Lucho

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.

I wouldn't be opposed to that. I think the 2 bronzes is a bit weird tbh. Like I get why repechage exists but having 2 guys come third doesn't really make sense. Also 16 guys compete in each olympic weight class nowadays so how are we going to cut that further? 8 people??

I personally like greco more than freestyle in some aspects but I understand where the US view comes from. High level greco is boring because the margins between the top guys is tiny. The passivity calls imo have made it more watchable. But for guys who have grown up with freestyle and folk I understand why greco would be so foreign. If Beach wrestling gets added I'm not watching the Olympics. That's actually ridiculous.

Why should Greco be cut that's ridiculous. The shouldn't have cut the wrestling weight classes for any of the styles to begin with. If FILA wasn't a corrupt organisation with stupid rule sets we wouldn't be in this position to begin with. We need to preserve as many of the martial arts in the olympics as possible. They are some of the purest forms of sport and competition we have.

You guys are focussing on freestyle earlier which is helping you guys with junior level success. The razer sharp conditioning that you get from folk is showing. Completely deserved u17 and u20 title wins. It's just frustrating that our guys are performing so poorly.

I don't have a problem with the style it comes down to everything else. Compared to the American guys their conditioning is woeful and the wrestling IQ is virtually non-existant from half of these guys that competed. The only wrestler that has impressed me is Ahoura Khateri and even he purposely handicapped himself for no reason in his earlier matches. It feels like their is a big disconnect between what the coaches want from our guys and them actually performing it.

Our junior guys have been awful this year. I don't know what's going on but there is a huge coaching problem at all levels it seems. Dabir needs to be held accountable, especially if we perform poorly at senior worlds this year. Alizadeh lost to greece? Mamivand can't do a single leg? Its actually hilarious how bad our freestyle guys are. When you have Cox and Taylor coaching compared to our randoms this is what happens. If you want world champions you need to be coached by world champions not guys who can barely podium at Asians. Dabir now can't hide behind "team titles" he has completely lost all credibility in his coaching appointments. There are 50 uncles in the outskirts of Mazandaran who can coach these guys better.

Just had a look for Iran's u20 greco roster apparently Amirsam Mohammadi who just won u17 worlds is competing at 87kg as well. Very interesting and I think its ultimately the right move, he has a very bright future so competing against guys 2-3 years older than him would be a great litmus test to see where he sits against the rising class of senior level prospects. If (big if) he wins gold at u20s aged 17 I'm all in on the hype train. Also Russia's monster Erzu Zakriev has moved up from 63 to 67kg I highly recommend all of you to watch his performance last year and keep an eye out for this year. He will be Esmaeili's biggest challenge in LA I reckon. There's also a couple wrestlers of Iranian descent competing at u20 worlds, Danoush Jowkar (61kg FS), Keyvan Gharehdaghi (74kg FS) and Arvin Khosravy (82kg GR).