Lucho

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.

My prediction is that Kiyooka ends up on the other side of the bracket with Mammedov with Mammedov beating him in the semis. But I also want to think that Rahman has learnt his lesson from last time and hopefully can avenge his loss.

This is fantastic news. This will probably mean that we have a very good shot of winning gold at 86, 92 and 125kg this year. Potentially also 65 and 79kg as well but that will depend on the form of Amouzad and Nokhodi and whether they can overcome Mamedov and Usmanov respectively.

Yeah ok that makes sense, I knew our guys made the final but I misremembered by the looks of things. I'm interested to see Shamsipour and Hosseini wrestle in the near future considering how highly you rate them, hoping they both end up very successful. Its frustrating we can't find light weights in freestyle considering we do have some in greco. Is it a coaching problem? Hopefully the joint practice with Japan will steer us in the right direction.

I didn't know he beat Soleimanian but if thats the case then I'm fine with that tbh. Soheili is 22 and got sent to Yarygin so I don't think its fair to say he flopped the vast majority of our guys would struggle there. I hope you are right about Hosseini and Shamsipour, I'm excited to see some more talented guys come through at 86kg in the next couple of years. However, I think Mahdi Yousefi is my bet to be our next guy at 86kg he looks really impressive and I think with a couple more years he can really cement the spot for his own. Do you know of any talented future lightweights for me to keep an eye on? I can only think of the two u17 guys that won cadet worlds in 2024 at 45 and 48kg IIRC and Ahora Khateri.

What about Soleimanian, Noruzian and Soheili? It just feels like to me they are being quite stubborn about sending this guy without giving anyone else a chance. I don't think Ghasempour is making 86kg anytime before 2027 so I would rather see these 3 others get a shot. Especially since Noruzian and Soheili were the top 2 at nationals this year. But if this guy is our best prospect at 86 I'm honestly not too thrilled tbh. I'm pretty sure all3 of these guys are 23 and under so they also fit the quota as well.

I'm interested to see how our guys go at the Asians especially for our younger freestyle guys. Nice to see Mohammadreza Shakeri being given a shot at 74kg he seemed to be an exciting prospect but I think was injured for a while after winning u20 worlds. I'm also very excited to watch Alireza Abdevali he looks really really good. My only problem is with our 86kg rep Rahmani surely we have someone better than him??

If he doesn't compete at 86kg it will be a shame because he is truly one of the best in the world p4p and deserves an olympic gold. I don't think there is anyone on the planet right now at 86kg who can beat him he is way to strong and dynamic for the field. If he doesn't compete at 86kg, I imagine Kadiev will run through worlds Tazhudinov style which will also be fun to watch I guess.

It really seems to be a clash of styles, he is way too one-dimensional and that's what makes it so difficult for him against them. In all fairness the Japanese guy wasn't really trying to wrestle so there wasn't much he could do. Each match of their 65kg trials is going to be an Olympic final. Having Otoguro, Kiyooka, Ogino, Tanabe and potentially Ono all in one weight class is actually stupid.