Ivan Yarygin

Yarygin Day Two Finals

By Eric Olanowski

Russia continued its dominance on day two of the Ivan Yarygin placing five of a possible six into the night's finals. The host nation has now placed 11 of 12 wrestlers into the first six freestyle weights.

Defending Yarygin champion Ilyas BEKBULATOV (RUS) picked up a quick win in the semifinals scoring a takedown and four gut wrenches to earn the 10-0 win. Bekbultakov will meet 2017 world bronze medalist Akhmed CHAKAEV (RUS) in the finals. Chakaev took out Tsogtbaatar DAMDINBAZAR (MGL), 9-1 in his semifinal.

Kyle Dake broke Russia's strangehold on the finals with a 10-0 technical superiority victory in the 79kg semifinals. Dake faces Shiabdinovitch GADZHIMAGOMEDOV (RUS) who squeaked out a 2-1 semifinal victory over Radik VALIEV (RUS).

At 125kg, Muradin KUSHKHOV (RUS) will wrestle fellow Russian, Anzor Ruslanovitch KHIZRIEV who only ceded four points through his first three matches. Kushkov defeated 2017 world bronze medalist Nicholas GWIAZDOWSKI (USA) in the quarterfinals.

In women’s wrestling, China, Japan and Mongolia each enter tonight’s session with two finalists.  China and Japan are looking to expand on their gold medal haul, having each captured a pair of gold medals on Friday night. Russia’s Stalvira ORSHUSH (RUS) and Tamyra MENSAH (USA) are also making final appearances, with Mensah looking to defend her 2017 title.

Here are the final matches:

65kg

GOLD - Akhmed CHAKAEV (RUS) vs. Ilias BEKBULATOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Nachyn Sergeevitch KUULAR (RUS) vs. Batmagnai BATCHULUUN (MGL) 

BRONZE - Selahattin KILICSALLAYAN (TUR) vs. Tsogtbaatar DAMDINBAZAR (MGL) 

79kg

GOLD - Kyle DAKE (USA) vs. Akhmed Shiabdinovitch GADZHIMAGOMEDOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Muhammet KUTANOGLU (TUR) vs. Radik VALIEV (RUS)
BRONZE - Alan ZASEEV (RUS) vs. Rashid KURBANOV (UZB)

125kg

GOLD - Muradin KUSHKHOV (RUS) vs. Anzor Ruslanovitch KHIZRIEV (RUS) 
BRONZE -
Zolboo NATSAGSUREN (MGL) vs. Zachery William REY (USA) 

BRONZE - Nicholas GWIAZDOWSKI (USA) vs. Lkhagvagerel MUNKHTUR (MGL) 

Women’s wrestling

53kg

GOLD - Yu MIYAHARA (JPN) df. Stalvira ORSHUSH (RUS), 4-4
BRONZE -  
Ekaterina POLESHCHUK (RUS) df. Yujiao LIU (CHN), 4-4

BRONZE -  Natalia MALYSHEVA (RUS) df. Otgonjargal GANBAATAR (MGL), 7-3

57kg

GOLD - Gantuya ENKHBAT (MGL) vs. Qi ZHANG (CHN) 
BRONZE -  
Lianna de la caridad MONTERO HERRERA (CUB) vs. Battsetseg ALTANTSETSEG (MGL) 
BRONZE - Olga KHOROSHAVTSEVA (RUS) vs. Alexandra ANDREEVA (RUS)

62kg

GOLD - Orkhon PUREVDORJ (MGL) vs. Kiwa SAKAE (JPN) 
BRONZE - Ayaulym KASSYMOVA (KAZ) vs. Yaquelin ESTORNELL ELIZASTIGUE (CUB) 
BRONZE -  Juan KANG (CHN) vs. Inna TRAZHUKOVA (RUS) 

68kg
GOLD -  Tamyra mariama MENSAH (USA) df. Yue HAN (CHN)

BRONZE - Yudari SANCHEZ RODRIGUEZ (CUB) df. Iuliia MAKSIMOVA BARTNOVSKAIA (RUS)BRONZE -  Rui XU (CHN) df. Galina BULATOVA (RUS)

THIS IS THE START OF THE Yarygin Live Notebook - Day Two 

The second day of wrestling at the 2018 Ivan Yarygin kicks off at 11:00am. Here is where you can WATCH the three men's freestyle and four women's wrestling categories that are in action today. 

Did you miss the action from the first day? Here is everything that you may have missed from DAY ONE of the #Yarygin2018. 

PHOTO OF THE DAY - DAY ONE 

TWEETS OF THE DAY 
Get social with United World Wrestling (@wrestling) on twitter and use the #Yarygin2018 for a chance to be featured on our TWEETS OF THE DAY!  

Freestyle

The three Freestyle  weight categories that will compete today are 65kg,79kg and 125kg. 

First and Second Round 
Logan STIEBER (USA), the 2016 World champion trailed 3-2 heading into the second period when he picked up a takedown to a leg lace. Stieber ended the match with that sequence, 13-3. 

Over on MAT A, BATCHULUUN Batmagnai (MGL) and Lazaro Dayron CARBONELL VALDES (CUB) are wrestling in what's going to be a MATCH OF THE DAY CANDIDATE. The final score of this match was 13-9 in favor of Batchluun. 

Y. Rodrigues BONNE (CUB) who is one of the most explosive wrestlers on the planet is coming up on MAT A. Chalk up Y. Rodrigues BONNE (CUB) for another #BIGMOVEMONDAY! He just ended his first round match with an insane five point move. 

Ilias BEKBULATOV (RUS) and Logan STIEBER (USA) are about to come to MAT A. Bekbulatov's the returning champion, and as previsouly mentioned, Stieber is a world champion.

There were a few good exchanges, but overall it was Bekbulatov's defense and gut wrench that helped seal the 16-6 technical superiority victory. 

Fan favorite, Cengizhan ERDOGAN (TUR) just picked up his second victory of the day, putting himself into the quaterfinals at 65kg. 

Bonne trails 6-3 with under a minute left over on Mat A. After giving up a four-point move, BATCHULUUN Batmagnai (MGL) won, 10-3. 

Over on Mat C, it will be back-to-back matches for the Americans. First up was Bobby TELFORD,  now it's Zach RAY (USA). 

Quarterfinals (2:22 PM) 

FS 65kg - (2:25 PM) - Ilias BEKBULATOV (RUS) just scored twelve unanswered points and leads Nachyn Sergeevitch KUULAR (RUS), 12-4 with two minutes remaining in the second period.  Bekbulatov  wins and moves onto the 65kg semifinals. He'll wrestle the winner of Cengizhan ERDOGAN (TUR) and Batmagnai BATCHULUUN (MGL). 

FS 79kg - (2:25 PM) - The 79kg quarterfinals are about to begin over on Mat B. 

FS 79kg - (2:33 PM) - Kyle DAKE (USA) outlasts Alan ZASEEV (RUS) to make the semifinals at 79kgs. 

FS 65kg - (2:54 PM) - The semifinals are starting over on Mat A with  Tsogtbaatar DAMDINBAZAR (MGL) and Akhmed CHAKAEV (RUS). 

 

Women's Wrestling 
The four women's wrestling weight categories that will compete today are 53kg, 57kg, 62kg and  68 kg. 

Erdenesukh NARANGEREL (MGL) just capped off her second round match with a 12-2 technical fall over Ekaterina POLESHCHUK (RUS). ERDENESUKH used a blast double right to a leg lace to score the final four points of the match. 

Stalvira ORSHUSH (RUS) uses two takedowns to defeat Natalia MALYSHEVA (RUS), 4-0. 

WW 57kg - (3:11 PM) Gantuya ENKHBAT (MGL) and Alexandra ANDREEVA (RUS) will wrestle in the first women's wrestling semifinal on Mat B. 

#WrestleZagreb

Zagreb Open Flashback: Iran, U.S. opened season with success

By Vinay Siwach

ZAGREB, Croatia (January 18) -- United World Wrestling's 2026 season will kick off with the Ranking Series in Zagreb February 4. The recent memories of Zagreb may be the September World Championships but the 2025 season also kicked off with the Ranking Series in the Croatian capital.

Iran and the United States had strong performances in the first of the four stops of the Ranking Series, a theme which continued throughout the 2025 season as the U.S. dominated Freestyle while Iran dominated Greco-Roman.

Women's Wrestling participants were less in numbers but still saw U.S. and UWW wrestlers share gold medals.

Here's a trip down memory lane of the 2025 Zagreb Open Ranking Series before the 2026 season kicks off:

WATCH ZAGREB OPEN 2025 TOP BOUTS HERE

Freestyle

A young Iranian team snapped four gold medals in Zagreb with Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) winning gold at 61kg, Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) winning at 65kg, Amirhossein FIROUZPOUR (IRI) became champion at 92kg and Amirreza MASOUMI (IRI) winning the 125kg gold.

For the U.S., Spencer LEE (USA) kicked off the season with 57kg with gold, Zahid VALENCIA (USA) won at 86kg and Kyle SNYDER (USA) at 97kg. Both Valencia and Snyder went on to win gold at the World Championships later in the season.

Azerbaijan, Slovakia and France won one gold each, with Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE) winning at 70kg for Azerbaijan, Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) winning gold at 74kg, and Zelimkhan KHADJIEV (FRA) winning at 79kg for France.

Iran dominance began when Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) won gold at 61kg, beating the likes of Nuraddin NUVROZOV (AZE), Nashon GARRETT (USA), Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) and Ebrahim KHARI (IRI). Javan would later win a silver medal at the World Championships. At 65kg, Ebrahim held his own in a thrilling final against Joseph MCKENNA (USA) to grab the second gold for Iran.

Young superstars Firouzpour and Masoumi put up a show to win gold medals at 92kg and 125kg respectively.

Lee was making a returning to competition six months after winning the silver medal at the Paris Olympics. He won the Zagreb Open gold with rather ease. For the U.S., Valencia saw himself win gold at 86kg outscoring his opponents 35-4 in four bouts. In the final, Valencia defeated world bronze medalist Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE), 8-0.

Snyder opened his season with a 33-1 scoring run in three bouts at 97kg in Zagreb. In the final, he easily defeated Abolfazl BABALOO (IRI).

Heybatov gave early warnings to the 70kg field by winning gold in Zagreb, a run which included wins over Austin GOMEZ (MEX), two back-to-back wins over Iranian wrestlers including a 12-1 one again Sina KHALILI (IRI) in the final. The two would wrestle again towards the end of the year at the U23 World Championships. Heybatov won that final with a 9-4 score.

Two veterans, Salkazanov and Khadjiev, were at their best in the opening Ranking Series tournament. Salkazanov blanked everyone, including winning 4-0 against David CARR (USA) in the final, to win 74kg gold.

Khadjiev had a tougher bat but managed to win the 79kg gold with a 5-3 win over Mahdi YOUSEFI (IRI) in the final. The French wrestler would later win silver at the European Championships.