Lucho

Overall I feel like our MFS did quite well and its nice that we won the team title back. Here is my ratings for each of our guys. Ali Momeni (57kg): C-, I don't think he under or over achieved he was never going to beat RBY but I was hoping he might have been able to at least competitive. How much longer do we have to wait for a good 57?? Ahmad Mohamadnezhad Javan (61kg): A-, He navigated his way quite well through to the final (even if it was an easy draw) and showed a lot of fight which I liked, I hope he continues to work hard and stay at this weight class because he might become a consistent medal threat with a couple more years of experience. Rahman Amouzad (65kg): A+, absolutely phenomenal performance in the final against Kiyooka, it seems like he managed the cut better this time around. As many people have already said, when he is on he is unstoppable. Not much more to say about my favourite wrestler. Amirmohammad Yazdani (70kg): F, I don't really have much to say he has been a complete disappointment. Can Ebrahimzadeh or Khalili take his spot for next year so he doesn't embarrass us. He ruins an incredibly good draw and chance for us to get a medal. I don't want to see him competing for us again. Younes Emami (74kg): B, he did well enough to make the repechage and lost what looked like a close match (scoreline) against Salkazanov. He looked rejuvenated, I saw him hit some nice duck unders that he used to do but unfortunately he just doesn't have the quality to compete against the world at 74kg. Mohammad Nokhodi (79kg): C+, for a guy that had won 4 medals at this weight class previously you would hope he can finally get the job done and win gold. Overall a poor showing by him but I think he hasn't had enough time since his surgery. Still doesn't excuse his loss to the Greek guy. Nokhodi has a weird habit of loosing to eventual champions every year, it seems like he is always the second best guy in the world. Hopefully in the future he can get it together and win it all. Kamran Ghasempour (86kg): D, I might be a little harsh but the truth is for a 2 time world champ you can't be performing like that against Valencia. Sure the draw screwed him over a little but the champ wins regardless of who is in front of him. Zahid outmuscled him and completely shut his offence down. He needs a complete re-work of his tactics because that was embarrassing. Amirhossein Firouzpour (92kg): D+, again like Nokhodi and Ghasempour he really should be doing better. How he lost to the Russian guy is beyond me, with Yazdani and Ghasempour's weight situation not certain its quite likely this will be his last worlds for a couple years, he blew his golden shot to win gold. Amirali Azarpira (97kg): A-, Day 1 I think he was an A+ after being Tazhudinov, Day 2 I'm not so sure. Overall, I thought he would win bronze so he over achieved but considering he had beaten Snyder twice previously this was a disappointing result, however he is only 23 so he has enough time to make up for it. Amirhossein Zare (125kg): A+, really not much to say. 3x world champ is not for everyone, he is maturing very well at 125kg and is head and shoulders above everyone else. With Gable going to MMA and Geno hiding there isn't anyone internationally that can challenge him. Considering the oldest guys amongst this group is Ghasempour and Emami who are 28 the future is quite bright for our guys. Obviously 2026 and 2027 worlds are much more telling on how we match up against the rest of the world but so far we outperformed the field. Hopefully our guys use this as motivation to continue to get better and improve.

This is the problem, how are the guys you select underperforming if they are the "right guy" for the weight compared to those who earned it. I feel like they should just do a Final X style of competition to select guys and then send the top 3/5 out to international tournaments for experience. That way no one feels is robbed. They could just make everyone come to Takhti or Nationals. The so called charkhe they have is one of the most bizarre ways of selecting guys I've ever seen.

I watched that match live, it was a deserved win but I don't think that had anything particularly down to the coaching staff. If for example he beat Uguev then I would be saying that there was exceptional coaching at play which helped him. One thing I did like from him though was that he was just quite disciplined and fought hard. His mentality was really good imo and I think we will hear more from him in the future. The coaching staff made the right choice with selecting him. Ali Momeni and Amir Mohammad Yazdani on the otherhand... the less I say the better.

I think he just got out wrestled by Harutyunyan. I'm just as shocked as you tbh. I thought him and Zare were guaranteed gold medals but it looks like you can't bet on light weights at all. Harutyunyan is a super tricky wrestler so its not that surprising he won its just that I would've thought the American strength and conditioning would have kept it a lot closer. Maybe Lee needs to go train at PSU or OSU as Iowa's ability to consistently produce international hammers has diminished in the modern era.

How much of that was due to the bracket though? If he was on the other side the best he could have gotten was bronze and if Ono and Vito were here he wouldn't be medalling. Him and Ahoura Khateri sort of had identical results they both navigated their way to the final only to get dominated by the number one guy in the field. Have we started to develop decent 61s or is it just a fluke result.

The expectation in Iran at least for Firouzpour and Ghasempour was gold. The fact that American guys won rubs more salt in the wound especially in the absence of Yazdani and Ghasempour going down just to lose to Valencia. Every year the expectation is the team title and multiple gold medals especially since both the US and Russia are in a rebuild.

I hope Nokhodi goes to 74 and Ghasempour goes up to 92. As I've been saying Zahid is the kind of guy who could win it all. I don't think anyone is touching him if he continues to have Taylor as his coach. Firouzpour realistically needs to go down to 86kg if he wants to make the team.

Some of these draws are actually ridiculous. 70, 74 and 86kg look like some of the craziest brackets I've ever seen. UWW needs to sort out their seeding policy because how is Valencia, Ghasempour and Kadiev all on the one side of the bracket. Aside from that I don't really see much issue with the draws tbh. Its the world champs not your neighbourhood rec league. All I'm hoping for is that we see everyone in top condition so we get the best wrestling possible. This would have been the best worlds in years if Sadulaev was allowed to compete. A worlds without the GOAT isn't a world championship tbh.

I reckon its the opposite tbh. There is nothing from Emami that suggests he can medal this year whereas Javan is at least younger and with a favourable bracket might be able to pull off an upset or 2. Especially since 61 is weaker this year with Ono out.

I don't think the money is the issue for Iranian guys to come over its moreso the visa situation. In the past high level Iranian athletes have struggled to come to the US and compete in various competitions because of it. Especially with the current climate, I doubt there would be much incentive to ease those restrictions. Of course if RAF could become global it would be amazing for the sport but for the Iranian guys to come the tournaments would have to be in UAE or something kind of like how UFC does it.

Can Yazdani fill out at 97 properly??? Imo he should go to 92 and win a couple more world titles tbh. His legacy wouldn't be ruined by dominating at a non-olympic weight class JB did it and he is one of the GOATS. I just don't think he will be big enough for that weight class especially since Ghasempour struggled to make it as well and he was coming up from 92.

From what I understand is that they made him go to 86kg 2 years too early. I still think he makes the weight relatively easily its just a matter of how well he matches up against Kadik, Kadiev and Valencia which is the issue. His match against Kadiev last year was too close imo and Kadiev should only be getting better. I'm really hoping he beats them all to win gold as that would be an incredibly impressive run and probably the most impressive run for an Iranian ever to win a world/olympic gold tbh.

The problem with the US hosting these tournaments is that its very difficult for Iranian and Russian guys to come and compete. It is also very unlikely that Iranian guys will come over because we already have our own league in place with top Russian guys also competing there as well. RAF will only be a good draw for maybe Japanese and Cuban guys everyone else will be competing in Russia (PWL) or Iran.

No Sadulaev means Tazhudinov murders the whole field on his way to gold. For US and Iran, our chance of medalling increased drastically but it also means worse quality wrestling with him out. Of course anything can happen at worlds but Tazhudinov gives off the kind of aura that Sadulaev has and that guy doesn't lose.

This could either be a stroke of genius or a complete disaster. Payam Ahmadi is great but with such little time for world's this could end up really bad. Also I don't think he would be seeded so he could hit Azizli first round which would be awful. I'm not too sure about this one tbh.

Yeah 65 is an actual mess in terms of predicting who is going to win it every year. I think it also has do to with the fact that the vast majority of countries can field top level guys at that weight class. Compare that to 57 or 125 where the number of elite guys is far less purely due to genetics. It is very unlikely you will find an elite 125 from Japan or an elite 57 from Iran because of that. I also think there is a lot of parity because its pretty much impossible to prep for 8-10 high level guys for a worlds/olympics. Olympics last year had Muszukaev, Dudaev, Amouzad, Retherford, Kiyooka, Rivera, Aliyev, Ochir, Akmataliev and Tevanyan. More than half of the guys in the bracket were world/olympic medalists. That's just stupid depth. So a little under performance in one match can cost you a medal. I think this is where the Russian guys benefit the most because of how nuts their brackets are domestically they are used to it so they better navigate through. Whereas in Iran and US there isn't as much depth domestically so our guys aren't as used to these sort of brackets.

I'm a bit confused. Does this impact his olympic medal then? This is the first time I've heard a US wrestler get popped for PEDs which is kinda crazy to think about. He will be what 27/28 by LA so him being banned is going to have drastic impact on US chances at 86/97kg. I guess by then he will be a filled out 97 so he will have to beat Snyder for the spot I'm guessing unless the US produces anyone better than him in the next 3 years.

I think our greco team is also quite young too. Maybe Saravi and Mirzazadeh being the only guys not u23 eligible.

Is that for freestyle? Apart from Ghasempour, Emami and Amir Mohammad Yazdani think most of them are still eligible for u23 worlds. It's kinda crazy to think about. In saying that though Japan and US both have young teams so it's not that much different.

In more positive news, our greco guys looked better today. Payam Ahmadi and Seydi look pretty solid imo. It looks like it will be a close team race between us and Azerbaijan. I think they have sent 2 guys to the finals like us but they currently have 1 gold. I'm interested to see how our 87kg performs as he literally won u17s a couple weeks ago at 82kg. I hope it's not another Khalili and Rahmani situation where they grind him down by forcing him to compete.

As much as I would like to give our coaches the benefit of the doubt I agree. How come things like visa problems, injuries, etc never impact Russia, US etc but always us? You are the head coach of the national team you are responsible for making sure your guys are prepared and disciplined for worlds. It's literally your job to know when worlds is starting and organising all the logistics. We have no one to blame but ourselves when we lose and under perform. If Russia was included in the rankings we came fourth not even third which is awful. This defeatist mentality plagues us in all aspects of our society not just sport. If you have enough energy to complain and give excuses it means you haven't put enough work in.

I guess that is true. It's just a shame as there are so many phenomenal athletes that won't be able to showcase themselves if it gets removed from the olympics. I personally enjoy both styles equally but I think I'm in the minority here. If greco gets removed from the olympics, the sport will die. Apart from Iran, I dont think any other country will even bother sending proper teams to compete. It will just make freestyle much more competitive which isn't the worse either tbh. It's one of those things that sounds good on paper but is quite difficult to pull off in reality. It's only been kept somewhat alive possible because of the freak athletes who compete in it.

There is a very small chance he wins a senior level gold. I don't even think he will make the senior team any time soon. Light weight is where every country in the world has good wrestlers (aside from us). Even the "second tier" countries have guys as good (at worst) or better guys than us. Our light weight development needs to have an overhaul. Apart from Amouzad we haven't really developed any proper light weights in a while.

He looks malnourished at 61 the only way he moves up to 65 or higher is if they put him on an IV strip and force feed him. His match against Blaze showed that he needs to bulk up as he is going to get outmuscled otherwise. He is tall and lanky yes but I don't think that means he will necessarily move up. His body needs to adjust to 61 first.

Yeah Khateri is 18 but he looks very young compared to Blaze and the other 61kg guys. I'm not sure it's because of the lack of muscle but he definitely needs a good 2/3 years at this weight class before he becomes remotely competitive. Him, Yousefi and Rahmani are the only guys worth having an eye on for the future. The rest of them were here just to make numbers this year. Hopefully our greco guys don't embarrass us as well.