#WrestleTokyo

#WrestleTokyo Olympic Games Preview: 86kg

Thursday, July 29, 2021 - 19:15 By Eric Olanowski

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TOKYO, Japan (July 20) – Returning world and Olympic champion Hassan YAZDANICHARATI (IRI) is on the verge of becoming Iran’s first-ever two-time Olympic gold medalist, but his path to that historic feat will likely go through his biggest rival, David TAYLOR (USA).

The duo of headlining superstars are on a collision course for a third career meeting. Taylor earned hand-raining performances in each of their two colossal matchups.

Their first meeting took place at the ‘17 World Cup in front of an Iranian-friendly crowd in Kermanshah. The then-relatively unknown American gassed Yazdani in the second period and scored a stunning fall over the Iranian -- sparking one of the sport’s biggest rivalries. A year later, Taylor proved the Kermanshah match wasn't a fluke. After trailing by four points after the first period, Taylor outscored Yazdani 9-0 in the second period of their opening-round clash at the ‘18 World Championships en route to winning his world title.

But Yazdani, known as “The Greatest,'' reclaimed 86kg supremacy at the ‘19 World Championships after Taylor underwent season-ending surgery after tearing his ACL in an exhibition bout.

He easily blew through the 86kg bracket at the ‘19 World Championships. The 27-year-old picked up a pair of falls and technical superiority wins before earning an injury default in the gold-medal final against Deepak PUNIA (IND). It was Yazdani’s second world gold and fourth overall world medal. He won a silver medal in ‘15 and a bronze medal in ‘18. He backed that up with a 30-0 thumping of his three opponents at the Asian Championships. 

Tailing Yazdani in the other seeded positions will be Deepak PUNIA (IND), Myles AMINE (SMR) and Artur NAIFONOV (RUS). 

India’s 22-year-old phenom Punia is seeded second. A month after winning a junior world title, Punia shockingly reached the world finals with four wins before injury defaulting out of the gold medal match. 

When third-seeded Amine takes the mat, it’ll be the first time a wrestler from San Mario has competed at the Olympic Games. 

Naifonov rounds out the top four seeds at 86kg. The Ossetian-born 24-year-old has finished with a medal in his last ten competitions -- eight of which were golds -- and only dropped two matches during those ten tournaments. He fell to Yazdani en route to his world bronze medal finish and dropped his Russian National finals match against Dauren KURUGLIEV (RUS). Outsides of those losses, he’s won a pair of European and Russian National titles.

Outside of Taylor and the top-four seeded wrestlers, two guys to keep an eye on are Ali SHABANAU (BLR) and Boris MAKOEV (SVK). 

Shabanau, the 31-year-old Kizilyurt, Dagestan native, will return to the Olympic Games for the first time since the London Olympic Games. He’s a four-time world bronze medalist. His most recent medal finish was at the ‘18 World Championships.

Makoev is another guy with high-level experience that could cause an unexpected shakeup. He fell to Yazdani in the ‘17 world finals.

Wrestling at the Tokyo Olympic Games kicks off August 1-7 at the Makuhari Messe with 86kg action beginning on August 4.

86kg
No. 1 Hassan AliazamYAZDANICHARATI (IRI)
No. 2 Deepak PUNIA (IND)
No. 3 Myles Nazem AMINE (SMR)
No. 4 Artur NAIFONOV (RUS)
Stefan REICHMUTH (SUI)
Carlos Arturo IZQUIERDO MENDEZ (COL)
Ekerekeme AGIOMOR (NGR)
Fateh BENFERDJALLAH (ALG)
David Morris TAYLOR III (USA)
Pool Edinson AMBROCIO GREIFO (PER)
Ali SHABANAU (BLR)
Osman GOCEN (TUR)
Javrail SHAPIEV (UZB)
Zushen LIN (CHN)
Sohsuke TAKATANI (JPN)
Boris MAKOEV (SVK)

#WrestleZagreb

World Championships 2025 Freestyle Entries, Seeds

Friday, August 15, 2025 - 13:57 By United World Wrestling Press

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ZAGREB, Croatia (August 14) -- The Freestyle entries for the World Championships are set. In total, close to 900 wrestlers are participating in the September 13-21 tournament in Zagreb.

In Freestyle, 326 wrestlers are entered to compete at the World Championships that will begin with Freestyle action on September 13. The competition will also see 12 Paris Olympic medalist compete including two gold medalists.

Note: These are preliminary entries and subject to change 72 hours before the Freestyle draw at the World Championships. For latest entries, refer to uww.org

WOMEN'S WRESTLING ENTRIES | GRECO-ROMAN ENTRIES

Zagreb

57kg

Seeded
No. 1 – Spencer LEE (USA)
No. 2 – Gulomjon ABDULLAEV (UZB)
No. 3 – AMAN (IND)
No. 4 – Roman BRAVO YOUNG (MEX)
No. 5 – Darian CRUZ (PUR)
No. 6 – Bekzat ALMAZ UULU (KGZ)
No. 7 – Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE)
No. 8 – Munkh Erdene BATKHUYAG (MGL)

Unseeded
Salah KATEB (ALG)
Arsen HARUTYUNYAN (ARM)
Ivaylo TISOV (BUL)
Garette SAUNDERS (CAN)
Mingzhuo LI (CHN)
Roland TAMBI NFORSONG (CMR)
Rabby KILANDI (COD)
Peter HAMMER CUDE (CRC)
Guesseppe REA VILLARROEL (ECU)
Roberti DINGASHVILI (GEO)
Niklas STECHELE (GER)
Ali Hossein MOMENI (IRI)
Husein ALBEHADILALBORS (IRQ)
Rin SAKAMOTO (JPN)
Adilet ALMUKHAMEDOV (KAZ)
Sunggwon KIM (KOR)
Vladimir EGOROV (MKD)
Chongsong HAN (PRK)
Azamat TUSKAEV (SRB)
Thomas EPP (SUI)
Aiaal BELOLYUBSKII (TJK)
Yusuf DEMIR (TUR)
Vladyslav ABRAMOV (UKR)
Musa MEKHTIKHANOV (UWW)
Aryan TSIUTRYN (UWW)

61kg

Seeded
No. 1 -- Zavur UGUEV (UWW)
No. 2 -- Nuraddin NOVRUZOV (AZE)
No. 3 -- Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO)
No. 4 -- Takara SUDA (JPN)
No. 5 -- UDIT (IND)
No. 6 -- Leomid COLESNIC (MDA)
No. 7 -- Dzmitry SHAMELA (UWW)
No. 8 -- Nils LEUTERT (SUI)

Unseeded
Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB)
Manvel KHNDZRTSYAN (ARM)
Georgii OKOROKOVV (AUS)
Zezhong SUN (CHN)
Ndjidda BOUBA (CMR)
Godefroid KALUBI (COD)
Joshua KRAMER (ECU)
Ahmad  JAVAN (IRI)
Simone PIRODDU (ITA)
Assylzhan YESSENGELDI (KAZ)
Taiyrbek ZHUMASHBEK UULU (KGZ)
Sangboum HAN (KOR)
Tuvshintulga TUMENBILEG (MGL)
Besir ALILI (MKD)
Ali ABURUMAILA (PLE)
Kum Hyok KIM (PRK)
Dylan SHAWVER (PUR)
Emrah ORMANOGLU (TUR)
Kamil KERYMOV (UKR)
Jaxen FORREST (USA)
Ibrahim GUZAN (YEM)

65kg

Seeded
No. 1 – Rahman AMOUZAD (IRI)
No. 2 – Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN)
No. 3 – Vazgen TEVANYAN (ARM)
No. 4 – Ali RAHIMZADA (AZE)
No. 5 – Khamzat ARSAMERZOUEV (FRA)
No. 6 – Sebastian RIVERA (PUR)
No. 7 – Ibragim IBRAGIMOV (UWW)
No. 8 – SUJEET (IND)

Unseeded
Chouaib SAHRAOUI (ALG)
Ayub MUSAEV (BEL)
Alibeg ALIBEGOV (BRN)
Mikyay NAIM (BUL)
Peiman BIABANI (CAN)
Tao WEI (CHN)
Roland KALAMBAYI (COD)
Goderdzi DZEBISASHVILI (GEO)
Nico MEGERLE (GER)
Mohammed KAREEM (IRQ)
Colin REALBUTO (ITA)
Nachyn KUULAR (KAZ)
Ikromzhon KHADZHIMURODOV (KGZ)
Junsik YUN (KOR)
Maxim SACULTAN (MDA)
Gantulga BATBAATAR (MGL)
Stephen IZOLO (NGR)
Abdullah ASSAF (PLE)
Krzysztof BIENKOWSKI (POL)
Kwang Jin KIM (PRK)
Daniel SANDU (ROU)
Nino LEUTERT (SUI)
Abdulmazhid KUDIEV (TJK)
Cavit ACAR (TUR)
Andrii BILIICHUK (UKR)
Real WOODS (USA)
Islam GUSEINOV (UWW)
Umidjon JALOLOV (UZB)
Wilfredo RODRIGUEZ (VEN)

70kg

Seeded
No. 1 – Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN)
No. 2 – Akaki KEMERTELIDZE (GEO)
No. 3 – Nurkozha KAIPANOV (KAZ)
No. 4 – Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE)
No. 5 – Arman ANDREASYAN (ARM)
No. 6 – Austin GOMEZ (MEX)
No. 7 – Vasile DIACON (MDA)
No. 8 – Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV (HUN)

Unseeded
Islam DUDAEV (ALB)
Shannon HANNA (BAH)
Mihail GEORGIEV (BUL)
Michael ZALE (CAN)
Jorge GATICA (CHI)
Shuang CHEN (CHN)
Gabriel MUANDA (COD)
Anthony WESLEY (CPV)
ROHIT (IND)
Amirmohammad YAZDANI (IRI)
Mohammed KAREEM (IRQ)
Ernazar AKMATALIEV (KGZ)
Yongseok JEONG (KOR)
Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL)
Viktor VOINOVIC (SRB)
Viktor RASSADIN (TJK)
Khairiddine BEN TLILI (TUN)
Haydar YAVUZ (TUR)
Oleksii BORUTA (UKR)
PJ DUKE (USA)
Saiyn KAZYRYK (UWW)
Begijon KULDASHEV (UZB)

74kg

Seeded
No.1 -- Chermen VALIEV (ALB)
No. 2 -- Taimuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK)
No. 3 -- Yones EMAMI (IRI)
No. 4 -- Orozobek TOKTOMAMBETOV (KGZ)
No. 5 -- Murad KURAMAGOMEDOV (HUN)
No. 6 -- Giorgi ELBAKIDZE (GEO)
No. 7 -- Magomedrasul ASLUEV (BRN)
No. 8 -- David CARR (USA)

Unseeded
Hrayr ALIKHANYAN (ARM)
Turan BAYRAMOV (AZE)
Ibragim VELIEV (BEL)
Renato DA SILVA (BRA)
Ramazan RAMAZANOV (BUL)
Adam THOMSON (CAN)
BATUQINGGELE (CHN)
Norvil BUKASA (COD)
Vedran LUKETIN (CRO)
Mohammad MOTTAGHINIA (ESP)
Vikash KUMAR (IND)
Luca FINIZIO (ITA)
Kota TAKAHASHI (JPN)
Alibek ABDIKASSYMOV (KAZ)
Daegil HAN (KOR)
Egzon XHONI (KOS)
Ion MARCU (MDA)
Cristian SANTIAGO (MEX)
Tugsjargal ERDENEBAT (MGL)
Rasul SHAPIEV (MKD)
Kamil RYBICKI (POL)
Ok Chol HAN (PRK)
Soner DEMIRTAS (TUR)
Ivan KUSYAK (UKR)
Vitali IHNATOVICH (UWW)
Zaurbek SIDAKOV (UWW)
Mirzo KHAYITOV (UZB)
Anthony MONTERO (VEN)

79kg

Seeded
No. 1 -- Akhsarbek GULAEV (SVK)
No. 2 -- Suldkhuu OLONBAYAR (MGL)
No. 3 -- Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO)
No. 4 -- Magomet EVLOEV (TJK)
No. 5 -- Mohammad NOKHODI (IRI)
No. 6 -- Khidir SAIPUDINOV (BRN)
No. 7 -- Zelimkhan KHADJIEV (FRA)
No. 8 -- Ryunosuke KAMIYA (JPN)

Unseeded
Dzhabrail GADZHIEV (AZE)
Patrik LEDER (CAN)
Tu Erxun AHEIYOU (CHN)
Andy MUKENDI (COD)
Marko NIKOLIC (CRO)
Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE)
AMIT (IND)
Bolat SAKAYEV (KAZ)
Bumgue SEO (KOR)
Alans AMIROVS (LAT)
Vlad STRATAN (MDA)
Dejan MITROV (MKD)
Michael LABRIOLA (PUR)
Iakub SHIKHDZHAMALOV (ROU)
Alfred DANIEL (SLE)
Azymberdi SAPAROV (TKM)
Ibrahim YAPRAK (TUR)
Vasyl MYKHAILOV (UKR)
Levi HAINES (USA)
Akhmed USMANOV (UWW)

86kg

Seeded
No. 1 -- Osman GOCEN (TUR)
No. 2 -- Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE)
No. 3 -- Mahamedkhabib KADZIMAHAMEDAU (UWW)
No. 4 -- Tariel GAPHRINDASHVILI (GEO)
No. 5 -- Zahid VALENCIA (USA)
No. 6 -- Rakhim MAGAMADOV (FRA)
No. 7 -- Hayato ISHIGURO (JPN)
No. 8 -- Batbilguun NAADAMBAT (MGL)

Unseeded
Fateh BENFERDJALLAH (ALG)
Simon MARCHL (AUT)
Hade AYIDUSI (CHN)
Matteo MONTEIRO FURTADO (CPV)
Kreso SKUGOR (CRO)
Ahmed MAHMOUD (EGY)
Gabriel IGLESIAS RAMOS (ESP)
Joshua MORODION (GER)
Mukul DAHIYA (IND)
Kamran GHASEMPOUR (IRI)
Azamat DAULETBEKOV (KAZ)
Mukhammad ABDULLAEV (KGZ)
Gyeongyeon LEE (KOR)
Ivars SAMUSONOK (LAT)
Paulius LESCAUSKAS (LTU)
Traian CAPATINA (MDA)
Cezary SADOWSKI (POL)
Ethan RAMOS (PUR)
Weng CHOW (SGP)
Boris MAKOEV (SVK)
Mukhammed ALIIEV (UKR)
Ibragim KADIEV (UWW)

92kg

Seeded
No. 1 -- Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO)
No. 2 -- Benjamin HONIS (ITA)
No. 3 -- Batyrbek TSAKULOV (SVK)
No. 4 -- Osman NURMAGOMEDOV (AZE)
No. 5 -- Dauren KURUGLIEV (GRE)
No. 6 -- Amirhossein FIROUZPOUR (IRI)
No. 7 -- Lars SCHAEFLE (GER)
No. 8 -- Trent HIDLAY (USA)

Unseeded
Benjamin GREIL (AUT)
Magomed SHARIPOV (BRN)
Ahmed BATAEV (BUL)
Andrew JOHNSON (CAN)
Hua ZE (CHN)
Cedric ABOSSOLO (CMR)
Barthelemy TSHOSHA (COD)
Deepak PUNIA (IND)
Uri KALASHNIKOV (ISR)
Takashi ISHIGURO (JPN)
Kamil KURUGLIYEV (KAZ)
Gwanuk KIM (KOR)
Andrian GROSUL (MDA)
Demchigdorj TUMURBAATAR (MGL)
Redjep HAJDARI (MKD)
Samuel SCHERRER (SUI)
Alperen TOKGOZ (TUR)
Ivan CHORNOHUZ (UKR)
Amanula GADZHIMAGOMEDOV (UWW)
Yaraslau IADKOUSKI (UWW)

97kg

Seeded
No. 1 -- Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN)
No. 2 -- Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO)
No. 3 -- Kyle SNYDER (USA)
No. 4 -- Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (AZE)
No. 5 -- Amirali AZARPIRA (IRI)
No. 6 -- Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (POL)
No. 7 -- Arash YOSHIDA (JPN)
No. 8 -- Richard VEGH (HUN)

Unseeded
Akhmed MAGAMAEV (BUL)
Nishan Preet RANDHAWA (CAN)
Awusayiman HABILA (CHN)
Filip HUKLEK (CRO)
Arturo SILOT TORRES (CUB)
Adlan VISKHANOV (FRA)
Ertugrul AGCA (GER)
VICKY (IND)
Rizabek AITMUKHAN (KAZ)
Juhwan SEO (KOR)
Domantas PAULIUSCENKO (LTU)
Radu LEFTER (MDA)
Gankhuyag GANBAATAR (MGL)
Magomedgadji NUROV (MKD)
Adam JAKSIK (SVK)
Shatlyk HEMELYAYEV (TKM)
Resul GUNE (TUR)
David MCHEDLIDZE (UKR)
Aliaksandr HUSHTYN (UWW)
Magomed KURBANOV (UWW)
Cristian SARCO (VEN)

125kg

Seeded
No. 1 -- Giorgi MESHVILDISHVILI (AZE)
No. 2 -- Amir Hossein ZARE (IRI)
No. 3 -- Dzianis KHRAMIANKOU (UWW)
No. 4 -- Robert BARAN (POL)
No. 5 -- Lkhagvagerel MUNKHTUR (MGL)
No. 6 -- Shamil SHARIPOV (BRN)
No. 7 -- Solomon MANASHVILI (GEO)
No. 8 -- Vlagyiszlav BAJCAJEV (HUN)

Unseeded
Johannes LUDESCHER (AUT)
Gabriel DE SOUSA (BRA)
Alen KHUBULOV (BUL)
BUHEEERDUN (CHN)
Filip KOSCIC (CRO)
Mohsen SIYAR (GER)
Azamat KHOSONOV (GRE)
Rajat RUHAL (IND)
Taiki YAMAMOTO (JPN)
Alisher YERGALI (KAZ)
Gyeongmin KIM (KOR)
Dmitrii DUSCOV (MDA)
Jonovan SMITH (PUR)
Omar SAREM (ROU)
Zyyamuhammet SAPAROV (TKM)
Hakan BUYUKCINGIL (TUR)
Murazi MCHEDLIDZE (UKR)
Wyatt HENDRICKSON (USA)
Abdulla KURBANOV (UWW)
Khasanboy RAKHIMOV (UZB)