#WrestleRome

Matteo Pellicone Entries

By Eric Olanowski

ROME, Italy (January 4) -- The road to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games officially kicks off January 15-18 in Rome, Italy at the first Ranking Series event of the year, the Matteo Pellicone. And though entries are not official until 24 hours before the tournament begins, there are seven reigning world champions and 33 world medal holders from the 2019 World Championships that are expected to compete in Rome. 

Freestyle

57kg
Wanhao ZOU (CHN)
Minghu LIU (CHN)
Kumar RAVI (IND)
Givi DAVIDOVI (ITA)
Stevan Andria MICIC (SRB)
Andrii YATSENKO (UKR)
Taras MARKOVYCH (UKR)
Joseph Daniel COLON (USA)
Daton Duain FIX (USA)
Thomas Patrick GILMAN (USA)
Pedro Jesus MEJIAS RODRIGUEZ (VEN)

61kg
Zhandos ISMAILOV (KAZ)

65kg
Agustin Alejandro DESTRIBATS (ARG)
Shaohua YUAN (CHN)
Zhenguang TIAN (CHN)
Bajrang BAJRANG (IND)
Behnam Eshagh EHSANPOOR (IRI)
Abdellatif MANSOUR (ITA)
Jose Javier RODRIGUEZ COLON (PUR)
Selahattin KILICSALLAYAN (TUR)
Selim KOZAN (TUR)
Vasyl SHUPTAR (UKR)
Gor OGANNESYAN (UKR)
Erik ARUSHANIAN (UKR)
Jordan Michael OLIVER (USA)
Zain Allen RETHERFORD (USA)
Joseph Christopher MC KENNA (USA)

70kg
No entries

Kyle DAKE (USA), the reigning two-time 79kg world champion, will be making his debut at the Olympic weight class of 74kg. (Photo: Tony Rotundo)

74kg
Azamat NURYKAU (BLR)
Jasmit Singh PHULKA (CAN)
Adanabasier ADANABASIER (CHN)
Yin LUO (CHN)
Murad KURAMAGOMEDOV (HUN)
Jitender JITENDER (IND)
Yones Aliakbar EMAMICHOGHAEI (IRI)
Mitchell Louis FINESILVER (ISR)
Gianluca TALAMO (ITA)
Frank CHAMIZO MARQUEZ (ITA)
Franklin GOMEZ MATOS (PUR)
Sheng Yu LI (TPE)
Fazli ERYILMAZ (TUR)
Enes USLU (TUR)
Soner DEMIRTAS (TUR)
Vasyl MYKHAILOV (UKR)
Denys PAVLOV (UKR)
James Malcolm GREEN (USA)
Kyle Douglas DAKE (USA)
Jason Michael NOLF (USA)

79kg
Salvatore DIANA (ITA)
Carmelo LUMIA (ITA)
Akhmedkhan TEMBOTOV (RUS)

86kg
Deepak PUNIA (IND)
Ethan Adrian RAMOS (PUR)
Myles Nazem AMINE (SMR)
Fatih ERDIN (TUR)
Osman GOCEN (TUR)
Illia ARCHAIA (UKR)
Oleksii DOMANYTSKYI (UKR)
Alexander David DIERINGER (USA)
James Patrick DOWNEY III (USA)
Zahid VALENCIA (USA)
Rashid KURBANOV (UZB)
Pedro Francisco CEBALLOS FUENTES (VEN)

92kg
William RAFFI(ITA)

Kyle Frederick SNYDER (USA), the two-time world and Olympic champion, headlines the entries at 97kg. (Photo: Kadir Caliskan)

97kg
Aliaksandr HUSHTYN (BLR)
Jordan STEEN (CAN)
Chaoqiang YANG (CHN)
Georg Gabriel STARK SEREGELYI (GER)
Erik Sven THIELE (GER)
Gennadij CUDINOVIC (GER)
Pavel OLEJNYIK (HUN)
Ravi RAVI (IND)
Mohammadhossein Askari MOHAMMADIAN (IRI)
Abraham de Jesus CONYEDO RUANO (ITA)
Evan Amadour RAMOS (PUR)
Fatih YASARLI (TUR)
Ibrahim BOLUKBASI (TUR)
Valerii ANDRIITSEV (UKR)
Murazi MCHEDLIDZE (UKR)
Hayden Nicholas ZILLMER (USA)
Kyle Frederick SNYDER (USA)
Bo Dean NICKAL (USA)
Jose Daniel DIAZ ROBERTTI (VEN)

125kg
Amarveer DHESI (CAN)
Er SONGBU (CHN)
Nick MATUHIN (GER)
Daniel LIGETI (HUN)
Sumit SUMIT (IND)
Amir Hossein Abbas ZARE (IRI)
Charles Zachary MERRILL (PUR)
Bilial MAKHOV (RUS)
Oleksandr KHOTSIANIVSKYI (UKR)
Gable Dan STEVESON (USA)
Anthony Robert NELSON (USA)
Luis Felipe VIVENES URBANEJA (VEN)

United World Wrestling's Greco-Roman Wrestler of the Year Viktor LORINCZ (HUN) begins his quest for Olympic gold at the Matteo Pellicone, where he'll compete at 87kg. (Photo: Kadir Caliskan)

Greco-Roman

55kg
Dogus AYAZCI (TUR)
Serif KILIC (TUR)
Andrii SEMENCHUK (UKR)
Max Emiliano NOWRY (USA)

60kg 
Sailike WALIHAN (CHN)
Erbatu TUO (CHN)
Haithem Mahmoud Ahmed Fahmy MAHMOUD (EGY)
Erik TORBA (HUN)
Manish MANISH (IND)
Sachin RANA (IND)
Giovanni FRENI (ITA)
Jacopo SANDRON (ITA)
Kerem KAMAL (TUR)
Ahmet UYAR (TUR)
Ihor KUROCHKIN (UKR)
Ildar HAFIZOV (USA)
Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB)
Firuz TUKHTAEV (UZB)

63kg
Andres Roberto MONTANO ARROYO (ECU)
Christopher Josef KRAEMER (GER)
Stig-Andre BERGE (NOR)
Jui Chi HUANG (TPE)
Dmytro TSYMBALIUK (UKR)

U23 world champion Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed Ibrahi ELSAYED (EGY) headlines the entries at 67kg. (Photo: Sachiko Hotaka)

67kg
Joilson DE BRITO RAMOS JUNIOR (BRA)
Qiye TIAN (CHN)
Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed Ibrahi ELSAYED (EGY)
Abouhalima Mohamed Elsaid ABOUHALIMA (EGY)
Ashu ASHU (IND)
Ignazio SANFILIPPO (ITA)
Ruben MARVICE (ITA)
Xavier Tramain JOHNSON (USA)
Jamel Rasheed JOHNSON (USA)
Peyton Louis OMANIA (USA)
Mirzobek RAKHMATOV (UZB)
Makhmud BAKHSHILLOEV (UZB)
Anthony Javier PALENCIA PUENTES (VEN)

72kg
Gaoquan ZHANG (CHN)
Cengiz ARSLAN (TUR)
Selcuk CAN (TUR)
Parviz NASIBOV (UKR)
Maksym YEVTUSHENKO (UKR)
Raymond Anthony BUNKER III (USA)
Aram VARDANYAN (UZB)

77kg
Angelo Rafael MARQUES MOREIRA (BRA)
Bin YANG (CHN)
Ridong ZHANG (CHN)
Wael Hamdy Mohamed ABDELRAHMAN (EGY)
Sajan SAJAN (IND)
Luca DARIOZZI (ITA)
Matteo MAFFEZZOLI (ITA)
Fatih CENGIZ (TUR)
Yunus Emre BASAR (TUR)
Emrah KUS (TUR)
Patrick Harrison SMITH (USA)
Kamal Ameer BEY (USA)
Ravaughn Richard Ravelle PERKINS (USA)
Nurbek KHASHIMBEKOV (UZB)
Wuileixis de Jesus RIVAS ESPINOZA (VEN)

Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV (UZB), a 77kg world bronze medalist, will be moving up to 82kg for the Matteo Pellicone (Photo: Kadir Caliskan)

82kg
Roland SCHWARZ (GER)
Florian NEUMAIER (GER)
Pascal EISELE (GER)
Zotlan LEVAI (HUN)
Singh GURPREET (IND)
Bing Hong LIN (TPE)
Burhan AKBUDAK (TUR)
Salih AYDIN (TUR)
Dmytro GARDUBEI (UKR)
John Walter STEFANOWICZ JR (USA)
Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV (UZB)

87kg
Ronisson BRANDAO SANTIAGO (BRA)
Junjie NA (CHN)
Mohamed Moustafa Ahmed Abdall METWALLY (EGY)
Viktor LORINCZ (HUN)
Kumar SUNIL (IND)
Fabio PARISI (ITA)
Mirco MINGUZZI (ITA)
Simone FIDELBO (ITA)
Dogan GOKTAS (TUR)
Josef Patrick RAU (USA)
Patrick Anthony MARTINEZ (USA)
Luis Eduardo AVENDANO ROJAS (VEN)

97kg
Yan LIU (CHN)
Yanan CHEN (CHN)
Noureldin Hany Mohamed Gomaa HASSAN (EGY)
Matti Elias KUOSMANEN (FIN)
Arvi Martin SAVOLAINEN (FIN)
Mélonin NOUMONVI (FRA)
Ramsin AZIZSIR (GER)
Jan ZIRN (GER)
Kevin MEJIA CASTILLO( HON)
Hardeep HARDEEP (IND)
Luca SVAICARI (ITA)
Felix BALDAUF (NOR)
Suleyman DEMIRCI (TUR)
Semen NOVIKOV (UKR)
Daniel Collett MILLER (USA)
Tracy Gangelo HANCOCK (USA)
Muhammadali SHAMSIDDINOV (UZB)
Jahongir TURDIEV (UZB)
Temur Mirzo MAMAJANOV (UZB)
Luillys Jose PEREZ MORA (VEN)

130kg
Lingzhe MENG (CHN)
Di XIAO (CHN)
Abdellatif Mohamed Ahmed MOHAMED (EGY)
Tuomas Heikki Juhani LAHTI (FIN)
Konsta Johannes MAEENPAEAE (FIN)
Naveen NAVEEN (IND) 
Luca GODINO (ITA)
Samuele VARICELLI (ITA)
Oskar MARVIK (NOR)
Osman YILDIRIM (TUR)
Vladyslav VORONYI (UKR)
Adam Jacob COON (USA)
Muminjon ABDULLAEV (UZB)
Moises Salvador PEREZ HELLBURG (VEN)

The list of women's wrestling entries is highlighted by five-time world champion Adeline Maria GRAY (USA). (Photo: Kadir Caliskan)

Women's Wrestling

50kg
Kseniya STANKEVICH (BLR)
Viyaleta REBIKAVA CHYRYK (BLR)
Kamila BARBOSA VITO DA SILVA (BRA)
Jessica Anne Marie MACDONALD (CAN)
Yanan SUN (CHN)
Jacqueline Del Rocio MOLLOCANA ELENO (ECU)
Nada Medani Ashour Abdalla MOHAMED (EGY)
Ana Maria TORRES RUBIO (ESP)
Oihane VALLEZ PEREZ (ESP)
Julie Martine SABATIE (FRA)
Tabatha Helene Laurence GRUNEWALD (FRA)
Emilia Alina VUC (ROU)
Veronika GURSKAYA (RUS)
Milana DADASHEVA (RUS)
Oksana LIVACH (UKR)
Sarah Ann HILDEBRANDT (USA)
Whitney CONDER (USA)
Victoria Lacey ANTHONY (USA)

53kg
Samantha Leigh STEWART (CAN)
Qianyu PANG (CHN)
Lannuan LUO (CHN)
Luisa Elizabeth VALVERDE MELENDRES (ECU)
Aintzane GORRIA GONI (ESP)
Marina RUEDA FLORES (ESP)
Nina HEMMER (GER)
Annika WENDLE (GER)
Mercedesz DENES (HUN)
Pinki PINKI (IND)
Vinesh VINESH (IND)
Emanuela LIUZZI (ITA)
Carmen DI DIO (ITA)
Ekaterina POLESHCHUK (RUS)
Natalia MALYSHEVA (RUS)
Meng Hsuan HSIEH (TPE)
Yuliia KHAVALDZHY BLAHINYA (UKR)
Katherine Grace SHAI (USA)
Areana Louise VILLAESCUSA (USA)
Betzabeth Angelica ARGUELLO VILLEGAS (VEN)

55kg
Vanesa KALADZINSKAYA (BLR)
Stalvira ORSHUSH (RUS)
Solomiia VYNNYK (UKR)
Iryna HUSYAK (UKR)

Canada's 59kg world champion Linda MORAIS will make her debut down at 57kg at the Matteo Pellicone. (Photo: Kadir Caliskan)

57kg
Giullia RODRIGUES PENALBER DE OLIVEIRA (BRA)
Linda MORAIS (CAN)
Ningning RONG (CHN)
Lissette Alexandra ANTES CASTILLO (ECU)
Eman Essam Guda EBRAHIM (EGY)
Graciela SANCHEZ DIAZ (ESP)
Elena Heike BRUGGER (GER)
Sandra PARUSZEWSKI (GER)
Laura MERTENS (GER)
Ramona GALAMBOS (HUN)
Emese BARKA (HUN)
Pooja DHANDA (IND)
Arianna CARIERI (ITA)
Francesca INDELICATO (ITA)
Nuraida ANARKULOVA (KGZ)
Grace Jacob BULLEN (NOR)
Marina SIMONYAN (RUS)
Iryna CHYKHRADZE KHARIV (UKR)
Alina AKOBIIA (UKR)
Allison Mackenzie RAGAN (USA)
Jenna Rose BURKERT (USA)
Betzabeth Rebeca SARCO COLMENAREZ (VEN)

59kg
Krystsina SAZYKINA (BLR)
Andrea GRASRUCK (GER)
Anhelina LYSAK (UKR)

Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ) will compete for the first time since becoming the first wrestler from Kyrgyzstan to win a senior-level world title. (Photo: Kadir Caliskan)

62kg
Veranika IVANOVA (BLR)
Lais NUNES DE OLIVEIRA (BRA)
Michelle Christina FAZZARI (CAN)
Jia LONG (CHN)
Maria Victoria BAEZ DILONE (ESP)
Lydia PEREZ TOURINO (ESP)
Luisa Helga Gerda NIEMESCH (GER)
Marianna SASTIN (HUN)
Sakshi MALIK (IND)
Aurora CAMPAGNA (ITA)
Elena ESPOSITO (ITA)
Sara DA COL (ITA)
Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ)
Liubov OVCHAROVA (RUS)
Inna TRAZHUKOVA (RUS)
Yuliia TKACH OSTAPCHUK (UKR)
Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR)
Macey Ellen KILTY (USA)
Mallory Maxine VELTE (USA)
Kayla Colleen Kiyoko MIRACLE (USA)
Nathaly Josefina GRIMAN HERRERA (VEN)

65kg
Petra Maarit OLLI (FIN)
Gabriella SLEISZ (HUN)
Hsin Ping PAI (TPE)
Oksana KUKHTA HERHEL (UKR)

68kg
Luz Clara VAZQUEZ (ARG)
Yauheniya ANDREICHYKAVA (BLR)
Maryia MAMASHUK (BLR)
Danielle Suzanne LAPPAGE (CAN)
Feng ZHOU (CHN)
Xiaoqian WANG (CHN)
Koumba Selene Fanta LARROQUE (FRA)
Anna Carmen SCHELL (GER)
Divya KAKRAN (IND)
Dalma CANEVA (ITA)
Anastasija GRIGORJEVA (LAT)
Anastasiia BRATCHIKOVA (RUS)
Alla CHERKASOVA (UKR)
Alina BEREZHNA STADNIK MAKHYNIA (UKR)
Victoria Christine FRANCIS (USA)
Tamyra Mariama MENSAH (USA)
Maria Jose ACOSTA ACOSTA (VEN)

72kg
Anastasiya ZIMIANKOVA (BLR)
Nadine WEINAUGE (GER)
Maria SELMAIER (GER)

London Olympic champion and reigning 72kg world champion Natalia VOROBEVA (RUS) will be bumping up to 76kg with hope of adding a third consecutive Olympic medal to her resume. (Photo: Tony Rotundo)

76kg
Martina KUENZ (AUT)
Kseniya DZIBUK (BLR)
Vasilisa MARZALIUK (BLR)
Aline DA SILVA FERREIRA (BRA)
Erica Elizabeth WIEBE (CAN)
Qian ZHOU (CHN)
Paliha PALIHA (CHN)
Genesis Rosangela REASCO VALDEZ (ECU)
Samar Amer Ibrahim HAMZA (EGY)
Epp MAEE (EST)
Aline ROTTER FOCKEN (GER)
Francy RAEDELT (GER)
Zsanett NEMETH (HUN)
Kiran KIRAN (IND)
Enrica RINALDI (ITA)
Eleni PJOLLAJ (ITA)
Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ)
Natalia VOROBEVA (RUS)
Ekaterina BUKINA (RUS)
Hui Tsz CHANG (TPE)
Alla BELINSKA (UKR)
Adeline Maria GRAY (USA)
Andrimar Daniela LAZARO DIAZ (VEN)

#WrestleBaku

Five matches we need to see at the GR World Cup

By Eric Olanowski

BAKU, Azerbaijan (October 27) --- The Greco-Roman portion of the 2022 calendar comes to a close November 5-6 in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. The Greco-Roman World Cup entries feature a mixture of credentialed veterans who own a combined eight world titles and a youthful group of rising stars ready to make their mark on the senior level.

With the insane level of talent headed to Baku, there will be some great matches on the two-day slate. Some matches we’ve seen before, while others we’ll see for the first time. Here are five potential matchups we'd like to see at next weekend in Baku.

Entries | Schedule | Download the United World Wrestling app: Google Play | Apple App Store

5. 55kg - Eldaniz AZIZLI (AZE) vs. Poya DAD MARZ (IRI)

Azizli and Dad Marz head into Baku fresh off winning world titles.

Azizli was arguably the most dominant Greco-Roman wrestler at the World Championships in Belgrade. He added a second world title to his credentialed resume and further established himself as the weights top wrestler after outscoring his four opponents 34-0.

Dad Marz is two weeks removed from winning gold at the U23 World Championships, where he cruised past all four of his opponents en route to 55kg title.

Iran and Azerbaijan are in opposite groups. Depending on how the group stage plays out, this match will take place on November 6.

4. 77kg - Zoltan LEVAI (HUN/ All-World Team) vs. Sanan SULEYMANOV (AZE)

After facing devastating heartbreaks in Serbia, Levai and Suleymanov are poised to make some noise at the World Cup, and nothing would ease the pain of facing defeat more than picking up a win over a fellow world silver medalist.

These two met once before, and that was in the finals of the 2020 European Championships, where Suleymanov picked up the 3-1 win over Levai.

In addition to Levai having that European finals loss on his mind, he’ll also be thinking about his last loss, which came in Serbia. The Hungarian, who finished the season ranked third in the world, is fresh off punching his ticket to the world finals but he suffered an upsetting 8-0 first-period loss to Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ).

Meanwhile, Suleymanov, after reaching the 2021 world finals, lost to Idris Hanpasaevic IBAEV (GER) in their opening round meeting at the World Championships and failed to bring home a second consecutive world medal.

The All-World team Azerbaijan are in Group A. This match will take place during the third session on November 5 at 19:30 (local time).

3. 72kg - Mate NEMES (SRB) vs. Ulvu GANIZADE (AZE)

This will be the first of two matchups between a Serbian reigning world champion and an Azerbaijani wrestler who is ranked No. 1 in the world. The second will be between 67kg, where Sebastian NAD (SRB) will take on Hasrat JAFAROV (AZE).

This would be the first meeting between Nemes and Ganizade.

In his last outing, Nemes shocked the world by pulling off the biggest upset of the ’22 season, taking out defending world and Olympic champion Mohammadreza GERAEI (IRI) to win the 67kg world gold on home soil.

Ganizade rounded out his 2022 season as the top-ranked wrestler in the world at 72kg. The 23-year-old fell to Ali ARSALAN (SRB) in the finals of the World Championships and settled for a silver medal. Outside of his Belgrade silver, Ganizdae also won a bronze medal at the European Championships and a silver medal at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event.

Serbia and Azerbaijan are both in Group A. This match will take place during the first session on November 5 at 10:00 (local time).

2. 67kg - Sebastian Nad vs. Hasrat Jafarov

This would be a matchup of the reigning world champion at 63kg and the top-ranked wrestler in the world at 67kg. It’ll also be a rematch from the bronze-medal bout from the 2022 European Championships.

Nad is coming off one of the most surprising world title runs in recent memory. The 25-year-old’s breakout performance in Belgrade was highlighted by wins over 2021 world runner-up Leri ABULADZE (GEO) and 2022 European silver medalist Taleh MAMMADOV (AZE).

But it seems that Nad’s days competiting down at 63kg were short lived. He was without question the biggest 63kg wrestler in Belgrade, and after struggling immensely to make weight in Serbia, he’s moving back up to his natural weight of 67kg, where he wrestled in all five senior competitions prior to the 2022 World Championships.

Jafarov, after going 11-2 on the season, heads into the World Cup as the top-ranked wrestler in the world at 67kg. The 20-year-old star won gold at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event and bronze medals at the World and European Championships.

In their last meeting at the 2022 European Championships, Jafarov defeated Nad for the European bronze medal and owns the upper hand coming into Baku.

Serbia and Azerbaijan are both in Group A. This match will take place during the first session on November 5 at 10:00 (local time).

1. 82kg - Burhan AKBUDAK (TUR) vs. Rafig HUSEYNOV (AZE)

Fellow world champions Akbudak and Huseynov are ranked first and second in the world at 82kg, respectively, and could meet for a third time in their career.

Coming into Baku, they’ve split their pair of previous meetings.

Akbudak, the 2022 82kg world champion, opened up his ’22 campaign with three wins in Istanbul, but none bigger than his dominate 9-0 win over the Huseynov in the semifinals of the Yasar Dogu Ranking Series event.

Prior to that, Huseynov, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist and ’21 world champion, edged his Turkish rival, 2-1, to claim the Oslo world title.

Turkey and Azerbaijan are in opposite groups. Depending on how the group stage plays out, this match would take place on November 6.

Catch all the action from Baku, live on the United World Wrestling app or on www.uww.org.