#WrestleBelgrade

Day Three Finals Preview Show

By Eric Olanowski

BELGRADE, SERBIA (September 12) --- Monday night, we’ll hand out world titles at 63kg, 67kg, 82kg and 97kg.

At 63kg, Sebastian NAD (SRB) will try to keep Serbia perfect in the gold-medal match and win the host nation’s third Greco-Roman gold medal of the competition as he'll meet Leri ABULADZE (GEO).

In the 67kg finals, "The Ice Man" Tokyo Olympic champion Mohammadreza GERAEI (IRI) will have to defeat 2019 world bronze medal winner Mate NEMES (SRB) to win his second consecutive world title.

Burhan AKBUDAK (TUR) and Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV (UZB) will meet for 82kg gold.

Olympic champion Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) will have to get through Bulgaria’s world silver medalist Kiril MILOV to summit the world podium for the fourth time and first since 2017.

You can watch the action live at 18:00 on uww.org or on The Home of Wrestling, United World Wrestling's app.

Monday's final pairings:
63kg - Leri ABULADZE ??vs. Sebastian NAD ??
67kg - Mohammadreza Abdolhamid GERAEI ?? vs. Mate NEMES ??
82kg - Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV ?? vs. Burhan AKBUDAK ??
97kg - Artur ALEKSANYAN?? vs. Kiril MILOV ??

#wrestlemanama

World C'ships 2026 to be held in October; U20 Worlds in Bratislava

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 8) -- United World Wrestling has officially confirmed the host city for the 2026 U20 World Championships and finalized the competition dates for the 2026 Senior World Championships.

In addition, the host for 2026 Asian Championships has also been shifted from Amman, Jordan to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Bratislava, Slovakia, has been selected to host the 2026 U20 World Championships. Bratislava had successfully hosted the 2025 European Championships in April with sellout stadium. The U20 World Championships in 2026 are scheduled to take place from August 17 to 23 and a similar crowd is expected for the competition.

UWW also confirmed the competition window for the 2026 Senior World Championships to be hosted in Manama, Bahrain, which was announced as hosts during a ceremony held in Zagreb in September.

The World Championships are set to run from October 24 to November 1, providing nine days of action featuring the world’s top wrestlers.

No Arab country has ever hosted a World Championships but Bahrain will etch its name in history with the 2026 edition.

"Bahrain has a superstar in wrestling," UWW President Nenad LALOVIC had said. "They probably want to use this opportunity to promote the sport through this superstar [Akhmed] TAZHUDINOV (BRN). But he's not the only one.

"They also want to develop the local Bahrain born athletes to compete because they have the role model of the top achievement in wrestling. This is something that we considered and that is why we made this decision."

The Asian Championships, originally scheduled in Amman will now be hosted by Bishkek from April 6 to 12.

The 2026 U15 & U20 Asian Championships have been moved from Bangkok to Pattaya.

The U17, U20 and senior African Championships will be held in Alexandria, Egypt from April 28 to May 3. In addition, the dates for the 2026 Pan-American Championships were also modified. The competition will now be held from May 7 to 10 in Coralville, Iowa, United States.

For the full 2026 calendar, visit uww.org/events.