Window12

I am not sure who will emerge the winner in the next match between Massoumi and Zare. Its too close to call for me and fun to watch out for. But to be fair to Zare, he has been quite exceptional upto now at age 24 and since he started his senior level career in 2020 (age 19 I guess) after winning multiple age level titles, over the past 4-5 years he has won 2 gold and bronze at the world and a silver and bronze in Olympic competition. This matches very respectably against anyone else tally currently active bar Sadullaev. I mean even David Taylor who has been very dominant in the 86Kg category since 2018, lost out one year due to injury, lost one year on gold to Yazdani and lost out on being a US team member due to Brooks. This is notwithstanding that Zare has had formidable competition in Akgul, Petriashvilli and Steveson etc...

If Masoumi beats Zare in Takhti cup then by definition Zare will not have fulfilled the condition to be team member. This is too close for me to call. I would not mind if Massumi or Zare for that matter competed for another country to both have a shot at the world title. Perhaps Bahrain ? Also who are going to be the 97 Kg contenders? Is Azapira able to compete? Babaloo? Azimi? Goleij?

There are occasional matches when an ultra passive wrestler loses 2 shot clock points at 2-0 which but actually this would be the correct result as the more passive wrestler would have perhaps lost by more than that if they chose a more attacking strategy. There are a couple of Taha Akgul matches against Zare where Akgul lost 2 shot clock points in the match but that was a fair outcome as if he had chosen the direct attacking and less defensive approach the loss would have been with a higher difference. The shot clock rule correctly help determine the winner. With random assignments of the criteria these situations would be less fairly determined and may promote more defensive approach .

I would be very much interested to see Masoumi vs Geno as well as against Zare

I think the massoumi that lost to Zare has improved a lot. For example when lost to munkthur a couple of years ago he lost points which I thought were due to inexperience. He was very dominant yesterday against munukhtur. I think the past score massoumi vs Zare is now not an indicator of what may happen in the future anymore.

I guess the elephant in the room now in terms of discussion merit worthiness is Massoumi. Is he now better than Zare? Is there anyone active in the weight class better than him?

The Yas-Ghassempour at 86 seems a bit of moot debate. The initial signals 2-3 months ago after an interview that Dabir had given was that Yazdani had put on weight after the shoulder operation and was unlikely to make it to 86 and was going for 92 or 97 ( which seems doubly uncharted if you add the as yet unknown consequence of the shoulder issue). At that time Dabir seemed to think Ghassempour would be a suitable candidate for 86. I guess we would know soon enough if his hunch/assessment is correct or not.

Amouzad beat the Japanese guy 4-0 . Of the 4 points 2 were scored on shot clocks and one was due to the Japanese competition fleeing the mat. Goes to show how negatively the Japanese guy was wrestling. As the Iranian commentators sometimes say - he did not come to wrestle, he came to lose with a low score.

Firouzpour won his junior world titles at 86. I wonder if he is considering a move to the lower weight…

Taha Akgul visiting Iran today

If Khalili has been given the spot why should he want to sue anyone? Perhaps it will be for over burdening him with expectations….

Interestingly Massoumi was told in the post medal ceremony interview that Gabel Stevenson may make a come back. He said it may be best if he remained retired having left on top as he may not get the results he wants having been away from the game for 4 years. At least Masoumi does not seem bothered but I wonder if he is right. Will Gable be at the same level having been away from the sport for a bit….

There is/was a Georgian Sumo wrestler-Tochinoshin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tochinoshin_Tsuyoshi

I agree that Mobin Azimi did not do so well at 86kg but I remember at the time they were mentioning it was such a difficult cut for him and basically he is just a bit too big to cut to 86 kg.i recall a number of coaches were advising him not to do it but i think he had to try due to it being an Olympic weight. 92 seems to be the ideal weight for him just now. I think there is going to be a match between him and Firouzpour in Zagreb in February which should be interesting.

I think Mobin Azimi at 92 is also likely to be a threat domestically to both Yazdani and Firouzpour.. and for a change he is not from Mazandaran.