Daton gets Harutyunyan in the semis, that's his toughest match of the day by far. If he wins that he is very likely to see the Russian sensation Abasgadzhi, a budding superstar
Script followed at 86, kind of amazing how little the rest of the field has improved vs the big 3, absolutely nobody from outside the Taylor, Yazdani, Naifonov trio is even a mild threat. Weird how bad the rest of that weight is
Looks like nearly everyone is picking Zare to beat Akgul. I honestly don't know what's going to happen, but that would be big for the team race.
Yeah, if that’s important to us, bigly rooting for Zare(not sure I can root against a legend like Taha for this) and Kentchadze against Salkazanov at 74. Knocking the Russians off the podium entirely at those weights would be highly enjoyable.
Honestly after seeing him against Vangelov this morning I had no doubt he'd be wrestling Abasgadzhi in the finals.
I think this might have been the deepest weight in the whole tournament and those 2 just annihilated the competition. First weight and our first Russia vs the US for gold
Daton and Abasgadzhi wrestled in the 2015 Cadet World Championship quarterfinals, now, 6 years later, for Senior World Gold. Love it. Here's to Daton getting his revenge.
Abakarov gave Taylor trouble… for about 2 minutes, scored the first takedown and then had some great defense. Then DT did his thing and got the fall in the first period
Yazdani-Taylor IV coming, just have to appreciate the greatness on display. Two of the best ever from their respective nations, have met in every tournament they have both entered. Yazdani looking great but DT is a different animal
Wish we could have gotten one more tournament from Gable, I get it, but him and Zare could have been the next great rivalry. Zare looks good and strong
That was some serious “son, you ain’t ready” stuff from Gilman. Nobody in this weakened field at 57 should be able to touch him in his current form
Why is nomad even on after they fired him? Usually when someone is fired for what he did it's for good, not a 1 year suspension....
Yikes, Mexico lost track of the score against Khashalov it looks like. Mexico was up 8-7 with 10 seconds left against an injured Khashalov, he gives up 1 point on a step out to make it 8-8 with Khashalov having criteria. Time runs out and Mexico celebrates. Hate to see it. The Khashalov injury is going to be something to keep an eye on though, because he could be the only guy in Gilman's way to cruising into the finals.
Yianni goes down 5-1. Never really came close to scoring on Tevanyan until the end when he was given a free stepout.
Yeah, Tevanyan didn’t do much but that’s a classic example of “empty” activity on the freestyle scene. Tough experience but Tevanyan is super strong and stout in his position, could still pull Yianni back as Shakhiev looked horrible almost losing to Rohit of India
Curse at 65 continues, Yianni out after Tevanyan decided not to even attempt to score a point against the Mongolian. Shakhiev killed Killicsayan so maybe that scare against Rohit didn’t matter
Gilman techs Horst Lehr of Germany (whom the Flo guys have never heard of despite him wrestling on the cadet/junior/senior world scene for the last 5-6 years now) to make the world finals. Only Sarlak of Iran stands in his way of gold after choke artist Atli does what he does and gives up a late lead.
Lil Yazdani gets a late stepout to win 5-4 and win his first world medal, Shakhiev was down late 0-2 to Mongolia, gets a 2+2 late to go up 4-2, Mongolia gets a takedown and loses 4-4 on criteria but apparently did not realize Russia was given 2+2? Long protest but Shakhiev moves on regardless (for the record, 2+2 was the right call in my opinion).
A 4-1 lead too, woof. Drama at 65, baby Yazdani with a late winner and Shakhiev survives the Mongol… kind of. Wouldn’t be a Mongolian loss to a Russian wrestler without antics and drama at the end as the Mongolian refused to leave the mat after losing 4-4
JB beats Japan 10-1 and moves into the finals where he has Nokodhi of Iran who just won JR world gold less than 2 months ago.
Extremely high level wrestling in this 61kg world final. Fix looking great, but Magomedov is so good.
Abasgadzhi is one of the best wrestlers in the world P4P imo. He's so technically sound. Fix wrestled with that guy. He loses 4-1 (2 shot clock points for Russia along with the takedown), but he belonged. Impressive performance from Fix. Great match.
It really was a great tournament, easily the best weight overall IMO with Harutyunyan and Hasegawa young stars as well. Could be some great battles over the years as those guys grow
It's weird. Expected DT to win, but yazdani is way too talented to never win one of these. I love this rivalry.
It’s incredible, two absolute warriors among the best of all time. Could see how much more this one meant than the others for Yazdani, his own personal Everest
Zare SMASHES Geno. New champ in town. Maybe Gable made the right call sitting this one out and going out on top.
He was a monster… but how about the day Iran had to likely clinch a team title? Undefeated, 4 finalists then gold medal wins over DT and Geno… holy hell
phew. Snyder gets a takedown with under 5 seconds left to win 3-2 over Iran. That was a little too close. Sadulaev wins 11-0, so we get Snyderlaev IV.
Snyder looked like crap but got it done, hope he has a little more than pushing for Sadulaev. Horst Lehr brings home a bronze for Germany with a great win over Mutaliev. Impressive youngster for the Germans
Tedeyev is the worst. Horst Lehr upsets Mutaliev for world bronze, a huge moment for German wrestling, and Tedeyev walks off before Lehr can shake his hand. RIP Mutaliev, was nice knowing you.