#WrestleBucharest

Pair of World Final Rematches Highlight Day Seven Gold-Medal Bouts

Sunday, April 14, 2019 - 13:10 By Eric Olanowski

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BUCHAREST, Romania (April 13) – The final five Greco-Roman gold-medal bouts are settled, and it was the Russian Federation, who again placed three wrestlers into the finals. Russia leads second-place Azerbaijan by 34 points heading into the final session of wrestling at Bucharest’s Polyvalent Hall. 

The three Russian Day 7 finalists are Sergey EMELIN, Abuiazid MANTSIGOV, and Musa EVLOEV, who’ll wrestle for gold at 60kg, 72kg, and 97kg respectively.

Emelin and Evloev will both wrestle the men they defeated in Budapest to capture their world titles last October. Tonight, Emelin will wrestle Moldova’s Victor CIOBANU in the 60kg finals, and Evloev will wrestle Bulgaria's Kiril MILOV in the finals at 97kg. 

The third Russian gold-medal hopeful is Abduiazid Mantsigov. He’ll wrestle Turkey’s reigning U23 world champion Cengiz ARSLAN for the 72kg European title.

The two weights not featuring a wrestler from the Russian Federation are 67kg and 82kg. 

Gevorg SAHAKYAN (POL) inserted himself into the 67kg finals with a 5-3 semifinals win over Mate NEMES (SRB). Sahakyan trailed 3-0, but closed out the first period with a takedown and trailed 3-2. In the final period, the Polish wrestled scored an inactivity point and an exposure to seal up his spot in the  67kg finals.

Sahakyan will meet Turkey’s Atakan YUKSEL (TUR), who scored the 3-1 semifinals win over Georgia’s Sachino DAVITAIA (GEO). 

At 82kg, Lasha GOBADZE (GEO) put away Finland's Vili Tapio ROPPONEN with a pair of highlight reel five-point moves and will take on Denmark's Rajbek BISULTANOV, who shocked reigning world runner-up Emrah KUS (TUR), 5-5, in the semifinals. Bisultanov led 5-0, but gave up five straight points (an inactivity point, and two exposures), and held on to win on criteria. 

If Bisultanov reaches the top of the podium tonight in Bucharest, he'll become Denmark’s first European champion since Johannes JACOBSEN won the Riga European title in 1926. 

The Day 7 finals begin at 18:00 (local time) and can be followed live on www.unitedworldwrestling.org. 

RESULTS
60kg 
GOLD - Sergey EMELIN (RUS) vs. Victor CIOBANU (MDA)
SEMIFNIAL - Victor CIOBANU (MDA) df. Lenur TEMIROV (UKR), 6-4
SEMIFNIAL -  Sergey EMELIN (RUS) vs. Kerem KAMAL (TUR), 7-0 

67kg 
GOLD - Gevorg SAHAKYAN (POL) vs. Atakan YUKSEL (TUR) 
SEMIFINAL - Gevorg SAHAKYAN (POL) df. Mate NEMES (SRB), 5-3 
SEMIFINAL - Atakan YUKSEL (TUR) df. Sachino DAVITAIA (GEO), 3-1

72kg
GOLD - Abuiazid MANTSIGOV (RUS) vs. Cengiz ARSLAN (TUR)
SEMIFINAL - Cengiz ARSLAN (TUR) df. Aik MNATSAKANIAN (BUL), 2-1 
SEMIFINAL - Abuiazid MANTSIGOV (RUS) df. Dominik ETLINGER (CRO), 9-0 

82kg
GOLD - Lasha GOBADZE (GEO) vs. Rajbek BISULTANOV (DEN)
SEMIFINAL -. Lasha GOBADZE (GEO) df. Vili Tapio ROPPONEN (FIN) df 11-0 
SEMIFINAL - Rajbek Alvievich BISULTANOV (DEN) df. Emrah KUS (TUR), 5-5 

97kg 
GOLD - Musa EVLOEV (RUS) vs. Kiril Milenov MILOV (BUL)
SEMIFINAL - Musa EVLOEV (RUS) df. Daigoro TIMONCINI (ITA), 3-1
SEMIFINAL - Kiril Milenov MILOV (BUL) df. Matti Elias KUOSMANEN (FIN), 4-1 

#UWWAwards

UWW Top Ranked Wrestlers of 2025: Verbina, Komarov, Aoyagi

Wednesday, December 17, 2025 - 19:03 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 17) -- United World Wrestling has announced the three Best Ranked Wrestlers in 2025. The three wrestlers earned the most ranking points in the year 2025.

The most ranking points in the year 2025 were earned by world champion Aleksandr KOMAROV (SRB) in Greco-Roman as he scored 83,500 points. In Women's Wrestling, world silver medalist Ekaterina VERBINA (UWW) was the highest ranked wrestler as she earned 64,200 points.

In Freestyle, world champion Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) earned 76,900 points, the best among all wrestlers.

Verbina: Women's 55kg

Verbina may not have won the gold medal at the World Championships but she had a busy year, wrestling more often than others. That earned her more ranking points than many as she finished at the top of the rankings in Women's Wrestling.

Her first competition was the Zagreb Open Ranking Series in which she finished fifth for just 4,000 points. In the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series in Tirana, Albania where she finished with a bronze medal that earned her 5,2000 points. She added 10,000 points for her gold medal at the European Championships. Another gold, at the Budapest Ranking Series, added 8,000 points.

Verbina entered the World Championships with 27,200 points. She jumped ahead of many with 37,000 points for her silver medal at 55kg. Her total went up to 64,200 points, taking her past the likes of world champions Sakura ONISHI (JPN) and Miwa MORIKAWA (JPN). Both finished 1,200 points less than Verbina.

Komarov: Greco 87kg

Komarov began his season with the Zagreb Open Ranking Series and finished fifth, giving him 9,000 points. A similar result at the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series gave him 9,000 points.

A big boost came at the European Championships in which Komarov won a bronze medal at 87kg to earn 11,500 points. In June, another fifth place finish at the Budapest Ranking Series added 9,000 points to his name to take the total to 38,500 points before the World Championships.

In Zagreb at the Worlds, Komarov won the gold medal and earned a stunning 45,000 points to 83,500 points, the most among all wrestlers and 13,780 points more than second most -- Aytjan KHALMAKHANOV (UZB).

Aoyagi: Freestyle 70kg

World champion was the top ranked freestyle wrestler with 76,900 points, 9,600 points more than the second place wrestler.

His first competition was the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series in which he bagged the gold medal to earn 11,000 points. He then added a bronze medal at the Asian Championships and earned 9,500 points for the same.

The Budapest Ranking Series gold gave him another 11,000 points, taking his total to 31,500 points before the World Championships. He became a world champion in Zagreb and that gold medal was worth 45,000 points, sending his total to 76,500 points.

Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK), with 66,900 points, is the second-best wrestler, 9,600 points less than Aoyagi.