Lucho

I find it interesting that the US has only just started doing this because Iran and Russia have their own league which invites top greco and freestyle wrestlers. Recently there was a Iran-Russia wrestle off in freestyle and greco in Moscow and there will be another one in a couple months with Snyder. Imo there is a lot of potential draw in having these tournaments based in the US though.

I would imagine Yazdani going to 92kg for 2025/2026 and then move up to 97kg for 2027 and 2028. In saying that though I think Azarpira at 97kg and Firouzpour at 92kg could cause him some problems especially since both of those guys are in great form. Firouzpour beat Kurbanov (world silver) and pinned Naifonov (olympic bronze) in the last couple of months.

So far Iran's Greco national champions have been decided albeit world (senior, u23 and u20) and olympic medalists did not compete in this tournament as they had exemptions. 55kg: Mehdi Ahadi Zanab (Gilan province), 60kg: Pouya Naserpour (Khuzestan province), 63kg: Mohammadmehdi Keshtkar (Fars province), 67kg: Mohammadreza Gholami (Fars province), 72kg: Iman Mohammadi (Khuzestan province), 77kg: Amin Kaviyaninejad (Khuzestan province), 82kg: Gholamreza Farrokhi (Fars province), 87kg: Naser Alizadeh (Mazandaran province), 97kg: Hamidreza Badkan (Tehran province) and 130kg: Aliakbar Yousefi (Mazandaran province). According to the Iran wrestling federation, the winners of the national tournament who are 23 years and younger will wrestle against the corresponding u23 world member at that weight class for the upcoming Asian championships, if no u23 national champion at that weight class, then the u23 world team member will compete. This applies to both freestyle and greco. For Zagreb open, the current provisional list for the greco team has been announced. 55kg: Armin Shamsipour and Mehdi Ahadi Zanab, 60kg: Pouya Naserpour, 63kg: Erfan Jarkani, Mohammadmehdi Keshtkar, 67kg: Ahmadreza Mohsennejad and Mohammadreza Gholami, 72kg: Mohammadreza Geraei, Danial Sohrabi and Iman Mohammadi, 77kg: Ali Oskou, Alireza Abdevali, Amin Kaviyaninejad and Amir Abdi, 82kg: Gholamreza Farrokhi, 87kg: Naser Alizadeh, 97kg: Shayan Habibzare and Hamidreza Badkan and 130kg: Aliakbar Yousefi. Wrestlers in my opinion to keep an eye on incluude Armin Shamsipour, Ahmadreza Mohsennejad, Mohamdreza Gholami, Alireza Abdevali and Gholamreza Farrokhi. Most of these guys are age-level world champions and/or had a great performance at the Iran national championships.