#WrestleIstanbul

#WrestleIstanbul Rematch-to-Watch: Burroughs vs. Cabolov

Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - 12:46 By Eric Olanowski

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ISTANBUL, Turkey (February 16) -- The last time Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) and Hetik CABOLOV (SRB) – formerly known as Khetik TSABOLOV (RWF) -- shared the mat, there were both individual and freestyle team world titles on the line.

Cabolov and Burroughs are entered into the stacked 79kg bracket at next week’s Yasar Dogu and could potentially clash next Sunday, February 27, for Ranking Series gold.

Although the stakes in Istanbul won’t be as high as they were in the ’17 Paris world finals, the tensions are guaranteed to remain on the same level. The two have a clear respect for each other off the mat, but if that final in France was any indication as to what another match could look like, wrestling fans are in for a treat next week.

During their fiercely-contested last meeting, there were seven lead changes, six combined takedowns and a referee stoppage after the match started to resemble a heavyweight boxing fight.

Burroughs surrendered the first takedown of the match and trailed 2-0 early as his then-Russian opponent stopped a double leg from open space, scoring off an elbow pass to a single leg. Burroughs leveled the match two apiece with a counter offense freight train double leg, taking the lead on criteria a minute into the bout.

Burroughs handed the lead back to Cabolov 28 seconds later after he tried toeing the out of bounds to stop a double leg attempt, but the 2014 world champion circled the American legend to his right and grabbed a second takedown.

Trailing 4-2, Burroughs caught Cabolov on his belly after a double leg from space and transitioned from a go behind to a leg lace and led 6-4.

The Russian Wrestling Federation didn’t agree with the two-and-two, saying Cabolov’s knee never touched while Burroughs was behind and requested a challenge. They won the challenge and cut Burroughs’ lead to 4-4 heading into the closing frame.

The second period is where their hands became heavy and things got chippy between the pair of former world champs. “Now they’re in each other faces. This is turning not only into a wrestling match but a war,” said Bryan Hazard, who was on the call for the 74kg finals match.

After a stern warning from the ref, action resumed. Burroughs skated the edge of the mat and halted a Cabolov shot and extended his lead to 5-4 with a step out. But that lead was short-lived, as the gold-shoe-wearing American conceded a single leg and trailed 6-5 with 90 ticks left.

Burroughs bagged his third takedown of the bout off a lazy shot attempt from Cabolov and regained the lead, 7-6. He tacked on a fourth takedown of the bout, closing out the match with a three-point victory to claim his fourth career world title.

Both have moved a weight class up since then and are scheduled to compete at 79kg at the first Ranking Series event of the season, Yasar Dogu, on Sunday, February 27.

For news, recaps, highlights, interviews and much more from Istanbul, visit www.uww.org or follow United World Wrestling on all social media channels.

#WrestleIstanbul 79kg Entries

Francisco de Deus KADIMA (ANG) 
Gadzhimurad OMAROV (AZE) 
Saifedine ALEKMA (FRA) 
Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO) 
Tariel GAPHRINDASHVILI (GEO) 
Gourav BALIYAN (IND) 
Ali SAVADKOUHI (IRI) 
Meiir KOSHKINBAYEV (KAZ) 
Daulet YERGESH (KAZ) 
Zhiger ZAKIROV (KAZ) 
Arsalan BUDAZHAPOV (KGZ) 
Alans AMIROVS (LAT) 
Gadzhimurad ALIKHMAEV (RWF) 
Hetik CABOLOV (SRB) 
Jakub SYKORA (SVK) 
Nuri TEMUR (TUR) 
Muhammet AKDENIZ (TUR) 
Abdullah ARSLAN (TUR) 
Vasyl MYKHAILOV (UKR) 
Zhora ABOVIAN (UKR) 
Chandler MARSTELLER (USA) 
Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) 
David MC FADDEN (USA)

#JapanWrestling

Paris Olympic Champ Sakurai Retires at Age 24

Sunday, April 5, 2026 - 09:12 By Ken Marantz

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TOKYO (April 4) -- Having never really regained the motivation that led her to achieve her ultimate goal of an Olympic gold, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) has decided to retire at the tender age of 24.

Sakurai, the women’s 57kg champion at the Paris Olympics, has announced that she will hang up her singlet and begin a second career nurturing a new generation of wrestlers and serving as a goodwill ambassador of sports for her native Kochi Prefecture in western Japan.

“After 21 continuous years, I feel I have reached the cutoff point of my wrestling career, so I have decided to retire,” Sakurai said at a press conference Friday at the Kochi Prefecture government office.

“I gave everything I had for the Olympics, and I was able to experience the feeling of achievement and the ultimate joy. It's difficult to win the Olympics without determination. I couldn't get back to the mindset I had before Paris. That is the biggest reason [for retiring].”

Known for her steely aggressiveness belying a quiet demeanor, and a wicked use of a 2-on-1 arm bar, Sakurai prefaced her triumph in Paris by winning three consecutive world titles, at 55kg in 2021 and back-to-back golds at 57kg in 2022 and 2023.

A U17 world champion in 2016, she won golds at the Asian Championships and Asian Games in 2022 and 2023, respectively, but suffered the second of just two career international losses at the 2024 Asian Championships, where she fell to Yongxian FENG (CHN) in the final.

She bounced back five months later for her crowning achievement in Paris, where she defeated 2016 Rio Olympic champion Helen MAROULIS (USA) 10-4 in the semifinals, then took the gold with a 6-0 victory over Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) in a rematch of the 2023 world final.

Making the win in Paris even more special was the fact that not only did Sakurai strike gold, but so did another Japanese wrestler who started the sport together with her at the kids wrestling club in Kochi run by her father.

Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN), the freestyle 65kg champion in his Olympic debut, and Sakurai became the toast of Kochi, a rural prefecture fronting the Pacific on the island of Shikoku. They were paraded through the streets of the prefectural capital of Kochi City and hailed as heroes.

Like almost all of Japan’s medalists in Paris, the two took time off from the sport to run the gauntlet of TV interviews and variety shows, and just chill out in general. Sakurai, who returned to Kochi and started graduate studies in sport sciences at Kochi University, was particularly slow in returning to the mat.

In what would prove to be her first – and last – competition after Paris, she won the 57kg title at the second-tier Japan Women’s Open in October 2025, ostensibly to qualify for the Emperor’s Cup All-Japan Championships the following December. That would be the starting point for domestic qualifying for major global tournaments.

But Sakurai never made it to the Emperor’s Cup, and has now fully turned the corner on a new career.

“Over the past year, this decision was made after talking to many people, fretting about it, and thinking things through,” she said.

Sakurai said that as an extension of her father’s Kochi Wrestling Club, she wants to run a series of clinics outside of the city, mainly in her hometown of Konan just to the east of Kochi, to expose more children to wrestling and help it grow.

“Aside from wrestling, I'm learning so many things in graduate school right now, so I want to acquire a wide range of knowledge so that I can give back to Kochi Prefecture properly,” Sakurai said. “I think there will be various problems when I put things into practice, so I want to acquire solid knowledge so that I can solve those problems.”

Fans at this week’s Asian Championships in Bishkek will see another product of the Kochi Wrestling Club in action in Moe KIYOOKA (JPN), Kotaro’s younger sister and a former world champion who will be looking to add the 53kg gold to the one she won at 55kg in 2024. She and Sakurai were also teammates at Ikuei University.

And the name Sakurai might soon be appearing on the world stage again. Her younger sister, Tsukino SAKURAI (JPN), won the Asian U15 title last year.