ZAGREB, Croatia (September 16) -- A World Championships medal might be a career milestone for most wrestlers but for Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN), his bronze at the 2025 Worlds is a prize he hopes to forget.

Coming into the tournament in Zagreb, Tazhudinov was considered as the best wrestler in the world and the favorite to win gold medal at the 97kg. He had built a reputation of a wrestler who bulldozes anyone who stands in his path and the gold medal, like he did to win the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

But Tazhudinov was anything but an Olympic and world champion in Zagreb.

He almost dropped his match against Mogomed KURBANOV (UWW) before he used a front headlock roll to survive. The wining run was short lived as Amirali AZARPIRA (IRI) showed that Tazhudinov is only human, winning the bout 5-2 and ending Tazhudinov's golden run.

"My initial goal was the gold medal," Tazhudinov said. "I wanted to become a two-time world champion. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen -- maybe it was meant to be this way. It’s very painful to lose."

While he was searching for answers for his performance, Tazhudinov said that the shoulder surgery may have affected his wrestling at the World Championships.

"I was coming back after surgery, after a serious injury," Tazhudinov said. "Maybe that had an effect, I don’t even know. It took me a very long time to get myself together. At the beginning, training sessions were very difficult."

Tazhudinov returned from the surgery to win two gold medals in a month -- first at the Spain Grand Prix and then at the Budapest Ranking Series in June.

After the semifinal loss to Azarpira at the World Championships, Tazhudinov returned for his bronze medal bout against 34-year-old Akhmed MAGAMAEV (BUL), a match that further put Tazhudinov under the scanner despite him winning the bronze medal.

Magamaev was put on the 30-second activity clock but he bodylocked Tazhudinov and slammed him for four points just before the activity period was about to end. Tazhudinov got one back with a takedown to make it 4-2 at the break. He began the second period with another takedown to make it 4-4 but Magamaev continued the scramble and both wrestlers were awarded two exposure points each with the Bulgarian leading 6-6 on criteria.

A counter lift to exposure gave Tazhudinov the lead for the first time in the bout, 8-6, and as Magamaev tried doing the counter lift, he gave up two as Tazhudinov blocked him. The final scramble, which gave Tazhudinov an 11-10 win, was challenged by Bulgaria. Eventually, it was scored 13-10.

Despite winning the bout, Tazhudinov shook his head perhaps himself surprised with his lackluster performance.

"Honestly, I don’t even know what went wrong," he said. "It means I wasn’t well enough prepared. It means I wasn’t in my best shape. It means I need to work even more."

Tazhudinov said that he had difficulty preparing for the bronze-medal bout after the loss to Azarpira.

"After the semifinal loss, I couldn’t motivate myself at all for the bronze-medal match," he said. "I don’t even know how I stepped onto the mat. I wasn’t mentally ready to wrestle at all, and that’s why the match was so difficult.

"But I will not give up -- I’ll go home, work on my mistakes, and train even harder to come back stronger."