#UWWAwards

'21 Breakthrough Performances of the Year: Geraei, Zare and Focken

Tuesday, December 7, 2021 - 12:23 By Eric Olanowski

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 7) -- Mohammadreza GERAEI (IRI), Amir ZARE (IRI) and Aline FOCKEN (GER) have been named United World Wrestling’s Breakthrough Performance of the Year award winners.

Geraei came into 2021 without having a world or Olympic medal on his resume. The 25-year-old, known as ‘The Iceman,’ defied all expectations and claimed Olympic gold in Tokyo and closed out his improbable ’21 campaign with a world-title run in Oslo.

Zare, at just 20-year-old, had a colossal year. He collected an Olympic bronze medal in Tokyo before upsetting three-time world champ Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO) and Olympic gold medalist Taha AKGUL (TUR) en route to gaining heavyweight supremacy at the Oslo World Championships.

Aline Focken picked the perfect time to retire. After missing out on the ’12 London Olympic Games and a ninth-place outing in Rio, the 12-year-veteran ended her career with an upset victory over five-time world champion Adeline GRAY (USA) in the 76kg Olympic finals.

#AmateurMMA

U15, U17 Pankration & U20 Amateur MMA World C'ships in Greece

Friday, July 25, 2025 - 05:45 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (July 25) -- United World Wrestling will host the Pankration and Amateur MMA World Championships for U15, U17 and U20 age groups in Loutraki, Greece from November 5 to 9.

This is the first time that UWW will be hosting an Amateur MMA event. As announced earlier, the senior Amateur MMA World Championships will be held in Novi Sad, Serbia from October 17 to 19.

After restructuring the styles, UWW decided that Pankration will be conducted for U17 and lower age-groups and Amateur MMA will be for U20 age-group. 

Following the same rule set, the Pankration World Championships to be held in Loutraki will only be for the U15 and U17 wrestlers and the Amateur MMA World Championships will only be for the U20 wrestlers.

The event will be held after the U15, U17, U20 and Veteran Grappling World Championships which will be held from November 1 to 4 at the same venue.

The detailed schedule of the U15, U17 & U20 Pankration and Amateur MMA World Championships will be available here. For all events, click uww.org/events.