Kadiev also narrowly beat Ezatollah Akbari 5-4, so I’m not sure if Kadiev was 100% in this tournament or not. If he was in pretty good shape then maybe Shamsipour has potentially to become our long term answer to 86kg. However its good that these guys get to wrestle the top Russian guys as its a great experience for them and a confidence booster as well. I’m just hoping we end up finding a good 57 and 61kg prospect in the meantime. 1.

Azimi has Firouzpour’s number he has beaten him twice in their last two encounters. Yazdani is still adjusting to 97kg and even then teched Babaloo and beat Goleij comfortably. I kinda want to see him compete at Asians just so he gets to wrestle Yoshida, Aitmukhan and Taz before worlds. I feel like if Yazdani can win Asians then he should have a wrestle off against Azarpira. 1.

I think they have been quite low scoring. I’m pretty sure they wrestled at Iran nationals either this year or last year and Azarpira won. Goleij is one of the unluckiest wrestlers we’ve had, he was so close to beating both Snyder and Sadulaev but then lost in the last few seconds. It’s strange how that’s happened so many times for us. Yazdani vs Taylor in Tokyo, Goleij vs Sadulaev and Snyder, Ghasempour vs Sadulaev etc. Is it conditioning, mental or both? 1.

I have a feeling it is Iman Mohammadi. He went from 63 to 72kg and won Iran nationals and then now he has won U23 worlds. It seems incredibly unlikely that he could become this successful with just a jump up in a weight class given he isn’t the most technically gifted wrestler. If it is Farokhi or Hedayati I’m going to be devastated. Especially Farokhi as he seems like an incredible prospect for the sport. 1.

I mean that makes sense tbf you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Why would Russia train a guy that isn’t wrestling for them anymore it doesn’t actually make sense. I can imagine they can still train in their home town and maybe Republic training camps but national team camps for a guy who is "Slovakian" or "Bulgarian" is ridiculous. 1.

I mean Massoumi hasn’t really been that good since he started wrestling with Gazyumov in Baku. He barely beat Sahraei twice and still hasn’t really had a competitive match against Zare domestically. It seems to me he has regressed rather than improved. I would much rather invest in a guy like Mohammadnezhad, Sahraei, Jan Mohammadzadeh long term than a guy who would throw in the towel at 21. Would he be a great asset for us long term? Absolutely but he thinks switching countries is like changing hair colour, it will come back and bite him in the future imo. 1.

I personally think having guys who aren’t elite level wrestlers competing is a great way to bring more eyes to the sport tbh. Especially if they are accomplished MMA/BJJ guys as it might bring fans over to international wrestling or at least NCAA in the US. MMA fans for the most part don’t seem to appreciate how good the pros are at wrestling so having David Carr who finished 5th at worlds wrestle Belal can actually break that down real time. There are people who are naively adamant a guy like Khamzat and Khabib can hang with the best freestyle guys on the planet. Hopefully this can show them why that isn’t the case. 1.

He can’t cut down to 74kg unfortunately or else he would have been our perfect guy at 74kg. I feel like he is in a weird position where he is too big for 74kg but too small for 86kg so 79kg is perfect for him. But if he wants an Olympic medal he needs to make a tough decision now. Its strange how he hasn’t been able to win gold yet. I really felt like this year was his to lose, especially after he finally beat Burroughs. 1.

I can’t comment on Greco during USSR but from when I’ve been watching wrestling Riza Kayaalp, Rovshan Bayramov and Eldaniz Azizli stand out as guys who were good enough to be Olympic champs who didn’t end up winning gold for various reasons. I still think he is incredibly talented he did beat Lopez even if there were bribery allegations regarding the result. 1.

The guy is 36 years old, there is no way he is a contender at 130kg at this stage of his career. He ain’t Lopez. The truth is that even if he wins the Europeans and a world bronze does his legacy change. He retires as possibly the greatest greco wrestler of all time to never win an Olympic gold and that is incredibly unlikely to happen at 38/39 in LA with prime Mirzazadeh/Hedayati/Yousefi as his competition. He should go into coaching and improve Turkey’s program. 1.

I feel like he could fill it out if he makes the jump now. He has around 3 years to fill his body out. He is also a much better wrestler than Savadkouhi, Dake is unlucky that he was wrestling against the best 86kg on the planet for trials otherwise he is a strong 86kg imo. 1.

Yeah I wanted Yazdani to compete at 92kg with Ghasempour at 86kg and Azarpira at 97kg for 2026, 2027 and then Yazdani moving up to 2028 as you said. I feel like him going up 11kg plus his shoulder injury is going to be very very tough to come back from. Especially as its not like 97kg is an easy weight class. Even domestically Goleij, Bazri, Azimi and Firouzpour are solid guys let alone Azarpira who he most likely will compete against for the spot. In saying that though if there’s anyone that could do this it would be him tbh. I feel like what ends up happening by 2028 is Nokhodi/Ghasempour at 86kg, Azimi/Firouzpour at 92kg and Yazdani/Azarpira at 97kg. 1.

I honestly think DT has figured out the Iranian style and would have won that match regardless of what Ghasempour did. You can see how Valencia completely contained Ghasempour at worlds this year. Ghasempour’s biggest issue is that he can’t mentally come back once he is behind and he is cutting too much weight that is sustainable for him at 86kg with his current body. 1.

Also in Iran’s wrestling league between Bank Shar and Esteghlal Juybar there was some interesting results. Bank Shahr won 7-3 overall. 57kg: Mahdi Veisi (Bank Shahr) beat Ali Yahyaipour (Esteghlal Juybar) 3-2 61kg: Reza Atri (Bank Shahr) beat Ali Gholizadegan (Esteghlal Juybar) 2-0 65kg: Shamil Mamedov (Esteghlal Juybar) beat Abbas Ebrahimzadeh (Bank Shahr) 8-3 70kg: Mohammad Bakshi (Esteghlal Juybar) beat Ebrahim Elahi (Bank Shahr) 4-1 74kg: Amir Mohammad Yazdani (Bank Shar) beat Amir Hossein Hosseini (Esteghlal Juybar) 7-4 79kg: Fariborz Babaei (Bank Shahr) beat Sobhan Rahmani (Esteghlal Juybar) 4-3 86kg: Ibragim Kadiev (Esteghlal Juybar) beat Mohammad Nokhodi (Bank Shahr) 5-0 92kg: Mohammad Mobin Azimi (Bank Shahr) beat Amir Hossein Firouzpour (Esteghlal Juybar) 3-0 97kg: Mojtaba Goleij (Bank Shahr) beat Ahmad Bazri (Esteghlal Juybar) 5-0 125kg: Amir Reza Masoumi beat Amir Reza Sahraei (Esteghlal Juybar) 2-1 Other interesting results in the league were Abolfazl Rahmani losing to Mohammad Hossein Norouzian 12-8 and Mahdi Yousefi losing to Erfan Elahi 9-7. It looks like Nokhodi might be looking to go up to 86kg which would be interesting to see. He unfortunately got out muscled by Kadiev so he may still need a little bit longer to bulk up completely. What is most interesting to me is the quality of the coaching staff for both teams was much better than our own national team. Komeil Ghasemi for Esteghlal Juybar and Reza Yazdani for Bank Shahr. 1.

Tbf 92 and 97kg have been weight classes Iran has historically always been good in its not a surprise we have a lot of great wrestlers here. However, with 97kg having Yazdani, Goleij, Azarpira and Bazri already pencilled in I’m hoping at least one of Azimi and Firouzpour stays at 92kg. It’s a shame none of them can’t cut down well to 86kg or else our overload in these weight classes would have been fixed.