Weekly FIVE!

Weekly FIVE! August 13, 2018

By Eric Olanowski

Taking a look at Burroughs blast doubling rumors and Iran's Asian Games line-up. Also looking at Greco-Roman results from Russian Nationals and much more. 

1. Burroughs Blast Doubles Training with McGregor Rumors 
Rumors recently surfaced that five-time world and Olympic champion, Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) landed in Dublin, Ireland to begin training with Conor MCGREGOR (IRL) for his October 6 title fight with Khabib NURMAGOMEDOV (RUS).

Burroughs quickly took to Twitter to dispel any rumors, saying, “I’m not working with Conor. I’m attempting to win a World Championship of my own in October. I wish him the best of luck in his upcoming title fight with Khabib.”

World and Olympic champion, Hassan YAZDANI (IRI). (Photo by Max Rose-Fyne) 

2. Iran Announces Asian Games Line-up   
Iran recently announced their six freestyle representatives for the 18th Asian Games which take place in Jakarta, Indonesia from August 19-22. 

Hassan YAZDANI (IRI), Iran’s world and Olympic champion leads a much different squad than the second-place one that Iran sent to the Bishkek Asian Championships back in February.  

Along with Yazdani, Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI, the 2018 Asian Championship bronze medalist is the only other wrestler who will compete for Iran at both the Asian Championships and Asian Games. 

Iran, with three champions and six overall medals finished in second place, 21 points behind Asian champions, Uzbekistan.

Iran’s Asian Games Line-up  
57kg - Reza ATRI 
65kg - Mehran NASIRI 
74kg - Mostafa HOSSEINKHANI 
86kg - Hassan YAZDANI  
97kg - Alireza KARIMI 
125kg - Parviz HADI 

SCHEDULE 

 Stepan MARYANYAN (RUS), 63kg Russian National champion. (Photo by Martin Gabor) 

3. Greco-Roman Russian National Championships Conclude in Odintsovo
For the second week in a row, Russia held their National Championships in Odintsovo, Russia. A week ago, it was the Freestyle National Championships, and this past weekend it was the Greco-Roman National Championships. 

As we saw in freestyle, just because you win the Russian Nationals does not mean you’re headed to Budapest. 

On September 29, the winners from Russian Nationals at 60kg, 67kg, 72kg, and 77kg will head to the Ljubomir Ivanovic Gedza Memorial in Mladenovac, Serbia to wrestle the four European Championship gold medalists for their spot on Russia’s Budapest World Championship team. 

In addition, although Vitali KABALOEV (RUS) won the 55kg Russian National gold medal, he’ll also head to Serbia to take on former No.1 Vasilii TOPOEV (RUS). The winner of this bout will represent Russia in Budapest. 

Greco-Roman Russian National Winners (*European Champions) 
55kg - Vitali KABALOEV 
60kg - Mingian SEMYONOV (*Sergei EMELIN) 
63kg - Stepan MARYANYAN 
67kg – Zaur KABALOEV (*Artem SURKOV) 
72kg - Abuyazid MANTSIGOV (*Adam KURAK) 
77kg - Alexander CHEKHARKIN (*Roman VLASOV) 
82kg - Imil SHARAFETDINOV 
87kg - Beckhan OZDOEV
97kg - Nikita MELNIKOV 
130kg – Sergei SEMENOV 

4. Legendary Coach Pedro Val Bragueira of Cuba, Dies at 65
Cuba’s longtime head Greco-Roman wrestling coach Pedro VAL BRAGUEIRA (CUB) died August 3 after a long illness. He was 65.

Pedro Val was the head of the Greco-Roman national team between 1975 and 2015 and was the personal coach to many of Cuba’s wrestling legends, including three-time Olympic champion Mijaín LOPEZ, two-time Olympic champion Filiberto AZCUY, and 1992 Olympic champion Héctor MILIÁN. 

In 2010 Pedro Val was distinguished as the best coach in the world by United World Wrestling.

5. Pan-American Championships Begin Friday 
Fortaleza, Brazil is poised to host the 2018 Junior Pan-American Championships which takes place August 17-19. 

Greco-Roman wrestling will kick off the championships at the Centro de Formacao Olimpica do Nordeste on Friday and will be followed by women’s wrestling (Friday) and freestyle (Saturday).

Full Schedule

Weekly FIVE! In Social Media 

1. Big Move Monday !
2. Failed flying squirrel attempt!
3. Throw everything you have into it.
4. 30 seconds of madness! 
5. Have a productive week!?
Всем плодотворной недели!✊
#monday#wrestling#victory#passion#ilovewrestling#борьба#понедельник

#WrestleBelgrade

Wrestling scores 443% engagement growth as UWW+ makes World C’ships debut

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (October 18) –– United World Wrestling (UWW) trebled its year-on-year (YoY) digital viewership and recorded more than five times as many social engagements at this year’s UWW World Championships (WCH23) in Belgrade, Serbia, as the sport debuted an upgraded digital portfolio, including the new UWW+ over-the-top (OTT) service.

The multi-tiered, premium subscription streaming platform registered 4.36 million livestream views throughout the 2023 edition of UWW’s flagship event, held between September 16-24. The event also recorded 25 million social engagements (+443% over WCH22) and 155 million video views across its digital platforms (+203% over WCH22).

The impressive growth coincides with the redesign of the UWW website and the introduction of an enhanced fan-data ecosystem to help personalize and deliver an easy-to-navigate fan experience across web, social media, and UWW’s dedicated mobile app. Overall, WCH23 grew its digital reach by 63% to 296 million and attracted over 404,000 new followers.

Nenad LALOVIC, UWW President, said: “By diversifying the fan experience at this year’s World Championships, UWW has once again proven the power of digital transformation for driving engagement and expanding wrestling’s global audience. The latest numbers demonstrate the importance of digitalization and to lay the foundations for expanding the sport’s digital audience.”

Gordon Templeman, UWW’s Director of Commercial Operations and Communications, said: “UWW is establishing a digital portfolio which allows us to offer a personalized fan experience. To do this, we have diversified by investing in customer-facing digital products which enhances the digital experience for wrestling fans and enables UWW’s sponsors and commercial partners to build a direct relationship with our global audience.”

UWW
Key highlights from the WCH23 data analysis include: 

  • 25 million social media engagements (+443% over WCH22)
  • 155 million total video views (+203% over WCH22)
  • 404,000 new followers (+167% over WCH22)
  • 296 million digital reach (+63% over WCH22)
  • 4.36 million livestream views on UWW+

The UWW+ streaming platform is integrated within UWW’s website and mobile app, as part of the upgrades to UWW’s digital inventory and marks the latest phase of the International Federation’s collaboration with N3XT Sports, the end-to-end digital transformation consultancy. UWW has identified and prioritized digital transformation as one of the five pillars for its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, which was presented and approved at the 2021 UWW Congress.

Motasem El Bawab, N3XT Sports’ Chief Information Officer (CIO), said: “Our team at N3XT Sports offers an end-to-end service plugged into UWW’s wider digital team. In addition to UWW+ and wrestling’s new, first-class streaming offering, our team also supported every aspect of UWW’s digital operation throughout WCH23, across digital marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), while optimizing the fan journey through data analytics and the assistance of artificial intelligence-driven software solutions.”

Click here to review the 2023 Senior World Championships case study.