World Cup, Iran

With Raucous Support in Los Angeles, Iran Tops Host United States to Win Freestyle World Cup

Monday, April 13, 2015 - 02:34 By Jason Bryant

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LOS ANGELES (April 12) – Anywhere Iran wrestles, the horns, the chants and the singing follows. Whether it be at World Championships in Turkey or World Cups in Los Angeles, Iran is regarded as having some of the most engaged wrestling fans in the world.

On Sunday at the Forum in Los Angeles, the pattern would hold as hundreds of Iranian wrestling fans waved flags, blew horns and sang as Iran would defeat the United States 5-3 to win the championship at the United World Wrestling Freestyle World Cup.

“We see more Iranians here in Los Angeles than any other City,” said Iranian 61kg wrestler Behnam EHSANPOOR. “The crowd helped me 100 percent. It’s like wrestling in Tehran.”

While tensions between the United States and Iran are strictly political, there have been epic battles between wrestlers from both nations throughout the course of history. The way things started and then finished on Sunday night, that list of epic battles grew.

Iran’s Hassan RAHIMI gave his nation the first win of the finals with a tight 6-5 victory over Tony RAMOS at 57kg. The key sequence occurred in the second period where Ramos, trailing 2-1, looked to score a two-point takedown, then give up two points on a roll and then settled back on top for two more exposure points. After a challenge and a review, Ramos trailed 5-3 after losing a point for the lost challenge. Rahimi gave up a caution point to cut his lead to 5-4. Rahimi scored a pushout countering a Ramos attack to extend his lead to 6-4 and held on despite some question marks surrounding the finish of the bout.

The U.S. looked to steal one quickly at 61kg as 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Coleman SCOTT jumped out to a 5-0 lead against Iran’s Behnam EHSANPOOR, but the Iranian persevered. Trailing 7-2, the 18th-ranked Ehsanpoor closed the gap with takedowns and exposure points. Ehsanpoor completed the comeback with a single leg takedown with 17 seconds left in the second period, sending the Iranian fanbase into boisterous applause.

“It was good wrestling,” said Ehsanpoor. “Scott is an Olympian and I really, really worked hard to get here. The biggest help during the match was the tips my coach gave me. He was watching and made important tips to me on how to change my wrestling.  The coaching was important and made the difference.”

 

Brent METCALF gave the United States its first win with a 3-1 victory at 65kg over World No.2 (at 61kg) Masoud ESMAILPOUR. Metcalf converted a takedown midway through the first period, but Esmailpour, last year’s World silver medalist at 61kg, was unable to muster any offense.

Iran would take a key swing match at 70kg as World No.10 Hassan YAZDANI would show keen mat awareness to defeat No. 11 Nick MARABLE 3-1. Marable came close to scoring a tying takedown in the final minute, but Yazadani’s flexibility allowed him to defend as Marable feverishly tried to drop one of Yazdani’s knees to the mat for the tying score. Yazdani fought off the attack and prevailed to give Iran a 3-1 lead after four weights.

Iran’s Morteza REZAEI had defeated two World medallists already in the tournament, but with World No.2 Jordan BURROUGHS of the United States looming, Rezaei would have to wrestle a perfect match. Burroughs wasn’t going to allow that.

Burroughs struck in the first 10 seconds with a takedown and then scored a two-point exposure and three additional takedowns to earn a 10-0 technical fall to run his international record to 102-2 and bring the U.S. within 3-2 after the first five matches.

 

World No.4 Meisam MOSTAFA JOUKAR (IRI), the reigning World University champion, would face American Clayton FOSTER at 86kg. Foster wrestled both matches on Sunday after American No.1 Ed RUTH was injured in Saturday’s competition.

Foster, ranked No.10 in the world, struck first with a takedown, but MOSTAFA JOUKAR came right back with a big four-point move 30 seconds later. The Iranian would lift and return the American again in the first period for another four points, building an 8-2 lead after 120 seconds of wrestling. Mostafa Joukar would use the same single leg attack to score a pushout to extend his lead to 10-2 after a pair of pushouts. Mostafa Joukar would finish off Foster with another single leg, but he’d double off for two points and earn the 12-2 technical fall and give Iran a 4-2 lead with two bouts remaining.

After an up-and-down performance all weekend, 2012 Olympic champion Jake VARNER (USA) picked the last three seconds to strike and steal a victory away from 2014 World bronze medalist Mohammad HOSSEIN MOHAMMADIAN. Varner led 1-0 after scoring a caution point in the first period for Mohammadian, normally an 86kg wrestler, failing to score on his 30-second shot clock. Mohammadian scored a takedown and a pushout in the second period to take a 3-1 lead before Varner hit a duckunder and converted the takedown attempt with just four seconds remaining to earn a 3-3 criteria victory and send championship down to the event’s last match.

 

World and Olympic medalist Khomeil GHASEMI (IRI) stepped to the mat at 125kg to try to bring the World Cup title back to Iran. He’d face off with World No.15 Zach REY of the United States.

Rey took a 1-0 lead, scoring a caution point after Ghasemi was unable to score during the 30-second shot clock window in the first period. Ghasemi would match Rey’s caution point in the second and would hold criteria as the two were tied 1-1 with a minute remaining in the bout. Ghasemi scored a pivotal takedown with 25 seconds remaining in the match, countering a Rey attempt with a go-behind. After a restart, Ghasemi prevented any Rey attack to give Iran the 5-3 team victory.

Both the U.S. and Iran won their respective pools. Iran won what was essentially a pool final on Sunday afternoon 7-1 over rival Azerbaijan. Iran jumped out to a 6-0 lead before dropping the only match of the dual. Sharif SHARIFOV (AZE) would lay a 9-1 loss on two-time world champion Reza YAZDANI at 97kg.

Azerbaijan, which has become a world power in wrestling the past decade, has strong ties to Iran and the two nations have developed a fierce rivalry on the mat in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.

One of the key victories came from World No.2 Sayed MOHAMMADI (IRI) at 65kg. Mohammadi had a wild 14-10 victory over 2012 Olympic champion Toghrul ASGAROV (AZE), who was wrestling down at 65kg for the first time in a year.

“I managed to win due to the tough training we do in Iran,” said Mohammadi. “We prepare for a day like this.”

Coming into the finals, Mohammadi wasn’t worried about his individual outcomes.

“The performance is not about me, it’s about the team,” he said. “I’m happy that I played my role on the team.”

Azerbaijan topped Russia by criteria for third place. The two teams were deadlocked at 4-4 and classifcation points were tied at 15-15 sending the match to technical points, which Azerbaijan won 34-28.

Belarus defeated Mongolia 5-3 for fifth place and Cuba defeated Turkey 5-3 for seventh place.  

Final Pool A Standings: United States 3-0, Russia 2-1, Mongolia 1-2, Cuba 0-3
Final Pool B Standings: Iran 3-0, Azerbaijan 2-1, Belarus 1-2, Turkey 0-3

CHAMPIONSHIP
IRAN 5, UNITED STATES 3
57 kg - No.8 Hassan RAHIMI (IRI) df. No.19 Tony RAMOS (USA), 6-5
61 kg - No.18 Behnam EHSANPOOR (IRI) df. Coleman SCOTT (USA), 9-7
65 kg - No.8 Brent METCALF (USA) df. No.2 Masmoud ESMAILPOUR (IRI), 3-1
70 kg - No.10 Hassan YAZDANI CHARATI (IRI) df. No.11 Nick MARABLE (USA), 3-1
74 kg - No.2 Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) df. Morteza REZAEI GHALEH (IRI) by TF, 10-0
86 kg - No.4 Meisam MOSTAFAJOUKAR (IRI) df. No.10 Clayton FOSTER (USA) by TF, 12-2
97 kg - Jake VARNER (USA) df. No.3 Mohammad HOSSIEN MOHAMMADIAN (IRI), 3-3
125 kg - No.2 Komeil GHASEMI (IRI) df. No.15 Zach REY (USA), 3-1

THIRD PLACE
AZERBAIJAN 4, RUSSIA 4 (15-15)
Azerbaijan wins by technical points 34-28
57 kg - Viktor RASSADIN (RUS) df. Yashar ALIYEV (AZE), 8-1
61 kg - No.12 Haji ALIYEV (AZE) df. No.15 Murshid MUTALIMOV (RUS), 9-4
65 kg - No.4 Magomed MUSLIMOV (AZE) df. Zaurbek SIDAKOV (RUS), 6-0
70 kg - No.8 Israil KASUMOV (RUS) df. No.12 Ruslan DIBIRGADZHIYEV (AZE), 6-4
74 kg - Iakubali SHIKHDZHAMALOV (RUS) df. Murad SULEYMANOV (AZE), 4-1
86 kg - Dauren KURUGLIEV (RUS) df. Aleksandr GOSTIYEV (AZE), 4-0
97 kg - No.5 Sharif SHARIFOV (AZE) df. No.13 Yury BELONOVSKIY (RUS), 1-1
125 kg - No.11 Jamaladdin MAGOMEDOV (AZE) df. Timur KOTSOEV (RUS) by TF, 12-1

FIFTH PLACE
BELARUS 5, MONGOLIA 3
57 kg - No.10 Tsogtbaatar DAMDINBAZAR (MGL) df. No.7 Vladzislav ANDREEV (BLR) by FALL
61 kg - Dzianis MAKSIMAV (BLR) df. Nemekhbayar BATSAIKHAN (MGL), 10-10
65 kg - No.6 Mandakhnaran GANZORIG (MGL) df. No.5 Azamat NURIKOV (BLR), 11-5
70 kg - Ankhbayar BATCHULUUN (MGL) df. Zhan SAFYAN (BLR), 11-9
74 kg - No.4 Ali SHABANOV (BLR) df. No.14 Unurbat PUREVJAV (MGL), 8-2
86 kg - Amarhajy MAHAMEDAV (BLR) df. Usukhbaatar PUREVEE (MGL), 8-5
97 kg - Ivan YANKOUSKI (BLR) df. No.9 Khuderbulga DORJKHAND (MGL), 7-5
125 kg - No.7 Aleksei SHEMAROV (BLR) df. No.9 Chuluunbat JARGALSAIKHAN (MGL), 11-1

SEVENTH PLACE
CUBA 5, TURKEY 3
57 kg - No.4 Yowlys BONNE RODRIGUEZ (CUB) df. Sezar AKGUL (TUR) by TF, 10-0
61 kg - Munir RECEP AKTAS (TUR) won by forfeit
65 kg - Franklin MAREN CASTILLO (CUB) df. Mustafa KARTAL (TUR) by TF, 10-0
70 kg - Andy YOAN MORENO GONZALEZ (CUB) df. Sefa AKSOY (TUR), 4-2
74 kg - No.5 Livan LOPEZ AZCUY (CUB) won by forfeit
86 kg - Serdar BOKE (TUR) won by forfeit
97 kg - No.7 Javier CORTINA LACERRA (CUB) df. Ibrahim BOLUKBASI (TUR) by FALL
125 kg - Tanju GEMICI (TUR) won by forfeit

Day 1 & 2 Results, Notes & Standings: http://uww.io/zuR7L
Event Information page (Photos, Live Stream, Results):
 https://unitedworldwrestling.org/event/world-cup-senior-7

#JapanWrestling

Paris Olympic Champ Sakurai Retires at Age 24

Sunday, April 5, 2026 - 09:12 By Ken Marantz

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TOKYO (April 4) -- Having never really regained the motivation that led her to achieve her ultimate goal of an Olympic gold, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) has decided to retire at the tender age of 24.

Sakurai, the women’s 57kg champion at the Paris Olympics, has announced that she will hang up her singlet and begin a second career nurturing a new generation of wrestlers and serving as a goodwill ambassador of sports for her native Kochi Prefecture in western Japan.

“After 21 continuous years, I feel I have reached the cutoff point of my wrestling career, so I have decided to retire,” Sakurai said at a press conference Friday at the Kochi Prefecture government office.

“I gave everything I had for the Olympics, and I was able to experience the feeling of achievement and the ultimate joy. It's difficult to win the Olympics without determination. I couldn't get back to the mindset I had before Paris. That is the biggest reason [for retiring].”

Known for her steely aggressiveness belying a quiet demeanor, and a wicked use of a 2-on-1 arm bar, Sakurai prefaced her triumph in Paris by winning three consecutive world titles, at 55kg in 2021 and back-to-back golds at 57kg in 2022 and 2023.

A U17 world champion in 2016, she won golds at the Asian Championships and Asian Games in 2022 and 2023, respectively, but suffered the second of just two career international losses at the 2024 Asian Championships, where she fell to Yongxian FENG (CHN) in the final.

She bounced back five months later for her crowning achievement in Paris, where she defeated 2016 Rio Olympic champion Helen MAROULIS (USA) 10-4 in the semifinals, then took the gold with a 6-0 victory over Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) in a rematch of the 2023 world final.

Making the win in Paris even more special was the fact that not only did Sakurai strike gold, but so did another Japanese wrestler who started the sport together with her at the kids wrestling club in Kochi run by her father.

Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN), the freestyle 65kg champion in his Olympic debut, and Sakurai became the toast of Kochi, a rural prefecture fronting the Pacific on the island of Shikoku. They were paraded through the streets of the prefectural capital of Kochi City and hailed as heroes.

Like almost all of Japan’s medalists in Paris, the two took time off from the sport to run the gauntlet of TV interviews and variety shows, and just chill out in general. Sakurai, who returned to Kochi and started graduate studies in sport sciences at Kochi University, was particularly slow in returning to the mat.

In what would prove to be her first – and last – competition after Paris, she won the 57kg title at the second-tier Japan Women’s Open in October 2025, ostensibly to qualify for the Emperor’s Cup All-Japan Championships the following December. That would be the starting point for domestic qualifying for major global tournaments.

But Sakurai never made it to the Emperor’s Cup, and has now fully turned the corner on a new career.

“Over the past year, this decision was made after talking to many people, fretting about it, and thinking things through,” she said.

Sakurai said that as an extension of her father’s Kochi Wrestling Club, she wants to run a series of clinics outside of the city, mainly in her hometown of Konan just to the east of Kochi, to expose more children to wrestling and help it grow.

“Aside from wrestling, I'm learning so many things in graduate school right now, so I want to acquire a wide range of knowledge so that I can give back to Kochi Prefecture properly,” Sakurai said. “I think there will be various problems when I put things into practice, so I want to acquire solid knowledge so that I can solve those problems.”

Fans at this week’s Asian Championships in Bishkek will see another product of the Kochi Wrestling Club in action in Moe KIYOOKA (JPN), Kotaro’s younger sister and a former world champion who will be looking to add the 53kg gold to the one she won at 55kg in 2024. She and Sakurai were also teammates at Ikuei University.

And the name Sakurai might soon be appearing on the world stage again. Her younger sister, Tsukino SAKURAI (JPN), won the Asian U15 title last year.