Bulldozer Without Brakes

Pretty generous title, lol.

Payam Ahmadi (2025 world silver, beat Azizli) is listed at 55kg Abdevali, Abdi, and Naghousi listed at 77kg Fardin Hedayati at 130kg the others are younger with less international experience. but Iran always sends a stronger team to the Asian Championships, so we'll see near full strength teams in April

2024 Olympic bronze medalist Aaron Brooks (USA) receives a 2 year USADA suspension for anti doping violations His suspension expires on April 21, 2027, meaning he could still go to the 2028 Olympics in the USA

Azimi did not have as much success at 97 seems his natural weight is 86 or 92

I would be very surprised if Yazdani makes it onto the 2028 Olympic team.

it was his decision to move up to 92. he lost to Moldova, Ghasempour, Valencia, and McNelly at 86 last year. he's a good talent but has never won gold at world level, even at age level. Shamsipour is not better but he is only 18 years old. Emami is still our best 74 wrestler, unfortunately. Placed 5th last year (with a good draw), so he's not miles off a medal, but probably past his best. Still, not sure why they are still experimenting with Yazdani at 74.

Rahmani lost to Azimi and Hidlay in Zagreb and to Ghasempour (and Moldova) last year, he has no room to complain. Would like to see more of Shamsipour instead will be great to see Sina again at 70kg, he's a huge talent Funny to see Amir Yazdani at 74 again but I guess we don't have many other options

Oskou and Abdevali are our front runners at 77kg, though Abdevali has a much higher ceiling. Oskou won Zagreb but the level of competition was not that high. Abdevali placed 5th in the world in an Olympic weight class in his senior world debut and didn't get blown away by anyone (including the world champ), that's reasonably good for a 21 year old. He can be a medal threat in a few years. He's better than Amin Kaviani, at least, lol. Kaviani must be the most disappointing 2x junior world champion ever. 60kg is so tough, might be the most competitive weight class in wrestling. Ahmadi struggles with the Japanese wrestlers (Inaba and Shiotani, and he didn't even wrestle Gomi yet). He's young but currently far off the pace, we don't really have anyone consistent at 60kg. Naserpour, Dehbozorgi, Ahmadi, Abbaspour are all around the same level and inconsistent. As for 86kg, I don't think Rahmani and Shamsipour are ready to compete for medals yet, so Ghasempour at 86kg is still our best bet. I really like Azimi at 92kg unless Yazdani drops to 92kg. Azimi only lost to Hidlay because of a lost challenge point. Azimi, Firouzpour, and Rahmani all seem to lose to each other randomly, unfortunately. We need someone to separate themselves. But Azarpira has 97kg locked down, that's for sure.

Ghasempour is 'only' 29 and hasn't been competing at a senior international level for that long, it would be strange if he was suddenly washed we are strong at 97 with Azarpira and fine at 92 with Azimi / Firouzpour / Yazdani but at 86 we are weaker with Rahmani and Shamsipour, neither of whom are good enough yet. so I think Ghasempour will have to stay at 86 again and try to make the weight better this year

Iran is sending a relatively strong GR team to Albania. 60kg and 77kg remain our only (?) weak weight classes in GR. 55kg: Ahmadi (2025 junior world champion, 2025 senior world silver) 60kg: Dehbozorgi (cadet and junior world champion and the last guy to beat the Japanese guy who dominated in Zagreb recently) 77kg: Abdevali (2x junior world champion, 2025 world 5th), Naghousi (2024 U23 world champion, 2025 asian champion), Abdi (2025 ISG silver) 130kg: Fardin Hedayati (junior world champion, 2x U23 world champion, 2025 asian champion, 2025 ISG champion)

you think non wrestling interest spheres have heard of Mirzazadeh or Borrero?

wrestlers generally don't become superstars that transcend the sport. Sadulaev, Yazdani and David Taylor could walk around most cities in the world and no one would have a clue who they are. So you are expecting a lot for a Hungarian wrestler to become the next Conor McGregor.

Tamas Lorincz was an Olympic and world champion

i find his style of melting wrestlers pretty fun to watch it is heavyweight greco roman wrestling after all, not expecting anything crazy lol

good wins from Jarkani at 63kg and Oskou at 77kg Jarkani can compete with Keshtkar (2025 world bronze) for the 63kg spot Oskou can compete with Abdevali (2025 world 5th) for the 77kg spot Our weakest GR weights remain: 60 and 77. We have medal threats at every other weight. If Oskou can fill the 77kg gap and Ahmadi Vafa can fill the 60kg gap then our GR team will be unreachable

Yousefi had a great 2025 and broke every wrestler he faced except for Hedayati in national trials, who beat him 3-0

basically this (except the first shoulder surgery took place before the Olympics) I doubt he's losing in the room given Ghasempour is also in not great form lately and Yazdani just beat Goleij 4-0 in the Iranian league a few weeks ago.

he had major shoulder surgery before the Olympics then suffered the same injury during the Olympic finals, requiring the same surgery again he's 31 now, he decided to move up to 97 to limit the stress on his body to help the shoulder heal, although some in Iran said there is no coming back from an injury like that this was his first international tournament up at 97, he seemed slow and like he doesn't fully trust the shoulder yet. hard to say what the future holds for him, only he knows how his shoulder feels.

it's a shame, their first match was very competitive very encouraging for me that Azimi was so competitive with reigning world champ

was not expecting to see Zahid and Yazdani getting teched at this tournament

Azimi is really good, he only lost because of the stupid lost challenge (and inferior cardio) Sina might have improved but hard to say with the lower level of competition here Yazdani has no chance at 97 and honestly should just retire. Ghasempour probably isn't far off. We have a decent pipeline at 86 with Rahmani and Shamsipour, and at 92 with Azimi and Firouzpour. And Azarpira is very young at 97.

hello my alternate account, it seems we are the same person perhaps a Severance like situation, is what our paranoid friend is imagining glad to hear you are safe

before this tournament I thought Elahi was probably Iran's best 70kg, but seems Sina is the guy now

yep 92kg is going to be very fun though Hidlay is a senior world champ while Azimi and Rahmani are much younger, so Hidlay should beat them both in theory but hope we see an upset. I particularly like Azimi a lot, he beat Aitmukhan to become U20 world champ in 2023, though Rahmani did beat him recently in a shock result