Wrestling fans get a special treat this weekend, a world championship in December. Logan Stieber and James Green will represent the United States in men's freestyle.

Stieber wrestles Saturday in the 61kg weight class, while Green competes Sunday at 70kg. The non-Olympic weight world championships are in Budapest, Hungary, which means a 3 AM CT start.

Below are the biggest rivals standing in the way of world titles for Stieber and Green. Complete entries can be found here.

61kg

The biggest wild card is Russia's Akhmed Chakaev. He spends time up at 65kg and will likely be the largest guy in the bracket. Chakaev is your typically offensively varied Russian. He can hit throw bys, attack both legs, and scores a lot off non-controlled exposures, which is a big concern this weekend. At the Yarygin, he was pinned with the same type of par terre offense Stieber has used so effectively.

Stieber over Chakaev at 2012 Beat the Streets:


Recency bias says Akhmednabi Gvarzatilov of Azerbaijan is one of the favorites after his performance at Golden Grand Prix. He was able to dominate matches on his feet with elbow control ducks to both sides. However, it is the first major tournament win he has put together since 2013, when he won the Golden Grand Prix and junior worlds.

Kazakhstan's Daulet Niyazbekov enters as the world No. 1, but he lost a controversial final at the Intercontinental Cup in October. He was able to quickly tech Behnam Ehsanpoor of Iran with a leglace at the Asian championships in February. Niyazbekov's front head offense can be extremely dangerous, but we also saw Stieber's former Ohio RTC teammate Reece Humphrey beat Niyazbekov in an 11-10 shootout in Vegas in September.

Niyazbekov techs Ehsanpoor:


Like Niyazbekov, Georgi Kaliev of Belarus started off the year very well, winning the Medved and taking silver at Euros. He has been busy the past two months, wrestling at University Worlds, in the European Nations Cup, and winning the Henri Deglane.

Among the other contenders are 2015 world bronze medalist Vasyl Shuptar of Ukraine, who just beat Olympic gold medalist Vladimer Khinchegashvili at the world freestyle clubs cup. Shuptar beat India's Bajrang for that bronze, who will also be in attendance. Volodya Frangulyan is an outside shot to medal and was the U23 Euro champion last year.

70kg

This weight is full of past world bronze medalists, but the most dangerous one on paper is Russia's Magomed Kurbanaliev. Few in the world will make you pay like Kurb if you don't finish shots or commit to upper-body attacks. He is good for at least four per match, so James Green may have to show off all five gears to win this one.

Kurbanaliev in the Golden Grand Prix finals:


Turkey's Yakup Gor was the other 70kg bronze in Vegas opposite Green and was silver in 2014 in Uzbekistan. Gor has only wrestled twice this year, both times down at 65kg. He's not known for putting up a great deal of points, which could play well into the type of strategy Green used in New York to win the spot over Jordan Oliver.

Also in this mix are 2014 bronze at 65kg is Moldova's Mihail Sava, who seems undersized for the weight, and on the opposite end of the spectrum is Rashid Kurbanov of Uzbekistan. A world bronze up at 74kg back in 2013, Kurbanov wrestled at 86kg the next year at Medved and the Asian championships. Kurbanov could be very sucked down this weekend and is here because Bekzod Abdurakhmonov wrestled in the Olympics. 

There are two other wrestlers who have fifth-place finishes at worlds. Bulgaria's Miroslav Kirov was Green's opponent in Vegas for bronze, while Azamat Nurykau of Belarus was Gor's foe last September. Both are guys who could medal with favorable draws, but more so enter as wrestlers who can trap higher-ranked athletes into upsets.