2023 International Wrestling Rankings - Men's Freestyle

Pound for Pound

Abdulrashid Sadulaev remains the #1 Pound for Pound wrestler in the world after his 2nd consecutive Olympic Gold medal. On top of that he has won 6 of 7 world/Olympic titles and hasn’t lost since August of 2017. With the win over Kyle Snyder in the Olympic finals, he has now avenged his last loss twice.

After Sadulaev, Zaurbek Sidakov, David Taylor, Zaur Uguev and Takuto Otoguro round out the top 5. While Sidakov did suffer a loss to Tsabolov in October of 2020, he has been otherwise flawless since the 2018 World Championships and has wrestled the toughest schedule of anyone in the world regardless of weight. 

David Taylor has not wrestled as tough a schedule as Sidakov, Uguev or Otoguro in the last 3 years. However, his unbeaten streak since 2017 (outside of the injury), and his 3 wins over Yazdani, keep him above Otoguro and Uguev based on 2 major factors. First, Uguev has taken 3 suspect losses in the last three years to 3 unranked individuals - Sandeep Tomar (IND), Makhir Amiraslanov (AZE), and Giorgi Edisherashvili (AZE). Along with Uguev’s faults, Otoguro failed to place at 2019 worlds by losing to both Gadzhimurad Rashidov and Ismail Musukaev. 

Gable Steveson rounds out the gold medalists from the Tokyo Olympics at the #6 spot. Steveson was unranked in the pound for pound going into the Olympics but defeated #9 and #11 on the pound for pound list - Taha Akgul and Geno Petriashvili. While that is impressive, Steveson’s only other wins over a world medalist are his two over Nick Gwiazdowski. Simply put, his lack of senior level results allows for very few data points and keeps him from rising above those with a fuller resume.

Questions or comments? Contact our ranker Jon Kozak on Twitter @KozakJon or through email at Jonathan.Kozak@flosports.tv.