#25Under25

UWW 25-Under-25: No. 6-No. 10

Thursday, February 17, 2022 - 06:24 By Eric Olanowski

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (February 17) -- United World Wrestling looked at 25 wrestlers who will undoubtedly keep wrestling fans at the edge of their seats throughout '22 and beyond.

With three short years left until the Paris Games, we're redirecting our attention to the sport's brightest young stars who are entering the prime of their careers. It's time to whisk in the next generation of talent that'll shoulder the weight of the sport into the '24 Olympics and beyond.

The question you asked, and we answered: "Who are the Top 25 Under 25?"

Here's UWW's fourth segment -- No. 10 through No. 6 -- of the Top 25 Under 25 to keep an eye on.

UWW 25-Under-25: No. 21-No. 25
No. 25 - Alina AKOBIYA (UKR), 23-years-old
No. 24 - Osman NURMAGOMEDOV (AZE), 24-years-old
No. 23 - Artur SARGSYAN (RWF), 24-years-old
No. 22 - TUMUR OCHIR Tulga (MGL), 24-year-old
No. 21 - Arsen HARUTYUNYAN (ARM), 22-years-old

UWW 25-Under-25: No. 20-No. 16
No. 20 - Anshu MALIK (IND), 20-years-old
No. 19 - Irinia RINGACI (MDA), 21-years-old
No. 18 - Zagir SHAKHIEV (RUS), 23-years-old
No. 17 - Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ), 23-years-old
No. 16 - Leri ABULADZE (GEO), 23-years-old

UWW 25-Under-25: No. 15-No. 11
No. 15 - Ernazar AKMATLIEV (KGZ), 23-years-old
No. 14 - Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI), 24-years-old
No. 13 - Akari FUJINAMI (JPN), 18-years-old
No. 12 - Abasgadzhi MAGOMEDOV (RWF), 23-years-old
No. 11 - Koumba LARROQUE (FRA), 23-years-old

No. 10 Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR), 23-years-old (August 28, 1998)

Instagram: koliadenko__8

Over the last few years, Ukraine’s women’s wrestling squad has been on a rapid rise to the top of the ranks and Koliadenko is one of the main reasons.

Koliadenko made her senior-level debut at the non-Olympic weight of 65kg in 2017 while still being junior and U23 eligible. She failed to finish on the podium at her first three events but medaled at seven of her last eight competitions.

Koliadenko’s rise began at the 2019 International Ukrainian Tournament where she defeated Individual World Cup champ and European runner-up Tetyana RHIZKO (UKR) for gold. She followed that up with 65kg runner-up finishes at the Poland Open and World Championships before moving down to the Olympic weight of 62kg in preparation for a Tokyo Olympic run.

Despite a rocky start at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event where she finished in fifth place, Koliadenko found her way at the new weight and qualified Ukraine for the Olympic Games after winning the European Olympic Qualifier. The 23-year-old star stayed on the winning track at the European Championships , defeating women’s wrestling legend and four-time Olympian Marianna SASTIN (HUN), 4-1, to win her first continental title.

Koliadenko saved her most impressive performance for the Tokyo Olympic Games. The Ukrainian dropped her semifinals match to two-time world champion Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ) but ended the competition with a trio of wins – two of which were falls – and a 3-1 win over Anastasija GRIGORJEVA (LAT) to claim Olympic bronze.

No. 9 Mohamed EL SAYED (EGY), 23-years-old (March 16, 1998)

Instagram: kesho_official

El Sayed has been long tabbed as Africa’s next big thing since he made his senior-level debut at 17-years-old at the 2016 African Championships. Since that debut six years ago, the now-23-year-old has grabbed continental gold four times and faced senior-level African defeat once. That loss came against ten-time African champion Zied AIT OUAGRAM (MAR) in the ’17 African finals.

Although he was well-known on the continental stage, El Sayed world success didn’t come until the ’19 World Championships. He qualified Egypt for the Olympic Games through his unbelievable performance in the '19 World Championships' toughest weight class, 67kg.

El Sayed placed fifth in a bracket that featured Olympic champion Ismael BORRERO (CUB) and world champions Artem SURKOV (RUS), Frank STAEBLER (GER), Rasul CHUNAYEV (AZE) and  Hansu RYU (KOR).

Since that massive confidence-building performance in Nur-Sultan, El Sayed has asserted himself into one of Greco-Roman’s biggest stars. He’s added another U23 world title and African title to his resume before closing out last year with a bronze-medal finish at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

No. 8 Parviz NASIBOV (UKR), 23-years-old (August 18, 1998)

Instagram: nasibov_parviz

When it comes to the Olympic Games, most cave to the pressure that the infamous five rings carry. For Nasibov, it was the complete opposite. The 23-year-old Ukrainian showed up to Tokyo riding the high of a second-place finish at the World Olympic Qualifier where he upset Rio Olympic bronze medalist and world champ Chunayev en route to a berth to the Tokyo Games.

Nasibov put his two world championships appearances, where he finished in 20th and 29th place, behind him and shocked the world by reaching the Olympic finals. His path to Olympic silver featured wins over world champ Artem Surkov and the aforementioned El Sayed before falling to Iranian superstar Mohammadreza GERAEI (IRI).

No. 7 Akzhol MAKHMUDOV, 22-years-old (April 15, 1999)

Instagram: akzhol_makhmudov

Makhmudov was destined for greatness and that was clear as a clean window after his epic 2017 junior world finals against Kamal BEY (USA). The Kyrgyz star’s style is a wrestling fan’s dream and a coach’s nightmare. He’s one of the rare individuals in wrestling that's willing to risk giving up points to score points, but in the end, it all worked out for him.

In 2018, Makhmudov suffered an injury that sidelined him for nearly two years. It’s hard to imagine where he’d be if he had those 24 months back, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.

Makhmudov returned to the mat in 2020, and after back-to-back finishes outside the top-ten, he found his grove and qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

From there, the rest is history. Makhmudov skyrocketed up the podium in Tokyo with wins over world champ Rafiq HUSEYNOV (AZE) and Karapet CHALYAN (ARM) before falling in the finals to the world champ Tamas LORINCZ (HUN) in the gold medal match.

Despite falling in the finals, Makhmudov claimed his nation’s first Greco-Roman Olympic medal since the ’08 Beijing Olympic Games.

No. 6 Meerim ZHUMANAZAROVA (KGZ), 22-years-old (November 9, 1999)

Instagram: zhumanazarova__m

Zhumanazarova joins fellow Kyrgyz women’s wrestling star Apiri MEDET KYZY (KGZ) on the list of the young stars to keep an eye out for.

The Bishkek native competed regularly on the senior circuit since 2017, but her coming-out party was at the ’20 Individual World Cup where she topped the podium with three wins --including an 8-2 win over Adela HANZLICKOVA (CZE) to capture gold.

Following that presence-announcing tournament in Belgrade, Zhumanazarova went on the world’s most impressive five-tournament run of the year. Her incredible stretch started with gold at International Ukrainian Tournament. Then she qualified for the Olympic Games with a runner-up finish at the Asian Olympic Qualifier before bagging bronze at the Poland Open Ranking Series event.

But Zhumanazarova saved her brightest performances for Tokyo and Oslo. She departed Tokyo as an Olympic bronze medalist and capped off her ’21 campaign with a world title run in a weight that featured then-reigning world and Olympic champ Tamyra MENSAH-STOCK (USA).

#BeachWrestling

Beach Wrestling: Iran's return to top; Puerto Rico, Azerbaijan win first golds

Sunday, September 28, 2025 - 13:44 By United World Wrestling Press

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KATERINI-PIERIA, Greece (September 27) -- Iran’s return to Beach Wrestling after an eight-year absence could have been cautious. Instead, it was commanding.

Iran won four medals, including two golds, to claim the men’s team title at the U17 World Beach Wrestling Championships after a close race with Georgia, which finished second with 75 points to Iran’s 80. Azerbaijan was third with 62 points.

In the women's category, hosts Greece managed to go past France to finish first with 50 points while France ended up second with 42. The United States was third with 32 points.

The U17 World Championships is a significant stop in Beach Wrestling as it will be taken into consideration for while awarding the quotas for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games.

IranIran's two gold medalists in Greece, Mahdi FOTOUHI (IRI), left, at 90kg and Youssof HOSSEIN (IRI), right, at 70kg.

Gold medalists for Iran, Youssof HOSSEIN (IRI) at 70kg and Mahdi FOTOUHI (IRI) at 90kg, were competing in Beach Wrestling for the first time but never let their inexperience affect their performances.

Hossein, who defeated Stefan MUNTEAN (MDA) in the knockout match, was placed in Group D with Yuki UEDA (JPN), Nikolaos PAPADOPOULOS (GRE) and Ilie TURCAN (MDA). He defeated Papadopoulos 3-1 in the group bout before blanking Turcan 3-0 in just 40 seconds. He was quicker against Ueda, winning in 34 seconds.

Facing Luka MAKHARADZE (GEO) in the quarterfinals, Hossein scored a 3-1 victory and took only 40 seconds to beat Rashad ALIYEV (AZE) in the semifinals.

In an all-Iran final, Hossein fell behind 1-0 against Ilyar VEGHARI (IRI) but stormed back with two straight points with a knee and head touch from Veghari. He used a lateral drop as his final move to win 5-1. Veghari's lost challenge added to Hossein's score and made it 6-1.

Fotouhi was even more dominant at 90kg, winning all three of his group bouts via fall. Charilaos CHAITIDIS (GRE) survived getting pinned in the quarterfinals but Fotouhi was strong enough to win 3-0 and advance to the semifinals.

After winning the semifinal 2-1 against Elgun KARIMLI (AZE), Fotouhi was back to his dominant self and slammed Joni SHAORSHADZE (GEO) to pick his fourth fall in six bouts and the gold medal for Iran.

Fotouhi began with a step out to earn his first point of the final. Both wrestlers arm-locked each other and tried to throw at the edge but it was Shaorshadze who touched outside first which gave Fotouhi his second point.

In one of those moments when his Freestyle instincts took over, Fotouhi went for duckunder and touched his knee on the sand which gave Shaorshadze a point to make the score 2-1. The Georgian tried a fireman carry in the final 10 seconds but Fotouhi pancaked him for a fall.

At 60kg, Mykyta KUZMENKO (UKR) defeated Rati BERIDZE (GEO) twice, first in the group stages and then in final, to claim the gold medal.

Kuzmenko blanked all his opponents barring Beridze who managed to score one point when the two met in the Group B bout. However, the Ukrainian improved and gave no chance to Beridze in the final, winning 3-0.

The Ukrainian was quick to score two step-outs and lead 2-0 and when Beridze tried to score a point, Kuzmenko snapped him down and scored his third and winning point.

Georgia had another silver medalist, Nuradin MUSTAFAEV (GEO), who suffered a one-sided loss in the 80kg final to Nihad SULEYMANLI (AZE), who had represented Azerbaijan at the U17 World Championships in Athens in August.

Suleymanli did not give up a single point in the tournament and won the final against Mustafaev 3-0. He scored a step-out to open the scoring in the final before Mustafaev fell on the ground to give a second point. The Georgian wrestler tried tripping Suleymanli but instead gave a takedown for one point to drop the final.

AzerbaijanAzerbaijan's first-ever gold medalist Ulviyya MUSAYEVA (AZE) with other team members.

Historic golds for Puerto Rico, Azerbaijan

In the women's category, Puerto Rico and Azerbaijan earned historic golds as four different countries crowned champions.

Heklanys RIVERA (PUR), the first woman to compete in Beach Wrestling for her country, made a stunning run to the gold medal at 45kg. She did not give up a single point in six bouts including the final.

Taking on Kaltouma SALISSOU (FRA) in the final, Rivera was put on the 30-second activity clock. With eight seconds remaining, Rivera used an underhook to get the first takedown for a point.

The second point was awarded to Rivera when Salissou committed a foul by grabbing Rivera's shorts. The winning takedown was similar to the first one as Rivera moved from underhook to tripping Salissou.

For Azerbaijan, 15-year-old Ulviyya MUSAYEVA (AZE) needed only 16 seconds to create history. She defeated last year's champion Reisa KOJIMA (JPN) via fall in the 55kg final. Kojima tried hitting a lateral drop in the final but fell on her back, which gave Musayeva three points for the win.

Earlier, Musayeva had lost one of the group bouts against Mia KOVAC (CRO) via fall but rebounded to win all remaining bouts to make the final and then capture the gold medal.

Hosts Greece, which won the team title, earned the gold medal at 75kg through Elena ZAIMIDOU (GRE) who scored a 32-second victory via fall over Madeline HAYDEN (USA) in the final.

Zaimidou, who has competed and won gold in Grappling at the European level, secured three victories via fall, and a victory via superiority over Merily VAESTER (EST) in the semifinals.

In the gold medal bout, Hayden stunned the local fans when she hit a beautiful over-the-head suplex on Zaimidou. Hayden went for a second suplex, but Zaimidou blocked her, using a headlock, and Hayden fell on her back which gave Zaimidou three points and the victory.

Hayden challenged the scoring but the points were confirmed on review and Zaimidou was awarded a point for lost challenge, which made her score 4-1.

European bronze medalist in Women's Wrestling, Alexandra MOISEI (MDA) earned the gold medal at 65kg after some nervous wins. She defeated Thea ROUSSEL (FRA), 3-0, in the final in 49 seconds using three easy snapdowns.