#WrestleBudapest

#WrestleBudapest Day Three Finals Preview Show

By Eric Olanowski

Wednesday night’s European finals will be highlighted by arguably the greatest European rivalry of the last decade. World and European champions Taha AKGUL ?? and Geno PETRIASHVILI ?? will clash for gold at 125kg. It'll be the sixth time they’ve met at the European championships with Akgul winning their last four meetings.

Tonight's freestyle finals kick off at 18:00 (?? local time) on www.uww.org.

Final Matchups
61kg: Suleyman ATLI ?? vs Arsen HARUTYUNYAN ??
74kg: Frank CHAMIZO ?? vs Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV ??
86kg: Myles AMINE ?? vs Abubakr ABAKAROV ??
92kg: Miriani MAISURADZE ?? vs Osman NURMAGOMEDOV ??
125kg: Taha AKGUL ?? vs Geno PETRIASHVILI ??

#WrestleZagreb

WATCH: 10 Zagreb Open freestyle finals

By Eric Olanowski

ZAGREB, Croatia (February 8) -- The first Ranking Series event of the season, the Zagreb Open, just wrapped up in the Croatian capital. Wrestlers used the point-based competition to earn points towards their seeds at the five Continental Championships and Belgrade World Championships.

The United States topped the team standings with 174 points, while Iran and Azerbaijan rounded out the top three.

The Stars and Stripes had wrestlers win medals in seven of ten weight classes--including gold-medal performances from Alec William PANTALEO (USA)Jason Michael NOLF (USA)Kollin Raymond MOORE (USA) and Kyle Frederick SNYDER (USA) at 70kg, 74kg, 92kg and 97kg, respectively.

Iran finished in second place with 140 points, 34 points behind the United States, thanks to bracket winners Reza Ahmadali ATRINAGHARCHI (IRI)Ali Bakhtiar SAVADKOUHI (IRI),  Hassan Aliazam YAZDANICHARATI (IRI) and Amir Hossein Abbas ZARE (IRI).

Aliabbas RZAZADE (AZE) won gold at 57kg and helped Azerbaijan close out the competition in the third position. They had seven medalists--one gold, two silver and four bronze medals--and finished with 135 points.

Here are the 10 freestyle finals from Zagreb.

57kg Aliabbas RZAZADE (AZE) df. Yuto NISHIUCHI (JPN), 2-0