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Whilst he can in due course compete say at the Asian champs at 92 if he loses the extra weight without having to mount a major challenge domestically, if he wants to compete at 92 at the worlds he will have to face Firouzpour who is similarly tough at 92 as is Azarpira at 97. But the international competition is on paper more manageable at 92 I agree.

He is heavier than 92 by all accounts- Dabir said about 100 a little while ago. He would be sent to some ranking events and considered for the Asian champ initially to see how he is fairing before any major challenge to Azarpira is on the cards I suspect.

I’m concerned about his Shoulder. Barzegar after his match with Ramazanov was saying what happened to his Shoulder was intentional. I don’t know myself but I guess Barzegar knows a thing or two about wrestling.

With his shoulder I’m happier seeing him wrestling Tazhudinov than Sadulaev till he has settled as I think it will be more technical and less physical with Tazhudinov. I’m also ok with him starting at the shallow rather than the deep end. Some ranking events etc will be good preparation.

Yes I agree - it’s going to be difficult to get a world medal for him but I guess he is going to give it his best shot and there may be surprises if he does manage to reinvent himself and adapt his style. I worry about him wrestling Sadulaev as our wrestlers have had injuries after wrestling him( I think Goliej knee got hurt badly? and it was rough for Ghassempour too I think). I see him winning ranking events and medal at Asian championship though relatively readily so he has things that he may reasonably be expected to achieve.

Is Hassan morphing into Reza? I guess this is what he has to do to have a shot at 97

With regards to Olympic golds in freestyle they are just very hard to get with only 6 anva every 4 years and small margins make big difference.Iran was in the running for 86 kg but the shoulder issue came up. For 125 Geno came up with very aggressive tactics and Zare was not that type of wrestler to mirror that type of westling ( think back to the prior year where Geno actually slapped him in the final) and at 65 Amouzad got caught in the leg lace of dome( here questions are being asked of the technical committee why Iranians keep getting caught against Japan in this way). on the positive side the elite Iranian wrestlers are usually have long careers and medal regularly. For example the often overlooked Nokhodi at 18 won an Asian senior bronze medal and at 24 has 2 world silver and 2 world bronze to add to that. Not many 24 year olds in the USA or Japan can boast his accomplishments and he does not get much headlines. This is set against competition that includes Russia and the Russian exports( Including Taz, Ramazanov, Valiev Salakzanov, Tsabalov etc) Japan( in the lower weight) USA and the rest of the world. looks like to me we expect the freestyle team to get multiple gold medals in the Olympics and with every single wrestler wrestling like Saitiev and demolishing their opponents with technical falls in spectacular fashion.This seems very unrealistic .If Firouzpour wins the gold medal at 92 kg in freestyle wrestling in the style of current Iranian wrestling keeping a disciplined stance with underhooks and high forward pressure then that’s still a very high achievement given the level of the competition that is around and I will take that for sure.

I think the count is 3 to 1 as Alizadeh at 92 did beat US wrestler. There are two more matches I think tomorrow. So it’s a bit early to draw conclusions. If Iran win the team competition at freestyle then they will have won both Greco and Freestyle and against robust competition. Best judge the outcome tomorrow I would have thought.

Looks like Nokhodilarimi been confirmed for 79 for the seniors…

Sina Khalili also seems to have been inconsistent. He is young though and I think has a great future. To be honest if we take consistency as someone who medals every year at the world level in the past 5-10 years in freestyle we have had only 2 ( Hassan Y. And Zare). Others even Ghassempour or Amouzad will be considered inconsistent by that definition.But I think having someone that medals every year for more than five years or so coming along about once every 5-10 years is about as much as we can expect for Iranian freestyle wrestling. I think this is where Iran as at. Given the presence of Russia Japan USA Cuba and the central Asian republics realistically we can not expect more.

The Iranian wrestling commentators always say that you have to give due respect to whoever represents the USA as they will be good regardless and I think it applies to Hendrickson too. He may be even number 2 or 1 etc internationally but he is untested at that level and hopefully his future results will speak for his abilities and put my questioning things to rest in an emphatic way. I’m sure time will tell.

Also - U23… lol

Ah yes that’s the year the Iranians did not get a visa for Albania. Attenuated

Something seems off with all this hyping up of Hendrickson on the Iranian wrestling thread at the intuitive level. The logical part of my brain is asking if he that good why he is not getting his own thread on the main international thread where all the homerism can run rampant for a wrestler who as yet has no international credentials to speak of (though I guess he is likely to have done well in an attenuated competition like the pan am).

They say because of his shoulder surgery he is advised by his medical team not to cut weight. I get this as if he develops a more muscular build the additional strength afforded by stronger rotator cuff muscles will offer additional stability. In any case apparently he is now about 100kg. The counter argument is that whilst his shoulder will be more stable with more muscular support at 97 kg - his opponents will be also be much stronger and will subject his shoulder to greater stress. I mean Ghassempour found out that Kyle Snyder is in a different class from strength point of view a couple of times that they wrestled. I think there will be some mileage if they got Reza Yazdani to help him build up to that weight as he was a smaller more muscular build and he might have some tricks to pass on. Who knows what might happen- he may pull of a great comeback or things may end up disappointing. I guess the Iranian wrestling establishment are just letting him rehabilitate and see how things pan out ….