Lucho

Ah ok that makes more sense. I was trying to remember if I saw Tat anywhere so that makes sense tbh. Hopefully he does well in worlds. Is he Mazani or is he Tehrani? I remember Khateri going to Armenia and doing poorly but I think everyone that went was really bad even Dadmarz. It's a shame that khateri has fallen off since he won u17 worlds but he is still super young so he may end up being a world beater in a couple years time. Maybe the higher weight suits him better than 57kg

I mean Russia did the whole PWL thing with us and USA so I wouldn't be surprised if similar events happen again. But I reckon smaller wrestling countries might for example Hungary or Serbia. I agree those with established wrestling traditions probably not but those developing or want to be potentially. But it is a stretch tbh.

For the record I'm absolutely against Dabir and his political agenda. I also believe that some aspects of his leadership have been a net positive for Iranian wrestling. Both things can be true at the same time. However, I also agree with you that this is probably not the right place for politics especially Iranian given the recent couple of years. My personal opinion is that Dabir uses wrestling as a way for him to establish political legitimacy within the regime and by extension gain more soft power within Iran's sporting bodies. However, generating income through such partnerships with other countries is not a bad idea at all. For example if Armenia wants to pay us money to train with them we should definitely take that up same with Japan, Russia etc. In football, the top countries demand money to play friendly matches why can't we do the same thing?

For sure I'm just saying that for Yazdani the only thing that matters is an olympic and world title. Beating Tazhudinov in Asians and then losing to him at worlds and olympics is meaningless. Tazhudinov is entering his prime whilst Yazdani is slowly entering out of it so by the time they meet I'm worried it might end up a mauling by Tazhudinov.

Its interesting that apart from the one off matches against Snyder and Tazhudinov, the only other guys who have been able to nearly beat him have been our own (Goleij and Ghasempour). With all due respect to both guys Yazdani is a class above them both so you would expect Yazdani being capable to beat Sadulaev. From now on his team should be analysing and developing game plans on how to beat the top guys at 97kg and preparing him for when he steps back onto the mat. I know that Mohammadian is now a coach so maybe him and Reza Yazdani can work alongside him to prep for the transition to 97kg. The only thing that matters to Iranians is world and olympic medals and Asia is pretty shallow at the heavier weight classes even if you are Russian transfers. But its possible the first Yazdani vs Tazhudinov match up will happen at Asians in 2026/2027.

This is really strange tbh. However it sort of tracks with what they've been doing in recent years. It seems that they are trying to establish soft power within the wrestling world by inviting other countries' wrestling teams to Iran and sending their own guys there as well. From memory Tajikistan, Hungary and Armenia have brought their wrestling teams to train in Iran with our senior guys. I reckon they must have received some sort of benefits to send these guys there either financially or politically. Dabir was talking about making the wrestling federation self funded and developing revenue streams so I imagine this might be a part of that either directly or indirectly.

Yeah I think the US guys' biggest problem is translating their style to international wrestling initially but I think that's largely being overcome with FS being more integrated into US wrestling from an earlier age. Also the new gen of coaches like J'den Cox are going to be passing on their knowledge as well so I don't think its going to be a major problem by the 2028 olympics as you said but I think you guys will still be a force this year too. When it comes to Iran light weights they are incredibly inconsistent one tournament they look unbeatable and another one they look like its their first time wrestling on the mat. Ahmad Javan is quite young and I think he has potential to be a medal threat at 61kg but that largely hinges upon him not being leg laced back to Iran every time he gets taken down. Considering he isn't Mazani as well I'm curious to see his performance. His province Khorasan Razavi has been doing quite well in the lighter weight classes at junior levels domestically so it would be nice to see their hard work bring home a world medal.

Yeah I had a look at the roster and it looks like 86kg is Abolfazl Rahmani and 79kg is Mehdi Yousefi. I feel like at the minimum we should win 2 golds. Alp Arsalan Begenjow I think is the turkmen guy right? I'm hoping he gets to wrestle him again as I really like Yousefi I think he has a bright future for us but the turkmen guy is legit. I think Ahora Khateri is back which will be interesting to see. I'm hoping he ends up surprising us and win gold but that will be incredibly tough to do. At this age group and above US, Russia, Japan and India out develop us in the light weight categories. Do you know much about the 65 guy? I think its the first time I've seen his name.

Who even was sent to Romania? Why aren't we instead sending more guys to ranking tournaments? At the very least I feel like we should be sending guys to Yarygin for FS and also send 2-3 guys per weight class to ranking series tournaments especially for greco. The federation clearly has money to spend so might as well do it when there is the best possible competition apart from worlds and olympics. I didn't even know we were sending guys over there as none of the Iranian wrestling outlets even talked about it.

I don't think Ahmad Javan is really good at 61kg but I agree with the rest of what you said. I feel like you are underestimating your US guys. Wyatt Hendrickson, Vito and Zahid Valencia are gold medal threat wrestlers alongside Spencer Lee. It's going to be an interesting worlds especially since neither David Taylor and Yazdani are competing at 86kg it looks super open. I think Kadiev, Ramazanov, Kadimagomedov, Ghasempour and Valencia are competing which is crazy.

Its gonna be really hard for him to make the team at 97kg tbh. Azarpira is really good and is developing into 97kg very nicely. Even if he makes the team internationally there is Snyder, Tazhudinov and Sadulaev. Can he realistically beat 2 of those 3 guys to win gold?

I think USA, Russia and Iran are pretty balanced in seniors tbh. I think Russia has 2 powerhouse wrestlers (Sidakov, Sadulaev) whilst Iran and USA have 1 each (Zare, Lee respectively). However, Russia's team seems a lot weaker with less depth and even Sidakov and Sadulaev are competing against Valiev and Tazhudinov so gold isn't guaranteed for them. Whereas I think USA and Iran have more depth across the 10 weight classes. Iran's guys are pretty experienced at this point relative to their ages. I think its ultimately going to come down to whether USA and Iran win the weights they are expected to (57, 125) and whether they can get guys on the podium in the other weights. Russia will struggle a lot this year imo as 74 and 97 are quite deep weights nowadays and arguably the best russian guys don't even compete for Russia anymore.

I had a look at the archives and the last time we didn't win a u17 FS gold was 2015 so this was our worst performance in 10 years in FS. In saying that though Russia also did not do that well they only had 2 golds (Omarov 110 and Dzebisov 92). The US has been really really strong at the junior levels in recent years and I reckon that's because of the amount of high level FS clubs opening up across the country. From memory Ben Askren has one that is producing some solid guys. Our U20's don't look really impressive either so I doubt we will win a gold there as well. What's more surprising is India's heavies beating us in both FS and GR, looks like Haryana has realised they can also send their big boys to wrestle. At the end of the day what matters is senior level titles and I'm hoping the boys can get it done in September.

I think they will also struggle to field a competitive greco team too in the near future unfortunately. Without Mijain Lopez their team is very weak tbh. I don't think Rosillo, Pino or Orta are going to be world championship contenders anymore in their respective weight classes and they don't have any promising new crop coming in either.

I wish they didn't have Dorostkar as the head coach. Why can't Dabir just let his ego go and pick Reza Yazdani as the head coach of the national team? Our biggest problem in freestyle is the stubbornness of the top brass as opposed to investment and talent. If Reza Yazdani was the head coach of this team I am very confident we would have won at least 2 of the finals in Paris last year. Dorostkar isn't qualified to be the head coach of Iran's junior guys let alone our senior team.

I didn't know that Japan and Russia did that but it makes sense since I saw that their teams were different to what they had at the continental tournaments. I don't think its a bad idea if we do the same but I think at this age level getting these kids to wrestle is the most important thing. I would much rather our guys lose now then at senior level. An olympic/world medal is worth 1000s of these junior golds. I think it would be better if we sent guys to the u15 asians and u23 asians than anything else. I reckon send like the second string guys to u23 asians so they can also wrestle even if japan and some of the other countries don't send guys there.

I feel like since our u17 guys couldn't compete at Asians they are a little disadvantaged compared to everyone else. I reckon that's the big differentiator this year as this is their first international competition of the year. In saying that though we sent 5 guys to the finals and have potential to win 7 medals with 3 gold. It's also good because we sent our 45 and 48kg to the finals and that's where we are really lacking in talent and depth. At the end of the day all that matters is we develop guys for the senior team. The US historically has not been always dominant in junior level but always produces top talent when it comes to seniors.

Our greco team wasn't really good this year but the guy who won gold at 92kg Amirsam Mohammadi looks really really good. I think we might have found our future 97kg after Saravi.

It seems strange to me why at 55 and 63kg greco we kept flip flopping between guys and now at 70kg freestyle we also decided to do the same as well. In saying that Amir Mohammad Yazdani is the best 70kg in Iran as his floor is a lot better than the other guys even if his ceiling is not as good. So the coaches choosing him is not actually that ridiculous. What is bizarre is at 55kg greco where neither Dadmarz nor Shamsipour made the team and its instead Payam Ahmadi the guy who just won u20 Asians. I feel like our coaches are trying to reinvent the wheel with our selections at times. Either the guy that won the selection the first time should be the rep or don't hold selections with such promises. What benefit does it provide Keshtkar at 63 if he made the team, lost the spot and then just made the team again with less than 2 months until worlds. It's only setting them up for failure.

Hedayati and Yousefi wrestled each other and Hedayati won who then lost to Mirzazadeh to make the world team this year. Basically its because he can't beat who is in front of him domestically. Its honestly scary how much depth is in our heavyweights nowadays in both freestyle and greco. Yousefi is also already a world champ so its not like he his career has been wasted. Who knows he might end up winning a couple more world/olympic medals in the coming years just maybe not for Iran unfortunately.

I doubt Yazdani is going to make 86kg again especially if the doctors are telling him not to. Apparently Ramazanov is moving up to 92kg this year so its possible we will see a Yazdani-Ramazanov rematch in the very near future (2026) if the rumours are true. I'm interested to see Firouzpour wrestle him as he has already beaten Naifonov and Kurbanov. Hopefully he can avenge Yazdani's loss to him in the olympics. This also makes 86kg pretty open. Kadimagomedov, Kadiev, Ghasempour and Valencia all competing will be fun to watch.

Fair enough its just that 97kg is going to be stacked with Snyder, Tazhudinov, Yoshida and Sadulaev in the mix. Its very possible 1 or 2 of those guys don't medal depending on how ends up on what side of the bracket. Unless Azarpira has the tournament of his life its quite possible he will face two of Snyder/Sadulaev/Yoshida/Tazhudinov in the quarters/semifinals at least. Can he beat 2 of them back to back is my concern.

Thanks for that. Just saw Azarpira beat Bazri to make worlds team, I really have high hopes for Azarpira medalling this year at worlds but it will be tough. I'm just surprised it was such a close match (3-0). Is Bazri really that good or did Azarpira wrestle poorly? Bazri seems to have quite a lot of support within Iranian wrestling circles like Goleij and Babaei but I never considered him to be a contender for a worlds spot. I know he is a junior silver medalist but he is 27 and hasn't really impressed apart from that. It doesn't look good for Azarpira imo especially 2 months out of worlds.

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.