The 2017 world championships start next month, so we have been looking ahead and projecting the seeds at each weight. We have reached 86kg, one of the most intriguing brackets of the year.

Since the weight changes in 2014, there has been only one athlete in any of the three styles to go undefeated: Abdulrashid Sadulaev. But the Russian Tank is moving up to 97kg, and he's taking his two world titles and Olympic gold medal with him.

Projected Seeds: 57kg | 61kg | 65kg | 70kg | 74kg | 97kg

He is being replaced with another Rio champion moving up in Hassan Yazdanicharati (IRI). Beloved in his home country, the Iranian has steadily worked his way up in weight, as a junior world champ at 66kg in 2014, a senior world runner-up at 70kg the next year in Las Vegas and the aforementioned 74kg title last August.

Remember though, separation points don't carry up in weight, so Yazdanicharati will be thrown into the random draw. Points were earned at the Olympics, the non-Olympic weight world championships in December, and the various continental championships this year. The top four at each weight will be "seeded," and thus separated from each other in the bracket.
 

Weight	Rank	Name	Country	Points
86kg	1	Selim Yasar	TUR	65
86kg	2	Pedro Francisco Ceballos Fuentes	VEN	49
86kg	3	Zbigniew Baranowski	POL	45
86kg	4	Sharif Sharifov	AZE	34
86kg	4	J'Den Cox	USA	34
86kg	6	Aleksandr Gostiyev	AZE	28

Commentary: Although Sadulaev has dominated this weight class, Selim Yasar (TUR) has been right behind him. The 26-year-old was bronze in 2014, before being runner-up to Sadulaev each of the past two years. Yasar is known to slightly underperform during the year, or at least take some losses, but will absolutely be in the mix to win or medal again. He will come in as the top seed, but he does have losses this year to Yazdanicharati and Russian nationals champ Vladislav Valiev.

The two seed is a name that is likely less familiar to most fans in Pedro Francisco Ceballos Fuentes (VEN). By virtue of his fifth place finish in Rio and a silver medal at the Pan American championships, Ceballos put himself in position to be on the opposite side of Yasar. He actually finished third overall in separation points, but no one is expecting Iran to send Alireza Karimi over Yazdanicharati. Interestingly, Ceballos's last five competitions are in these three countries: Mongolia, Brazil and Iran.

Another guy who has never won a world medal will be the three seed in Zbigniew Baranowski of Poland. It has been over two years since Baranowski won a tournament, and his only medal on the world/continental level was a bronze at the 2011 junior European championships. He did not make his way into the June rankings by our own Seth Petarra.

Now we come to the part which could affect America. As we all know, international wrestling uses a double bronze medal system. J'Den Cox and Sharif Sharifov (AZE) were the bronze medal winners in Rio. Just like every other weight, there were ties in points between the two athletes who won those medals, and the two athletes who lost in the bronze medal match.

Since neither Cox nor Sharifov went to their country's continental championships, they remain tied at No. 4 in separation points. At this point, we still do not know how United World Wrestling intends to break ties. Sharifov does have a win over Cox from last year's German Grand Prix. There is of course the possibility that Cox's injury from the world team trials could prevent him to go, but that is not expected. However, if Cox does not go, David Taylor will wrestle in Paris, where he will go in unseeded.

It is also possible that Azerbaijan sends Aleksandr Gostiyev instead of Cox. Should this happen, Cox will become the four seed. Gostiev has been the silver medalist at each of the past two European championships, and recently won gold at a new tournament in Tbilisi, Georgia. We could see that settled at the Golden Grand Prix in Baku, though the event will likely look completely different this year than in years past.

Projected 86kg Seeds

1. Selim Yasar (TUR), 65 points
   
2. Pedro Ceballos (VEN), 49 points
   
3. Zbigniew Baranowski (POL), 45 points
   
4. J'Den Cox (USA), 34 points