2019 International Rankings - Men's Freestyle

125 KG Taha Akgul (TUR)

Khizriev beat Khotsianivski at the Ziolkowski, so they flip places. Unfortunately, Khizriev will miss the World Championships due to injury. In his place for Team Russia steps Khugaev, who won Russian Nationals and moves into the top 10 as a result. 

Ghasemi may or may not be retired after receiving a post-competition 2012 Olympic gold medal after Artur Taymazov was stripped of his award due to testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. We will wait at least until after Nur-Sultan before removing the legendary Iranian heavyweight from the rankings. 

Newly minted London silver medalist Bilyal Makhov (thanks to the same disqualification of Taymazov) returns to the rankings after a nearly two-year absence from competition. Makhov beat Ligeti and Baran at the Ziolkowski to earn the #9 spot. He also gets the benefit of the doubt thanks to his five world medals, which include three golds. 

Nick Gwiazdowski falls to #13, not because he suffered any bad losses, but because Ligeti suffered recent losses to Krivstov and Makhov, and because Ligeti recently defeated Mohebbi, and because Mohebbi recently defeated Deng, and because Deng defeated Gwiz at both the 2019 Kolov and 2018 World Championship.

Fellow North American Amar Dhesi debuts just below Gwiz thanks to his victory over Khugaev at the Ziolkowski.

Questions or comments? Contact Andrew Spey (@speywrestle) and Dan Lobdell (@wrestlingnomad) on Twitter.

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