#UWWAwards

Burroughs and Chamizo, Snyder and Sadulaev Headline Biggest Rivalries of the Year

Wednesday, December 19, 2018 - 13:05 By Eric Olanowski

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 19) -- United World Wrestling has named four of the Biggest Rivalries of the Year. There were two in freestyle, and one in Greco-Roman and women's wrestling.

The freestyle season saw more than one top-level rivalry, so a pair were selected for this category. The first freestyle rivalry selected was the 74kg showdown between Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) and Frank CHAMIZO (ITA), and the second was Abdulrashid SADULAEV (RUS) and Kyle SNYDER (USA).

The 74kg rivalry was kickstarted on social media when Burroughs, the five-time world and Olympic champion, posted an Instagram photo that was captioned, “If you want to be the king, you have to beat the king.” The message was of course directed at two-time world champion, Chamzio, who was coming up to 74kg after winning the 2017 world title at 70kg.

After trading social media blows, May’s Beat the Streets in New York City was the stage selected to host the first match between the pair of superstars. Chamizo commanded the early 4-0 lead in that Beat the Streets match but was outscored 6-1 in the final four minutes of the bout, losing the match, 6-5. Chamizo scored his revenge in the second match, outlasting the London Olympic champion in front of a sold out Bağcılar Olympic Sports Hall at the Yasar Dogu in Istanbul, Turkey, evening the series at one match apiece. 

The rubber match took place in the bronze-medal bout of the World Championships and not in the gold-medal bout as everyone expected heading into Budapest. In that match, Burroughs edged Chamizo, 4-4 on criteria and took the 2-1 series lead.

The second biggest freestyle rivalry of the year was between Russia’s four-time world and Olympic champion, Abdulrashid Sadulaev and Kyle Snyder, the three-time world and Olympic champion. Snyder scored the 6-5 come-from-behind win when the pair battled for the 97kg individual world title in Pairs in 2017. More importantly, Snyder's win gave the Americans their first team title in 22 years. 

Sadualev got his revenge in the finals of the 2018 World Championships by pinning the returning world champion and put the icing on the cake for the Russian Federation to win the freestyle team title. 

Perhaps no weight category was more competitive in 2018 than women’s wrestling’s 76kg. Lead by reigning world champion, Yasmin ADAR (TUR), four-time world champion, Adeline GRAY (USA), and Rio Olympic champion, Erica WIEBE (CAN). It was the American Adeline Gray who prevailed and won her fourth world title. 

In Greco-Roman, Kyrgyzstan’s Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ) was looking for redemption coming into the Junior World Championships the American Kamal Ameer BEY (USA) was victorious in the 2017 junior world finals. Makhmudov dominated the bronze-medal bout at the Junior World Championships and picked up the 8-1 win. 

We had to wait an entire year to see some of the rivalries, but that may not be the case heading into 2019. Snyder wasted no time in letting the wrestling world know when a potential #SnyderLaev3 could happen, announcing that he'll head to Krasnoyarsk, Russia, in January to compete at the 2019 Ivan Yarygin - a tournament in which Sadulaev is expected to be entered. 

The next award to be released will be the Comeback Athletes of the Year which will come out on Saturday. 

#WrestleBelgrade

Preliminary Greco-Roman World Championship seeds announced

Tuesday, August 29, 2023 - 18:12 By Eric Olanowski

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BELGRADE, Serbia (August 29) --- United World Wrestling has released the preliminary Greco-Roman seeds for the 2023 World Championships.

The point-based seeds were determined by a wrestler's participation and placement at the 2022 World Championships, 2023 Continental Championships and 2023 Ranking Series events.

Although it's highly unlikely that the brackets play out exactly how their seeded, but if the seeds were to hold true through the finals in the top-eight seeded system, here's how the bracket will look leading up to the gold-medal match:

Quarterfinals:
No. 1 vs. No. 8 (top side)
No. 4 vs. No. 5 (top side)

No. 2 vs. No. 7 (bottom side)
No. 3 vs. No. 6 (bottom side)

Semifinals:
No. 1 vs. No. 4 (top side)
No. 2 vs. No. 3 (bottom side)

Finals:
No. 1 vs. No. 2

*The seeds are based on the current entries provided by National Federations and are subject to change.

World Championships seeds:

55kg
No. 1 - Eldaniz AZIZLI (AZE)
No. 2 - Nugzari TSURTSUMIA (GEO)
No. 3 - Jasurbek ORTIKBOEV (UZB)
No. 4 - Poya Soulat DAD MARZ (IRI)
No. 5 - Rudik MKRTCHYAN (ARM)
No. 6 - Denis Florin MIHAI (ROU)
No. 7 - Artiom DELEANU (MDA)
No. 8 - Marlan MUKASHEV (KAZ)

60kg 
No. 1 - Edmond Armen NAZARYAN (BUL)
No. 2 - Zholaman SHARSHENBEKOV (KGZ)
No. 3 - Kerem KAMAL (TUR)
No. 4 - Liguo CAO (CHN)
No. 5 - Razvan ARNAUT (ROU)
No. 6 - Mehdi Seifollah MOHSEN NEJAD (IRI)
No. 7 - Haithem Mahmoud Ahmed Fahmy MAHMOUD (EGY)
No. 8 - Nihat Zahid MAMMADLI (AZE)


63kg 
No. 1 - Leri ABULADZE (GEO)
No. 2 - Hrachya POGHOSYAN (ARM)
No. 3 - Iman Hossein Khoon MOHAMMADI (IRI)
No. 4 - Mukhamedali MAMURBEK (KAZ)
No. 5 - Shermukhammad SHARIBJANOV (UZB)
No. 6 - Ivan LIZATOVIC (CRO)
No. 7 - Murad MAMMADOV (AZE)
No. 8 - Madiyar MALTEKBAYEV (KAZ)

67kg
No. 1 - Joni KHETSURIANI (GEO)
No. 2 - Hasrat JAFAROV (AZE)
No. 3 - Mate NEMES (SRB)
No. 4 - Mihai Radu MIHUT (ROU)
No. 5 - Murat FIRAT (TUR)
No. 6 - Mohammadreza Abdolhamid GERAEI (IRI)
No. 7 - Amantur ISMAILOV (KGZ)
No. 8 - Luis Alberto ORTA SANCHEZ (CUB)

72kg 
No. 1 - Selcuk CAN (TUR)
No. 2 - Ulvi GANIZADE (AZE)
No. 3 - Ali Feizollah ARSALAN (SRB)
No. 4 - Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed Hassan GHANEM (FRA)
No. 5 - Ibragim MAGOMADOV (KAZ)
No. 6 - Robert Attila FRITSCH (HUN)
No. 7 - Ramaz ZOIDZE (GEO)
No. 8 - Valentin PETIC (MDA)

77kg
No. 1 - Zoltan LEVAI (HUN)
No. 2 - Yunus Emre BASAR (TUR)
No. 3 - Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ)
No. 4 - Malkhas AMOYAN (ARM)
No. 5 - Rui LIU (CHN)
No. 6 - Viktor NEMES (SRB)
No. 7 - Aik MNATSAKANIAN (BUL)
No. 8 - Iuri LOMADZE (GEO)

82kg
No. 1 - Burhan AKBUDAK (TUR)
No. 2 - Gela BOLKVADZE (GEO)
No. 3 - Yaroslav FILCHAKOV (UKR)
No. 4 - Rafig HUSEYNOV (AZE)
No. 5 - Dias KALEN (KAZ)
No. 6 - Alireza Azizkhoon MOHMADIPIANI (IRI)
No. 7 - Mihail BRADU (MDA)
No. 8 - Kristoffer Zakarias BERG (SWE)

87kg
No. 1 - Ali CENGIZ (TUR)
No. 2 - David LOSONCZI (HUN)
No. 3 - Alex KESSIDIS (SWE)
No. 4 - Naser Ghasem ALIZADEH (IRI)
No. 5 - Nursultan TURSYNOV (KAZ)
No. 6 - Semen Sergeevich NOVIKOV (BUL)
No.  7 - Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV (UZB)
No. 8 - Kumar SUNIL (IND)

97kg
No. 1 - Kiril Milenov MILOV (BUL)
No. 2 - Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM)
No. 3 - Mohammadhadi Abdollah SARAVI (IRI)
No. 4 - Nikoloz KAKHELASHVILI (ITA)
No. 5 - Arif NIFTULLAYEV (AZE)
No. 6 - Tamas LEVAI (HUN)
No. 7 - Rustam ASSAKALOV (UZB)
No. 8 - Felix BALDAUF (NOR) 

130kg
No. 1 - Riza KAYAALP (TUR)
No. 2 - Alin ALEXUC CIURARIU (ROU)
No. 3 - Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI)
No. 4 - Iakobi KAJAIA (GEO)
No. 5 - Lingzhe MENG (CHN)
No. 6 - Dariusz Attila VITEK (HUN)
No. 7 - Oscar PINO HINDS (CUB)
No. 8 - Oskar MARVIK (NOR)