2015 UWW Senior World Championships

65kg UWW Senior World Championship Preview

65kg UWW Senior World Championship Preview

Aug 31, 2015 by Brock Hite
65kg UWW Senior World Championship Preview
Date of competition: Thursday, September 10th

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Date of competition: Thursday, September 10th

USA Wrestler: Brent Metcalf is representing the United States for the fourth time at the senior level. He has not met his personal expectations in the first three outings at Worlds. Metcalf has only won one match in three trips. This is tremendously shocking when you consider the success he has had at other international competitions.

Headlining that international success is two silver medals from the prestigious Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix that came in 2013 and 2015. Both times Metcalf fell to Bekbulatov (RUS), who will represent Russia this year in favor of reigning World Champion Ramonov. Metcalf was also undefeated at the 2015 World Cup where he got revenge on Ganzorig (MGL) during pool action, and defeated a tough Masoud Esmailpour (IRI) in the final.

Metcalf is due for a great performance at Worlds. He currently sits at number two behind Mohammadi (IRI) in United World Wrestling's rankings. You have to like the chances of Metcalf standing on the medal stand at the end of the tournament. He has the skill set to beat every one of the top contenders in the weight class. Let's just hope he doesn’t receive a draw where he has to beat all of them on the way to the title.



2013 World Placements (66kg):
1. David Safaryan, Armenia
2. Livan Lopez Azcuy, Cuba
3. Magomed Kurbanaliev, Russia
3. Mandakhnaran Ganzorig, Mongolia
5. Levan Kelekhsashvili, Georgia
5. Jin Hyeok Kang, North Korea
7. Saba Arasch Javad Bolaghi, Germany
8. Haislan Garcia Veranes, Canada
9. Takahiro Inoue, Japan
10. Alexander Kontoev, Belarus

Notables that were not pulled into the repechage: 
- Iran's Teghavi won an exhausting affair over Metcalf in round 1, 5-2. Both were bounced from the tournament when Teghavi was defeated in the next round by Kontoev of Ukraine, who suffered a defeat in his next bout.

2014 World Placements:

1. Soslan Ramonov, Russia
2. Sayed Ahmad Mohammadi, Iran
3. Mihail Sava, Moldova
3. Mandakhnaran Ganzorig, Mongolia
5. Mustafa Kaya, Turkey
5. Azamat Nurikov, Belarus
7. Daichi Takatani, Japan
8. Franklin Gomez Matos, Puerto Rico
9. George Bucur, Romania
10. Magomed Muslimov, Azerbaijan

Notables that were not pulled into the repechage:
- Garcia Veranes of Canada dropped a first round bout to 2013 World Champion Safaryan, 3-2. Safaryan was then eliminated in the next round by Ganzorig of Mongolia which ended both Garcia and Safaryan's tournaments.
- Kaya defeated Metcalf in round 2, 7-4, but went on to drop is semifinal match to Mohammadi, which ultimately eliminated Metcalf.
- Novachkov lost in round 2 to Nurikov, 4-3. However, Nurikov’s inability to get by Ramonov led to the end of Novachkov’s tournament.

Title Contenders:
Mohammadi, Iran (UWW No. 1) - 2014 World Silver, 2014 Asian Championship Gold, 2015 World Cup victory over Asgarov

Bekbulatov, Russia (UWW No. 7) - 2015 Euro Games Bronze, 2015 Yarygin Gold

Asgarov, Azerbaijan (UWW No. 3) - 2012 Olympic Champion, 2011 World Silver, 2015 Euro Games Gold

Medal Contenders:
Kaya, Turkey (UWW No. 6) - 2015 Euro Games Bronze, 2014 World 5th, Yasar Dogu Gold

Metcalf, USA (UWW No. 2) - 2015 Pan American Games Gold, 2015 Yarygin Silver, 2015 Grand Prix of Paris Bronze

Chamizo, Italy (UWW No. 5) - 2015 Euro Games Silver, 2010 World Bronze (55kg), 2015 Ziolkowski Gold (defeated Ramonov 4-3 rd1)

Ganzorig, Mongolia (UWW No. 16) - 2013 and 2014 World Bronze, 2013 Asian Championship Silver, 2015 Asian Championship Bronze



Contender Commentary:
Bekbulatov has many grand prix and major wins, but doesn’t have any experience at the World Championships on the Senior level. In addition, Bekbulatov hasn’t found the top of the stand at Euros, either. It sounds like a stretch to put someone with his resume on the title contender list, but you must remember the reigning World Champion is sitting at home in favor of Bekbulatov.

Asgarov seems to have settled into the weight change and is looking more like the guy that some believed would finish his career as an all-time great. Mohammadi has been great over the past year, but was sat during the World Cup against the United States. This cheated us out of a Mohammadi/Metcalf match-up. Despite Metcalf's number two ranking, he lacks a victory against the title contenders and lost to Bekbulatov at Yarygin.

Who does Brock like to win?
Mohammadi won a 14-10 barnburner over an in-shape, healthy and very motivated Asgarov at the World Cup. We haven’t seen this form from Asgarov since his Olympic Gold performance in London in 2012. If they are separated; I like the chances of seeing a Mohammadi/Asgarov rematch. Mohammadi does very well attacking Asgarov’s legs and seemed to learn how to tie-up and stay away from the sneaky slide-by's as the match wore on. I will take Mohammadi to come out on top again and earn the World Title he missed out on last year.

***Ramonov(RUS) will be inserted into the line-up and will be a title contender here at 65kg. He has stumbled at a few events this year and taken some losses, but he is the reigning World Champion.