Lucho

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.

I don't think Rahmani goes down to 86. He will probably be our 92 rep next year though. If Bassett can win worlds at 20 I think Ferasati can also. Ferasati, Afshar and Shamsipour are very very talented guys and I think will only get better in the next 2 years. I'm not sure if Nokhodi wants to move up to 86 permanently. He seems pretty content being a top 2/3 wrestler in the world at 79. As much as Ghasempour wants an olympic medal his best chance was taking 2-3 years bulking up to 97 instead of going up and down in weight. If Yazdani can do it there was no reason Ghasempour couldn't if Ghasempour is as good as everyone says he is in Iran.

I can agree with Rangraz but not with Dorostkar. He hasn't been able to win an olympic gold medal yet. LA and worlds next year is really going to be the litmus test for him. For the record I don't think Khadem was a good coach and his teams were weak. But he helped Yazdani win gold in Rio against Geduev. Our results in olympics are far worse than at worlds which I find quite strange. Comparatively to Russia and USA we severly underperform at the olympics. I hope that starts to change soon.

I think they are similar in the sense their careers never ended up how we all thought they would. Reza Yazdani deserved to be an Olympic champion and it was injuries that prevented him from that success. I also agree with Ghasempour not making LA 2028, I think we will see someone else take his spot. My dark horse pick would be Ferasati. Although there are good 86s coming out of Iran right now Afshar and Shamsipour are decent. Even Nokhodi has shown he is a good 86 kg wrestler.

I think that is a good compromise imo. Also fair enough on Movahed. Although I think at the end of Zare's career he will be above Movahed in overall honours. I think we could also make a discussion on who would be our all time coach in each style. Mohammad Bana should be the greco head coach imo although Hassan Rangraz has been phenomenal until he wins 3 golds at the Olympics Bana takes that spot. Who would be the freestyle head coach? Barzegar, Khadem and Dorostkar from the modern era would be the picks. I'm not too sure on the older eras. But it would have to be between Barzegar and Khadem.