2021 - Olympic Qualifiers - Men's Freestyle

125KG - Taha Akgul

Contenders:
Since 2014, the heavyweight crown in Men’s Freestyle has belonged to either Geno Petriashvili (2017, 2018, 2019) or Taha Akgul (2014, 2015, 2016). Petriashvili and Akgul are still the safe favorites in Tokyo and will be seeded 1 and 2 respectively. However, the established veterans will be challenged by the new era in Gable Steveson and Amir Zare. Steveson is still limited in his freestyle competition so his ranking is relatively low to where many expect him to finish. Zare, on the other hand, defeated Geno Petriashvili back in December 2019. Because Steveson and Zare have not competed much on the senior level, they also have not earned seeding points and will be randomly drawn into the bracket at 125kg.

Recent Results:
Russia qualified their final freestyle spot when Sergey Kozyrev made the finals of the last Olympic Qualifier. Kozyrev got his opportunity after winning the 2021 Russian Nationals and taking silver at the European Championships. At Euros, Kozyrev defeated Khotsianivskyi and was competitive against Akgul (until he had a meltdown at the end of the match). Kozyrev should be a threat to medal in Tokyo and even challenge to make the finals.

Meeting Kozyrev in the finals was the surprise of the tournament-Sumit Sumit (IND). Sumit has not had great results at 125kg as a whole or against this Olympic field. Amar Dhesi has teched Sumit multiple times and Munkhtur and Cudinovic had better showings in their continental qualifiers. Because of that, Sumit slides above the African qualifiers but below everyone else at 125kg.