Lucho

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.

I hope he is running a club of some sort. We need more wrestlers of the previous generation involved in grass roots coaching. Him, Reza Yazdani, Komeil Ghasemi and Mehdi Taghavi have a lot to offer for our current crop of guys. I know Ghasemi is in India at the moment. I feel like Dabir's influence in the freestyle space is preventing our coaches from doing their job even though wrestling-wise I think Dabir is doing a great job overall.

Yeah I think the only time they would have been training together is if/when they got invited to the camp together. Since Masoumi was a junior until fairly recently they haven't really trained together. Zare vs Masoumi and Mirzazadeh vs Yousefi vs Hedayati is honestly peak wrestling. It's a shame that only one can compete per country. On a side note is Sadegh Goudarzi coaching? I know Taghavi has joined the wrestling coaching staff but we really need a proper 74kg coach our guys are genuinely useless.

My thoughts are quite similar to Window12's but also I feel that he has matured a lot within the last couple years. He isn't making the same mistakes he was a couple years ago and he is physically more developed for 125kg than previously. In saying that Zare has a point to prove after loosing the olympic gold but I think the momentum is in Masoumi's favour.

Another guy I think can turn heads is Savadkouhi at 86kg. I don't think he'll beat Ghasempour but I expect him to be the second best guy at that weight. At 65kg I think Yasin Rezaei could beat Ebrahimzadeh and 97kg I'm hoping Azimi makes his breakout appearance and beats Goleij. The most likely upset is Masoumi over Zare though. The more I think about it the more I see Masoumi beating him.

He wrestled quite well in the league. He beat a solid Russian wrestler but forgot his name. I don't have any hope in any of our guys at 57 or 61 tbh but I do think be is a contender at Takhti cup

I really hope Dake makes the team at 86kg. Him and Snyder are the last two wrestlers of the US golden generation. Those two guys are absolute beasts. I wish them the best (except against Iran of course). But I think moving up 12kg is a big ask even for a guy like Dake...

Yeah from what I've heard in Iranian media it's mainly a power struggle between the two election candidates. So "banning" them I think is more symbolic than anything tbh. I did hear the previous president bank rolled the federation and was funding the costs for Novikov and Ramazonov so it is possible the new federation doesn't have the financial muscle to afford them so the ban is their way of saying we are broke.

I would also put most of those guys as favourites but I am interested to see Hadi Rezaei and Reza Atri compete as well at 57kg. A lot of the wrestlers really rate Atri as a top lightweight in Iran. I also can't believe we still don't have anyone better than Emami at 74kg surely someone else comes up and beats him...

It's quite surprising Bulgaria is doing this. I think this is going to kill off any opportunity they have in freestyle and greco for the next couple years at least until they develop some guys. In saying that though Milov who beat Aleksanyan at 97kg looks like a solid prospect for them to invest in for the meantime. I think this might set an overall precedence for UWW to reconsider the elligibility criteria for transfers and also might cause some countries like Bahrain and Azerbaijan to ramp up their signings and bring the best talent they can now that Bulgaria isn't an option for wrestlers. Another country to look out for is Qatar, they are looking to make a name for themselves in greco they have already brought an Iranian coach and two Iranian wrestlers over.

Do you have any predictions on who will win certain weight classes or any potential under dogs to look out for?

Does anyone know when Takhti cup starts? I am interested to see who will end up winning gold at the tournament. I'm hoping to see some new guys make a name for themselves. I have a feeling there might be a shake up at some of the weights especially at 125kg...

This has been my complaint for a while. It's ruining the sport entirely how else can other countries develop their guys if Russian imports are being brought in. Even some Iranians are now wrestling for countries like Spain and Germany too.

These rules are ridiculous. Why should anyone at 61, 65 and 92kg compete if they can't make the team if they win Takhti??? The guy that makes the team should be the guy that wins the tournament. It doesn't matter if the person is injured and can't compete. This is literally why guys like Arsalan leave and wrestle for other countries.

I know he was the heavy favourite but he still lost. Whether Yazdani was unlucky due to being injured doesn't really matter once all things are said and done. At the end of the day the guy who won was Ramazanov. Do I think Ramazonov wins that match up 9 times out of 10? Absolutely not, the only way he would have won is if Yazdani was injured which was unfortunately the case. In fact I would argue he won't even place this year at the worlds. He had a lot of fortune on his side for the Olympics. If he doesn't get found out in the European championships he will get found out in the world championships.

I honestly think as crazy as it sounds that Masoumi wont ever be able to beat Zare but could be the one to beat Gable if they ever step on a mat in freestyle. Zare seems to be a bad match up for Masoumi. Kind of like Dake-Taylor and Taylor-Yazdani. But it will be an exciting wrestle off between them regardless.

Yeah I meant cadets. I get the two mixed up. I saw he moved up to 61kg but hasn't looked that good which is a shame. I really like Valizadeh and Javan though at 57 and 61kg they look really solid. Those guys alongside Yousefi at 79kg and Rahmani at 86kg have impressed me quite a bit. We just need a proper 74kg which I think we need to give Amir Mohammad Yazdani another shot at, he got bronze at Yarygin this year so I think he is good enough to potentially be a medal threat (at least over Emami).

Iran hasn't won a FS olympic gold since Rio which was 2016. I think its a valid concern given how much more competitive it has become to win an olympic medal with Russian transfers. LA 2028 is probably the last chance for Yazdani to win his second olympic gold and Ghasempour to win an olympic gold. The rest of the guys I had seen were not too impressive so I didn't have too much hope in the future class but after Asians some have impressed me.

Anyone in that line up looking like a future world/olympic champ calibre? Khateri seems to have peaked at juniors and hasn't been able to develop the skillset necessary for older age groups. In saying that he is what 18 or 19 years old? I think for our light weights we need a revamp of the coaching all together we are clearly doing something wrong from the grass roots.

Our team overall did quite well just disappointing that our guys at 55 and 60 weren't that impressive. The North Korean has Dad Marz's number by the looks of things but the match was much closer than last time. At 60kg I think we need to try someone else, honestly Ahmadi Vafa is not a bad investment at 60kg sure he wasn't too good but he just went up from 55kg and Asian's would have been a very good learning curve for him. I'm surprised our lightweights aren't performing too well given Rangraz was a lightweight wrestler himself.

Would he even be as good at 74? I think the main reason he is so good at 65kg is that he is physically so big. At heavier weight classes he just doesn't have that advantage and he will be against far more technical wrestlers (Sidakov, Zhamalov, Tsabalov, etc) that I just don't think he has the necessary tools to beat. However, I think he could definitely be a contender at 70 but 74 has way too much parity and talent for his style to work. I would love to be proven wrong but I think most people would agree with me on this.