Bulldozer Without Brakes

This is subjective. But lets discuss. For me: 1. Amir Zare 2. Kyle Snyder 3. Abdulrashid Sadulaev 4. Kyle Dake 5. Rahman Amouzad 6. Inalbek Sheriev 7. Arash Yoshida 8. Hassan Yazdani 9. Bo Bassett 10. Ahmad Javan

You're right, Ali Geraei beat Makhmudov 7-3 at the Asian Games before Wonder if we will see Reza vs Ali vs Abdevali vs Oskou at 77kg next year You're also right about Yousefi, he was the first Iranian to win gold at superheavy. I was confusing him for Zare, who was the first Iranian heavyweight to win gold in Freestyle for 32 years

Reza Geraei is wrestling Makhmudov? I think you mean Ali Geraei. They wrestled once before actually, Makhmudov won 5-5 on criteria if I remember correctly. Yousefi deserves to wrestle more, it is really a shame a wrestler of his talents has no shot of ever making another worlds team for Iran. He was the first Iranian greco heavyweight champion in around 30 years.

57 - Lee > Valizadeh 0-1 61 - Javan > Blaze 1-1 65 - Amouzad > Bo 2-1 70 - Zain > Sina 2-2 74 - Yazdani > Green 3-2 79 - Haines > Nokhodi 3-3 86 - Dake > Ghasempour 3-4 92 - Hidlay > Firouzpour 3-5 97 - Snyder > Yazdani 3-6 125 - Zare > Wyatt 4-6 Final score: 6-4 to the USA. 70/86/97 could flip it but Zain, Dake and Snyder are all (former or current) world champs at those weights so have to favour them until proven otherwise. I would favour Azimi over Hidlay but again need to see it to believe it.

Ali Geraei won worlds in pretty dominant fashion in 2024 then beat Islam Aliev (Russia's number 1) after worlds. He only lost the spot in 2025 because he lost to Farrokhi, who has won gold twice in a row since then. So I think Ali Geraei is probably still very good until proven otherwise, and if he entered senior worlds at 82kg he would be one of the favourites for gold. He is one of the most exciting greco wrestlers ever, it's great that he finally got a world title before he retired.

Pejman resigned after ungrateful delusional Iranians attacked him for finishing 2nd in the 2023 Worlds FS team title. That year only Zare won gold, and some Iranians think we have a god given right to beat America and Russia and win lots of gold medals every year. This has very rarely been the case during our history but that doesn’t stop these people.

He only had one tournament at 65 and he won every match by a major comeback and close decision. He looked good at several tournaments at 61 and only lost to Americans. I’m not ready to say he’s better at 65 than 61 yet just based on one tournament, but that might be the case.

The discussion was about Mount Rushmore of Iranian wrestlers and coaches. You said you would pick Khadem over Pejman as the best FS coach because in 2016 we won one Olympic gold while Khadem was the coach. Now you say “Khadem wasn’t a good coach”. What are we doing here lol

let's run through the numbers. Pejman has been coach of the freestyle team for 5 years since 2021 (excluding 2024 Olympics, where Mohsen Kaveh briefly took over). Khadem was freestyle coach from 2012-2018 (7 years). lets use the last five years (2014-2018) for a like for like comparison to Pejman's five years. Total number of FS medals: - Khadem (2014-2018): 2 Gold, 6 Silver, 8 Bronze = 17 total - Pejman (2021-2023, 2025-26): 10 Gold, 10 Silver, 10 Bronze = 30 total 5x as many gold medals and almost twice as many overall medals. Team ranking (FS): - Khadem (2014-2018): 2nd, 1st, N/A, 9th, 6th = average of 4.5 - Pejman (2021-2023, 2025-26): 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 3rd = average of 2.2 Frankly, it's not even close.

That was Khateri's first ever tournament at 65kg. He competed at two other tournaments at 61kg this year. I don't think he has any issues making 61kg.

Yeah, an Olympic gold is more valuable than a world gold, all other things being equal. But one Olympic gold doesn't outweigh dozens of other medals and far superior team title rankings when we are discussing which coach was more successful. By your logic, if Khadem's team wins 1 Olympic gold and no other Olympic or world medals and never places in the top 3 in the team title in 5 years of tournaments, while Pejman's team wins 5 Olympic medals and 10 world medals and regularly places in the top 3 and wins the team title once over 5 years (made up numbers to illustrate the point), you'd say Khadem's team was more successful? That's obviously nonsense.

One Olympic gold doesn't offset everything else. The overall worlds / olympic medal record of the two is not even comparable.

Maybe Khateri. They can’t all go to 65

I don't think that's how the Mount Rushmore concept works...

I really like Afshar and Ferasati but 2028 is probably too soon for them. I think one of Rahmani and Nokhodi will be the guy to beat Ghasempour. Since Ghasempour didn't medal at worlds he won't have a best of three advantage in trials next year. That is important.

The coaches have to be Rangraz and Pejman. Their results speak for themselves. 2012 was the high point for our greco wrestling but 2024 was also incredible with medals in 4/6 weights: 2 golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze in 2024 vs 3 golds in 2012. And the results at worlds have maintained that consistency for GR so Rangraz is the obvious choice. Our results at worlds are also far better under Pejman. The only reason not to choose him are for ideological reasons. Obviously there is a major rivalry between Khadem and Pejman. Politics aside, Khadem was an incredible wrestler, but Pejman is by far the more successful coach.

He is a great but he doesn't quite make it into the top 4. Who would he replace? Funny that stepping on the foot is now legal again in freestyle.

Who is on the US Mount Rushmore of Greco Roman wrestlers?

Zare just won back to back titles for the first time in his career. Movahed won 6 in a row, including an Olympic title. Only 5 wrestlers have ever won 6+ titles in a row (Medved and Khadartsev won 7, Movahed, Tediashvili, and John Smith won 6). They cannot be compared yet. Reza Yazdani was significantly better than Ghasempour. Reza Yazdani won his medals at olympic weights and made two Olympic teams. He got robbed once and was injured the other time. Ghasempour has not had major injuries and has never made an Olympic team, and at this rate won't make the 2028 team. Freestyle Mount Damavand: - Abdollah Movahed (6x World/Olympic gold, unparalleled dominance to win 6 in a row) - Hassan Yazdani (11 World/Olympic medals across 4 weight classes, 4x World/Olympic gold) - Gholamreza Takhti (3x World/Olympic gold with 3x Olympic medals, legend of Iranian wrestling) - Emam-Ali Habibi (4x World/Olympic gold) You can make the case for Khadem instead of Habibi. In any case I would replace Habibi/Khadem with Zare if he wins gold in 2028. I love Zare but mount Rushmore needs Olympic champions only. Greco Roman Mount Damavand: - Hamid Sourian (7x World/Olympic gold) - Hadi Saravi (7x World/Olympic medalist including 3x gold) - Saeid Esmaeili (3x World/Olympic gold all won consecutively by the age of 23) - Mohammad Reza Geraei (2x World/Olympic champion, 4 medals in a row at 67kg) Can make the case for Norouzi, Ghasem Rezaei, or Mirzazadeh ahead of Geraei. Geraei is getting replaced by Hedayati in 2028.

I am the biggest Zare fan on the planet. But not sure I’d put him above Movahed even if he wins in 2027 & 28 given Movahed had 6 years of dominance (extremely rare) and competed at a lower / more competitive weight class. Agree on separate lists. For Greco we’d probably have: - Hamid Sourian - Hadi Saravi - Saeid Esmaeili - Mohammad Reza Geraei Ghasem Rezaei and Omid Norouzi are close but don’t quite make it over Geraei for me. But I think Hedayati replaces Geraei by 2028.

Since the Americans are discussing their ‘mount Rushmore’ of wrestlers, we should do the same Assuming we combine FS and GR: - Abdollah Movahed - Hamid Sourian - Hassan Yazdani - Gholamreza Takhti I don’t think there can be any debate about these four on a combined basis. Zare, Esmaeili and Saravi would have a strong case to be added if they win gold in 2028. Then we would need a separate GR mountain.

Iran ends up in third place for freestyle, with six medals (2 gold, 1 silver, and 3 bronze). Javan, Zare, and Yazdani were great. Little Yazdani also did well. But Firouzpour and Ghasempour were very disappointing and we have to seriously reconsider their future.

Amir Yazdani beats Salkazanov and wins bronze at 74kg. Emami lost to Salk last year. Impressive run for Yazdani, he had a horrible draw. He deserved the spot. Valizadeh DNP as expected. He was not terrible, just bad decisions at key moments let him down. He’s young, hopefully he can improve. The less I say about Firouzpour, the better… Most people here will know I always preferred Azimi.

Zare is only the second Iranian freestyle wrestler to win at least 4 world titles Movahed has 5, Zare has 4, and Yazdani and Ali Habibi each have 3 Zare can match Movahed’s 5 if he wins again next year…

Cool video of Dabir congratulating Javan