#WrestleBudapest

Budapest Ranking Series 2025 Entries: Greco-Roman

By United World Wrestling Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (July 27) -- The Greco-Roman competition at the Polyak Imre & Varga Janos Memorial Ranking Series will see around 200 wrestlers participate in 10 weight classes.

It will be a highly competitive style with numerous Olympic and world medalists entered in what will be the final Ranking Series event of the year.

Greco-Roman will be held on July 19 and 20, the last two days of the tournament. For full schedule of the Budapest Ranking Series 2025, click here.

FREESTYLE ENTRIES | WOMEN'S WRESTLING ENTRIES

Note: The entries are preliminary and subject to change 72 hours before the draw of respective styles. For final brackets and entries, please click here.

World Championships Tickets

Greco-Roman

55kg
Peter TOTOK (HUN)
Anil MOR (IND)
Alpamys DASTANBEK (KAZ)
Marlan MUKASHEV (KAZ)
Artiom DELEANU (MDA)
Denis MIHAI (ROU)
Jayden RANEY (USA)
Brady KOONTZ (USA)
Emin SEFERSHAEV (UWW)
Ikhtiyor BOTIROV (UZB)
Jasurbek ORTIKBOEV (UZB)

60kg
Eldaniz AZIZLI (AZE)
Nihat MAMMADLI (AZE)
Ilkin GURBANOV (AZE)
Marat GARIPOV (BRA)
Amiran SHAVADZE (GEO)
Pridon ABULADZE (GEO)
Levente FIGE (HUN)
SUMIT (IND)
Galym KABDUNASSAROV (KAZ)
Aidos SULTANGALI (KAZ)
Seunghak KIM (KOR)
Dahyun KIM (KOR)
Victor CIOBANU (MDA)
Georgij TIBILOV (SRB)
Maxwell BLACK (USA)
Dylan KOONTZ (USA)
Sadyk LALAEV (UWW)
Anvar ALLAKHIAROV (UWW)
Mehroj BAKHRAMOV (UZB)
Alisher GANIEV (UZB)

63kg
Karen ASLANYAN (ARM)
Ziya BABASHOV (AZE)
Ivan LIZATOVIC (CRO)
Yerkebulan ARDAKOV (KAZ)
Yerzhet ZHARLYKASSYN (KAZ)
Vitalie ERIOMENCO (MDA)
Aref MOHAMMADI (QAT)
Kerem KAMAL (TUR)
Ellis E COLEMAN (USA)
Dinislam BAMMATOV (UWW)
Sergey EMELIN (UWW)
Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB)
AYTJAN KHALMAKHANOV (UZB)

67kg
Farid KHALILOV (AZE)
Dominik ETLINGER (CRO)
Leri ABULADZE (GEO)
Joni KHETSURIANI (GEO)
Attila JOZSA (HUN)
David MANYIK (HUN)
NEERAJ (IND)
Damir IBRASHOV (KAZ)
Sultan ASSETULY (KAZ)
Din  KOSHKAR (KAZ)
Yeongwoo JEONG (KOR)
Minseong KWON (KOR)
Byeonggi SEO (KOR)
Valentin PETIC (MDA)
Morten THORESEN (NOR)
Haavard JOERGENSEN (NOR)
Sebastian NAD (SRB)
Murat FIRAT (TUR)
Alston NUTTER (USA)
Otto BLACK (USA)
Ruslan BICHURIN (UWW)
Daniial AGAEV (UWW)
Maksim NOVICHIKHIN (UWW)
Shermukhammad SHARIBJANOV (UZB)

72kg
Ruslan NURULLAYEV (AZE)
Hasrat JAFAROV (AZE)
Petar GORNYASHKI (BUL)
Pavel PUKLAVEC (CRO)
Iuri LOMADZE (GEO)
Otar ABULADZE (GEO)
Giorgi CHKHIKVADZE (GEO)
Krisztian Istvan VANCZA (HUN)
Ankit GULIA (IND)
Daniyar KALENOV (KAZ)
Madiyar MAULITKANOV (KAZ)
Juan AAK (NOR)
Ali ARSALAN (SRB)
Mustafa SAHIN (TUR)
Furkan YILDIZ (TUR)
Aliaksandr KIKINIOU (USA)
Danil GRIGOREV (UWW)
Narek OGANIAN (UWW)
Abdullo ALIEV (UZB)
Abror ATABAEV (UZB)

77kg
Ulvu GANIZADE (AZE)
Sanan SULEYMANOV (AZE)
Calebe CORREA (BRA)
Stoyan KUBATOV (BUL)
Antonio KAMENJASEVIC (CRO)
Ramaz ZOIDZE (GEO)
Robert FRITSCH (HUN)
Levente LEVAI (HUN)
Attila TOESMAGI (HUN)
Nishant PHOGAT (IND)
Yeldos KAMELOV (KAZ)
Bakdaulet AKIMZHAN (KAZ)
Boseong KANG (KOR)
Hyeonjin KANG (KOR)
Alexandrin GUTU (MDA)
Alexandru SOLOVEI (MDA)
Aleksa ILIC (SRB)
Albin OLOFSSON (SWE)
Ahmet YILMAZ (TUR)
Yunus BASAR (TUR)
Kamal BEY (USA)
Sergei STEPANOV (UWW)
Sergei KUTUZOV (UWW)
Doniyorkhon NAKIBOV (UZB)
Aram VARDANYAN (UZB)

82kg
Samvel GRIGORYAN (ARM)
Gurban GURBANOV (AZE)
Deyvid DIMITROV (BUL)
Filip SACIC (CRO)
Karlo KODRIC (CRO)
Waltteri LATVALA (FIN)
Gela BOLKVADZE (GEO)
Zoltan LEVAI (HUN)
Szabolcs SZINAY (HUN)
Erik SZILVASSY (HUN)
Dias KALEN (KAZ)
Shamil OZHAEV (KAZ)
Almir TOLEBAYEV (KAZ)
Jihyeok SONG (KOR)
Mihail BRADU (MDA)
Shahin BADAGHI (QAT)
Uros LECIC (SRB)
Antal VAMOS (SRB)
Burhan AKBUDAK (TUR)
Beka MELELASHVILI (USA)
Adlet TIULIUBAEV (UWW)
Islam ALIEV (UWW)
Rafael IUNUSOV (UWW)
Samandar BOBONAZAROV (UZB)
Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV (UZB)

87kg
Bachir SID AZARA (ALG)
Islam ABBASOV (AZE)
Kauan FERREIRA (BRA)
Yoan DIMITROV (BUL)
Ivan HUKLEK (CRO)
Matej MANDIC (CRO)
Turpal BISULTANOV (DEN)
Tamas LEVAI (HUN)
Istvan TAKACS (HUN)
David LOSONCZI (HUN)
Karan KAMBOJ (IND)
Nursultan TURSYNOV (KAZ)
Islam YEVLOYEV (KAZ)
Shamil OZHAEV (KAZ)
Sanghyeok PARK (KOR)
Seunghwan LEE (KOR)
Marcel STERKENBURG (NED)
Exauce MUKUBU (NOR)
Patrik GORDAN (ROU)
Aleksandr KOMAROV (SRB)
Milos PEROVIC (SRB)
Andrija MIHAJLOVIC (SRB)
Payton JACOBSON (USA)
Milad ALIRZAEV (UWW)
Alan OSTAEV (UWW)
Aues GONIBOV (UWW)
Mukhammadkodir RASULOV (UZB)

97kg
Hayk KHLOYAN (ARM)
Markus RAGGINGER (AUT)
Arif NIFTULLAYEV (AZE)
Murad AHMADIYEV (AZE)
Filip SMETKO (CRO)
Kristian LUKAC (CRO)
Arvi SAVOLAINEN (FIN)
Giorgi MELIA (GEO)
Giorgi KATSANASHVILI (GEO)
Vendel VITAI (HUN)
Alex SZOKE (HUN)
NITESH (IND)
Iussuf MATSIYEV (KAZ)
Seungjun KIM (KOR)
Minho LEE (KOR)
Luka KATIC (SRB)
Uros KRSTIN (SRB)
Abdul CEBI (TUR)
Michial FOY (USA)
Artur SARGSIAN (UWW)
Adlan AMRIEV (UWW)
Magomed MURTAZALIEV (UWW)
Abdikodir JALILOV (UZB)

130kg
Sarkhan MAMMADOV (AZE)
Beka KANDELAKI (AZE)
Heiki NABI (EST)
Matti KUOSMANEN (FIN)
Darius VITEK (HUN)
Laszlo DARABOS (HUN)
Koppany LASZLO (HUN)
Assylbek ABDIKALYK (KAZ)
Alimkhan SYZDYKOV (KAZ)
Seungchan LEE (KOR)
Oskar MARVIK (NOR)
Mihail KAJAIA (SRB)
Hamza BAKIR (TUR)
Cohlton SCHULTZ (USA)
Aden ATTAO (USA)
Courtney FREEMAN (USA)
Marat KAMPAROV (UWW)

#JapanWrestling

Fujinami to move up to 57kg in quest for consecutive Olympic golds

By Ken Marantz

TOKYO (November 26) -- Akari FUJINAMI (JPN) won't be defending her Olympic gold at women's 53kg at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. That's bad news for anyone aiming to strike gold at 57kg.

Fujinami has announced that she will move up to the next Olympic weight class starting next year, the Japan federation website and Japan media widely recently reported.

Fujinami, who turned 21 on November 11, cited the difficulty of cutting weight for the decision, as well as the historic aspect that no woman wrestler has ever won a second straight Olympic gold after moving to a higher weight class.

"I have decided to move up to the 57kg weight class," Fujinami said after Sunday's East Japan Collegiate Women's League, a team tournament that marked her first competition since winning the gold at the Paris Olympics in August. "Considering my height and my normal weight, I think I can give my best performance at 57."

Fujinami competed at 59kg in the five-team league tournament (one school was a no-show), which was run in a round-robin, duel-meet format with only three weight classes -- 53kg, 59kg and 76kg.

She won both of her matches by fall, extending her current winning streak to 139 matches dating back to her junior high school days in September 2017.

The 1.64-meter Fujinami was actually wrestling near her natural weight, which she says is "about 61kg." But even against two opponents from higher weight classes -- Ikuei University's Ichika ARAI (JPN) was the 2023 world U20 silver medalist at 57kg -- her skills and speed were still overwhelming.

"It has been really hard to cut down to 53kg," Fujinami said. "I felt I lost muscle during the process. I feel I can give my best performance by going down three kilos from my natural weight."

Asked when she expects to make her full-fledged "debut" at the new weight, she replied in a text message, "It will be sometime next year. I haven't decided exactly when yet."

With a full schedule of post-Olympic TV appearances and local events curtailing her training, she has already ruled out appearing at next month's Emperor's Cup All-Japan Championships.

It is likely she will compete at the Meiji Cup All-Japan Invitational Championships in the spring, as that tournament, along with the Emperor's Cup, will serve as qualifiers for the 2025 World Championships.

The move up to 57kg will likely put her on a collision course with the reigning Olympic champion, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN). The two met last year at the East Japan Collegiate tournament, with Fujinami coming away with a 5-0 victory.

The challenge of possibly accomplishing a historic first appeals to Fujinami, who last year won her second career world title at 53kg in Belgrade.

"I heard that no [woman] has moved up a weight class and won another Olympic gold," Fujinami said. "It will difficult, but that's what makes it challenging. I hope I can become stronger at the next [Olympics] in Los Angeles."

Two Japanese women -- Saori YOSHIDA (JPN) and Kaori ICHO (JPN) -- have won an additional Olympic gold after going down a weight, but that was mainly because the number of weight classes was expanded from four to six, allowing them to compete more closely to their normal weight.

Among men, the legendary Aleksandr MEDVED (URS) won the freestyle 97kg gold in 1964, then triumphed again at 97+kg in 1968, while Levan TEDASHVILI (URS) won at freestyle 82kg in 1972 and 90kg in 1976. More recently, Abdulrashid SADULAEV claimed the freestyle 86kg gold in 2016, then won again at 97kg in 2021.

Fujinami said she doesn't expect to make any major alterations to her wrestling style at the heavier weight.

"I have no intention of making any big changes in my wrestling style," she said. "I will still try to keep the opponent from getting at my legs, and take the initiative to score points. Still, I can feel the extra weight of four kilos, so how I increase my weight could affect how I perform."

At this year's East Japan league tournament, Fujinami's Nippon Sport Science University was relegated to second by Ikuei University, which won 2-1 in their duel meet. Ikuei got victories from Moe KIYOOKA (JPN) and Ami ISHII (JPN), who both won gold medals at last month's Non-Olympic Weight Category World Championships.