2021 UWW Ranking Series: Matteo Pellicone

Matteo Pellicone Men's Freestyle Bracket Reactions

Matteo Pellicone Men's Freestyle Bracket Reactions

Brackets for the men's freestyle wrestling brackets at the 2021 Matteo Pellicone plus our expert analysis.

Mar 5, 2021 by Andrew Spey
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Matteo Pellicone men's freestyle brackets are here for all ten weights. Check them out below, along with our rapid reactions. 

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Matteo Pellicone men's freestyle brackets are here for all ten weights. Check them out below, along with our rapid reactions. 

You can watch the 2021 Matteo Pellicone Live on FloWrestling

97 & 125 starts 4:30 AM ET | Saturday March 6

57, 61, 65, 70, 74, 79, 86, 92 & 97 starts 4:30 AM ET | Sunday March 7

57 Kilograms

Suriano will have three round robin matches in his pool of four wrestlers, including one against 2019 world bronze medalist Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan, one of the more accomplished non-Americans at the event.

A tough opponent for Nicky Freestyle but he should return from Rome with no less than a brozne medal.


61 Kilograms

Just a four-man round-robin for this non-Olympic weight. Graff will face his toughest challenge in Suleyman Atli of Turkey, a two-time world medalist who has wins over Thomas Gilman and Stevan Micic.


65 Kilograms

A real solid 8-man bracket. Fan-fav Bajrang at the top, he'll make the finals if he can get past the winner of a quarterfinal bout between two NCAA All-Americans in Dave Habat (wrestling for Slovenia) and Joey McKenna (wrestling for the US of A). 

On the bottom half, Iran's 2019 world bronze medalist at 61kg Ehsanpoor will be challenged by Mongolia's Tumurochir. The most likely finals matchup is Bajrang vs Ehsanpoor, with McKenna and Tumurochir snagging bronze medals. 


70 Kilograms

Two groups of three-man round robins and Pantaleo definitely drew the group of death. Niyazbekov is a 2019 world silver medalist at 65kg and Kaya is a 2019 Euro gold medalist and a two-time world 5th placer finisher. 

Whoever wins that group will be the massive favorite to win Pellicone gold. 


74 Kilograms

Definitely one of the best brackets at the Pellicone. Burroughs is on the top side with a tough bout against Kazakhstan's world bronze and Asian gold medalist Kaisanov. After that, he'll probably get India's Yadav, who won a 2015 world bronze before serving a four-year suspension for an anti-doping violation. 

The bottom half has seven competitors to the topside's four in this uneven bracket. Michigan and San Marino's Malik Amine gets a bye to the quarters. He'll get the winner of Kazakhstan's 2019 70kg world silver medalist Kaipanov and Frank Chamizo, the latter of which being one of the most accomplished (and popular) wrestlers in the tournament. 

Chamizo will likely see Michigan State and Puerto Rico's Franklin Gomez in the semis, though he'll be tested by Duke and Israel's Mitch Finesilver or Turkey's Yakup Gor. 

Fingers-crossed for a Burroughs vs Chamizo final. Don't bet on Chamizo forfeiting either, this is the first ranking series of the 2021 season so no one's top seed, nor the accompanying prize money, has been locked up yet. 


79 Kilograms

Another set of two pools. Both Americans, McFadden and McBryde, are in the group of three, joined by Kazakstan's veteran Usserbayev. 

Whoever emerges from that bracket with the best record will probably eventually see Kotanoglu of Turkey in the gold medal match. 


86 Kilograms

A bracket rivaled only by 74kg for quality, the USA will be represented by three Americans, all of whom are NCAA champs. Zahid Valencia is the only American on the top side. He should have no problem making the semis where he'll get either 2018 world silver medalist Fatih Erdin of Turkey or Junior and U23 world silver medalist Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan. Both will be an excellent test for Zahid and his Olympic aspirations. 

On the bottom side, Myles Martin and Mark Hall are set to collide in the quarters. The winner should reach the finals. All three Americans should fly home with hardware. 


92 Kilograms

Downey makes his return to the international circuit in a four-man round-robin. He'll have his work cut out for him against Selim Yashar, a Turk by way of Dagestan with two world medals and an Olympic silver in his trophy case. 


97 Kilograms

It comes as no surprise that the Olympic weights are the strongest at the event, and 97 is no exception. The two Americans entered are on opposite sides of the 8-man bracket. 

Kollin Moore is up top and will have a tough but winnable bout in the semis against junior silver medalist Yergali of Kazakhstan. Zillmer has a tougher foe right off the bat in the quarters against Iran's Karimi, who has multiple world medals to his name. 

The USA should get no worse than two bronze medals from this division, and an All-American gold medal match is not out of the question. 


125 Kilograms

The heavies are a little skimpy on entries but two-time NCAA champ and Gopher RTC member Tony Nelson will have decent competition. He's got Canada's Tokyo qualified Olympian and Oregon State three-time All-American Amar Dhesi as well as Kazakhstan's Oleg Boltin, a medalist at both the Bill Farrell and Dave Schultz tournaments.