The Men’s Freestyle World Championship brackets have been released! Here’s our quick reaction to Team USA’s chances at each of the ten weights.
2023 Senior World Championships
Day 1 and 2 | Vito Arujau, Zain Retherford, David Taylor, Mason Parris
61 kg – Vito Arujau (8 seeds)
Vito was given the #8 seed. He will start his day with #9 ranked Ossimzhan Dastanbek of Kazakhstan, a man Jon Kozak mentioned as a dark horse in his 61 kg preview. Vito has a good chance to win the opening round then he will be favored against his potential opponent in the second round from Bulgaria or Switzerland.
His most likely opponent in the quarterfinal is Reza Atri from Iran, last year’s silver medalist. As strong as Atri is, Vito has a shot at the quarterfinals.
If Vito advances to the semifinals, he will likely see either #2 Taiyrbek Zhumashbek Uulu (KGZ) or #6 Emrah Ormanoglu (TUR). Zhumashbek Uulu is on a hot streak and even has a tech on Nick Lee.
World champ Abasgadzhi Magomedov is the favorite in this bracket, and he sits on the opposite side of the bracket from Vito. Magomedov was randomly drawn and had to run the gauntlet to the finals through Romania round one, then China, then Mongolia, and possibly Georgia, Uzbekistan or Belarus (wrestling as a neutral athlete) in the semis.
Joey Silva, competing for Puerto Rico, has an interesting draw that could take him to the quarters, after the game.
70 kg – Zain Retherford (2 seeds)
Returning finalist Zain Retherford has a bye in the first round of the competition and will face either Akhmedov (TJK) or Henkel (GER) who are not ranked in the top 10. He is the favorite either way in the round of 16.
The most likely quarterfinal opponent for Retherford is #3 Ihor Nykyforuk of Ukraine, a U23 World medalist who has proven himself as a legitimate opponent with close wins over many of the best men of this weight. Still, Retherford will be favored in that game.
If Zain makes it to the semifinals, he has a good chance of facing #6 Zherbaev of Russia, a world medalist who should not be bothered. USA fans should be optimistic about Retherford returning to the World finals. Potential opponents in the finals could include #2 Ramazanov of Bulgaria, #4 Yazdani of Iran or #5 Akmataliev of Kyrgyzstan.
The topside semifinal bout will eliminate Ramazanov or Amataliev or Yazdani from medal contention. American fans will be pulling for Akmataliev to beat Yazdani in the quarters and then for Ramazanov to win the semis, eliminating Iran’s Yazdani and bolstering Team USA’s race chances.
86 kg – David Taylor (7 seeds)
All signs point to Taylor vs Yazdani round 6 in the World finals as the two Olympic champions are on opposite sides of the bracket. Taylor is unlikely to be tested in the round of 32 against Padiou (MAR) or the round of 16 against another unranked opponent. He will also be a big favorite in the quarterfinal where he will see former world finalist Boris Makoev.
Taylor’s first real test may come in the semifinals against Arslan Bagaev of Russia. The two have never met, and Bagaev emerges as Russia’s best hope to break up another Taylor vs. Yazdani rematch.
Michigan NCAA finalist Myles Amine will see Yazdani in the semifinals on the opposite side of the bracket. No upset against Yazdani, Amine is positioned to earn a bronze and qualify for the Olympics.
Assuming DT and Yaz make it to the finals, a true fifth-place battle will see many countries in the mix for the final Olympic spot. Slovakia’s Makoev will be a candidate if Taylor beats Bagaev in the semis and Bagaev beats Makoev for bronze. On the other side of the bracket, if Yazdani beats Amine and Amine wins bronze, it’s a good bet for Torreblanca from Cuba to be in the true fifth fight.
125 kg – Mason Parris (seedless)
Parris’ draw in the bracket is quite favorable. He started with #9 Yusup Batirmurzaev of Kazakhstan. Batirmurzaev has a win over Nick Gwiazdowski this year, but he’s still an opponent Parris can beat.
Parris’ next big test may come in the quarterfinals where he will see #4 Munkhtur of Mongolia. Munkhtur is not as skilled as the big three at this weight (Akgul, Zare, and Petriashvili), but he is a big man who is hard to move and he had an upset win over Petriashvili in the semifinals a year ago .
If Parris gets past Munkhtur (which he certainly will), he’s guaranteed to see Geno Petriashvili in the semifinals. Petriashvili is a 3x world champ and 9x World/Olympic medalist, but as he showed in last year’s world semis, he can be upset. Parris will look for such an opportunity in hopes of seeing Akgul (TUR) or Zare (IRI) in the finals. Parris, by the way, pinned Zare in the U20 World finals in 2019.
China’s Deng is a two-time world medalist and the Olympic fifth-placer has a big fight in the first round in Munktur. He could also be in Parris’ path in the quarterfinals.
With talent separated like this, the semifinals will eliminate many Olympic hopefuls from a potential qualifying spot.
Day 2 & 3 | Zane Richards, Kyle Dake, Chance Marsteller, Zahid Valencia
57 kg – Zane Richards (unseeded)
Illinois All-American Zane Richards is bracketed against U23 World champ Aliabbas Rzazade of Azerbaijan, the #5 ranked man in the world. Rzazade is strong and has a win over two-time World medalist Suleyman Atli of Turkey. If Zane advances, he will see Iran’s Valizad or Romania’s Kacacs, neither ranked in the top 10 in the world.
Potential quarterfinal opponents for Zane include Albania’s Abakarov and India’s Aman. Abakarov is the returning World champ at this weight, and Aman already has a win over Richards this year.
If Richards makes it to the semifinal, he will see #1 Zaur Uguev of Russia (but a neutral athlete this year). Returning bronze medalist Stevan Micic is also in Uguev’s quarter. Richards definitely has his work cut out for him to medal or qualify at the weight for the Olympics.
Richards’ opponent in half of the 57kg bracket is Japan’s #2 Rei Higuchi, the Rio 57kg silver medalist and 2022 world gold medalist at 61kg. Back at the age of 57 and on the Japanese world team, he is the favorite going into the semis where he will face Turkey’s Atli for a spot in the finals and a guaranteed Olympic qualifying spot.
74 kg – Kyle Dake (2 seeds)
This bracket turned out to be as exciting as wrestling fans expected. Dake is definitely in the toughest part of his bracket. He starts with #10 Evloev (TJK) then finds an unranked opponent in the second round. He will see fan favorite Frank Chamizo in the quarterfinals.
Dake’s likely semifinal opponents include Salkazanov of Slovakia (whom he beat in the 2022 World finals) and Kadimagomedov of Belarus, the last man to beat Dake. For the wrestling community, it would be great to see a Dake vs Kadimagomedov rematch, but Kadi has his hands full just to get to Dake.
#1 Zaurbek Sidakov sits across from Dake in the relatively easy part of the bracket. He must advance to the finals, even if his route is no picnic. He took out #7 Kentchadze (GEO) in the first round, then three-time world/Olympic bronze medalist Abdurakhmonov (UZB) in the round of 32, then 2022 world bronze #6 Emami (IRI) in the round of 16. 2014 world champ and 2023 Euro bronze Tsabolov (SRB) will be his quarterfinal opponent, with Bayramov (AZE) or #9 Demirtash (TUR) in the semis. If Sidakov emerges unscathed from that, we can hopefully see the Dake vs Sidakov that has so far eluded us.
79 kg – Chance Marsteller (5 seeds)
Marsteller starts his day with a bye followed by a match against an opponent from Algeria or Korea. Neither wrestler is ranked, so Marsteller must advance to the quarterfinals where he will see Azerbaijan’s Abasov, a strong wrestler who will replace #6 Amiraslanov, Azerbaijan’s original entry at this weight.
The semifinals become more challenging for Marsteller as he will see a rematch with Mohammad Nokhodi who coached him earlier this year. His other potential opponent in the semifinal is Akhmed Usmanov, a tough Russian who has been racking up incredible wins and going undefeated for a year.
A win for Marsteller in the semifinals would make him a favorite heading into the finals. A loss in the semifinals meant he had to beat either Nokhodi or Usmanov to get bronze.
92 kg – Zahid Valencia (7 seed)
Valencia has a bye in the first round then expect to see Iran’s Amirali Azarpira in the second round. Azarpira is one of the favorites at this weight, and he owns a victory over Zahid Valencia this year.
If Valencia flips the script on Azarpira, he will have to get past the likes of #5 Nurmagomedov (AZE) in the quarterfinals and Russia’s Valiev in the semifinals. Valencia definitely ended up on the tough side of this bracket, so he’ll need to be on his A-game to bring home a medal.
Day 3 & 4 | Nick Lee, Kyle Snyder
65 kg – Nick Lee (unseeded)
It is often considered the deepest weight in the world. Last year, Yianni became the first US world medalist since Bill Zadick in 2006, so American fans are familiar with the tough bracket of 65 kg. Lee starts with a winnable match against Poland’s Bienkowski then will see India’s Anuj or All-American Austin Gomez representing Mexico in the second round. He will be favored against Gomez and against any third-round opponent he may face (either Bulgaria’s Naim or Uzbekistan’s Jalolov).
The raft will be tougher in the quarterfinals as Lee will likely see last year’s #2 champion Amouzad of Iran. If Lee passes that challenge, he could see Olympic gold medalist Otoguro of Japan in the semifinals. He will also see Musukaev in Hungary who teched him earlier this year.
There’s plenty of firepower on Lee’s side of the bracket, so medaling or qualifying for Team USA for the Olympics will be tough.
97 kg – Kyle Snyder (1 seed)
Snyder won’t see a top-ten ranked opponent in the first two rounds than Uzbekistan’s #7 Ibragimov will face in the quarterfinals. He expects to face the great Russian champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev in the semifinals. Since Russia was banned from the competition last year, Sadulaev did not get seeding points and was randomly drawn into the bracket. Sadulaev owns his Snyder opponent that stopped their first meeting in 2017. Snyder needs to recapture that 2017 magic to advance to the finals.