74kg Highlighted by Trio of Top-Five Wrestlers + 20 Total World Medals
Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 16:10 By Eric Olanowski
It’s no secret that one of the deepest weight classes in the world is freestyle’s 74kg.
That storyline will follow itself into the Matteo Pellicone, as the weight will feature 13 wrestlers who own a combined six world titles, an Olympic gold and bronze, and 20 total world medals. More importantly, three of the four world-medal winners from the weight’s ’19 World Championships – with the exclusion of reigning two-time world champion, Zaurbek SIDAKOV (RUS) – will be in action in the former Italian port city of Ostia (March 4-7).
Top-ranked Frank CHAMIZO MARQUEZ (ITA) will surely have a bullseye on his back and will be targeted by ’19 world bronze-medal winners, No. 3 Daniyar KAISANOV (KAZ) and No. 4 Jordan BURROUGHS (USA).
Superstars Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) and Frank CHAMIZO MARQUEZ (ITA) could meet for a fifth time at the Matteo Pellicone. The American owns a 3-1 record against the Italian heading into the first Ranking Series event of '21.
But the weight goes much deeper than the trio of top-five ranked competitors. Other wrestlers ranked inside the top-20 heading into the Matteo Pellicone are Puerto Rico’s first-ever four-time Olympian No. 7 Franklin GOMEZ MATOS (PUR) and India’s No. 14 Jitender JITENDER (IND).
Meanwhile, three other guys who have world medals on their resume will be lacing up their boots in Ostia. They are Nurkozha KAIPANOV (KAZ), Yakup GOR (TUR) Jeandry GARZON CABALLERO (CUB).
Kaipanov, a ’19 world silver medalist at 70kg, is ascending to 74kg for just the third time in his career.
Gor, who is still looking to build his case as Turkey’s best 74kg option to qualify for Olympic Games, has a pair of world medals on his resume – with his most recent medal coming in ’15.
Garzon Caballero, the 37-year-old Cuban, is a four-time world medal winner, with his last medal coming in ’10.
74kg Entries
Jeandry GARZON CABALLERO (CUB)
- ’07 world silver
- ’10, ’06 and ‘05 world bronze
Sandeep Singh MANN (IND)
Narsingh Pancham YADAV (IND)
No. 14 Jitender JITENDER (IND)
Mitchell Louis FINESILVER (ISR)
No. 1 Frank CHAMIZO MARQUEZ (ITA)
- ’16 Olympic bronze
- ’17 and ’15 world gold
- ’19 world silver
- ’10 world bronze
No. 3 Daniyar KAISANOV (KAZ)
- ’19 world bronze
Nurkozha KAIPANOV (KAZ)
- ’19 world silver
No. 7 Franklin GOMEZ MATOS (PUR)
- ’11 world silver
Malik Michael AMINE (SMR)
Fazli ERYILMAZ (TUR)
Yakup GOR (TUR)
- ’15 world bronze
- ’14 world silver
No. 4 Jordan BURROUGHS (USA)
- ’12 Olympic gold
- ’11, ’13, ’15 and ’17 world gold
- ’14, ’18 and ’19 world bronze
Abdelkarim FERGAT (ALG) will be looking to earn a Paris spot for Algeria in GR 60kg. (Photo: UWW / Bayrem Ben Mrad)
Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Blessing OBORUDUDU (NGR) will lead a strong Nigerian team for the qualifiers. (Photo: UWW / Amirreza Aliasgari)
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