across the 10 weights. Even the US until fairly recently struggled to field very competitive teams. A lot of iranians are overly critical of Dorostkar and Dabir because of non-sporting reasons but make every excuse possible for guys like Khadem when he didn't deliver. The only time Iran has dominated worlds was I think during the 50s other than that it has never been the case.

You can look back at my previous comments where I have said Khadem wasn't a good coach this isn't a new thing I am saying. But the discussion would be between him and Dorostkar for the coaching position. I value olympic golds over world titles and so would most people. But I do agree with what you have said about Dorostkar overall with regards to worlds results. So overall Dorostkar is better than Khadem and should take the coaching spot.

I've already mentioned Khadem wasn't a good coach. What I'm saying is that success in the Olympics is what matters the most in international wrestling. Dorostkar has shown that he is a good coach and has provided good results but it also helps when the federation has provided a lot of support for its athletes and coaches which wasn't the case under previous coaches. Again we will see how he performs in LA where there will be far more eyes on the sport. If he can out perform Russia, US and Japan in the olympics he is the greatest Iranian coach of all time no question at all. But if he can't get at least one Olympic gold out of Zare, Amouzad, Yazdani and Ghasempour than his quality of coaching should be under question. Iran struggles in the olympics not worlds. Look at the medal count for olympics compared to our worlds and its abysmal. He didn't coach in Paris so I can only judge him after LA.

He has looked a lot better at 65 than 61 imo. His gas tank was worse at 61 when I watched him wrestle. Although it would be better team wise for him to go to 61 I don't want another Ghasempour situation to occur.

You could also put that down to overall support by the federation. The facilities and money in Iranian wrestling now isn't even comparable to 5-6 years ago. But you can't say an Olympic medal isn't more valuable than a world one. Do you think Zare wants another world gold or an Olympic one? What about Yazdani?

Khateri I think will stay at 65 especially after winning u23 worlds. I doubt he will come down. I can see Javan staying at 61 but I think Khateri has out grown 61. Even at 65 he seems quite lanky.

74 will also be interesting next year with Emami, Yazdani and Khalili competing for the spot. I think Elahi more less cements his spot at 70 then. If Javan moves up to 65 who takes his spot? I don't know of any good 61s apart from him.