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Wrestling Calendar 2025: World, continental championships live on UWW+

Tuesday, January 7, 2025 - 10:09 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (January 7) -- The 2025 wrestling season for United World Wrestling will kick off with the 1st Ranking Series event -- Zagreb Open -- in Croatia. The event will be the first of the four Ranking Series scheduled this year.

The season-opening Zagreb Open will be held from February 5 to 9 at the Arena Zagreb, the venue for the senior World Championships later in September. The second stop of the Ranking Series will be in Tirana, Albania. The Muhamet Malo tournament will be held from February 26 to March 2.

The focus will shift to championships after the first two Ranking Series events and kicking off the continental tour will be Oceania Championships in Pago Pago, American Samoa from March 20 to 22. The Asian Championships will be held in Amman, Jordan from March 25 to 30.

April will see the European Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia from April 7 to 13 before the tour continues for African Championships in Casablanca, Morocco from April 29 to May 4. Pan-American Championships will be held in Monterrey, Mexico from May 8 to 11, marking and end of the senior continental championships.

The Ranking Series will return in May, with Mongolia as the third stop. The Ulaanbaatar Open will be held from May 29 to June 1 in the Mongolian capital. The final stop will be the prestigious Polyák Imre, Varga János & Kozma István Memorial tournament from July 17 to 20. As is the norm, it will be held in Budapest, Hungary.

The World Championships calendar will begin with the U17 World Championships in Athens, Greece from July 28 to August 3. The championships is returning to Greece after seven years. Close to a month later, the U20 World Championships will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria from August 18 to 24. The same tournament was held in Sofia in 2022.

The mega event for 2025 -- World Championships -- will be held in Zagreb from September 13 to 21 at the Zagreb Arena in the capital city of Croatia. This is the first time that Croatia will be hosting the big event.

Budapest, Hungary will host the Veteran World Championships from October 7 to 12 and the season's final World Championships will be the U23, to be held in Novi Sad, Serbia from October 20 to 26.

Apart from these events, the UWW calendar will see the age-group continental championships, beach wrestling events and numerous other international tournaments throughout 2025.

All Ranking Series, continental championships and World Championships will be live and exclusive on UWW+.

For a detailed calendar, visit uww.org/events

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UWW Most Dominant Wrestlers 2025: Amouzad, Motoki, Esmaeili

Thursday, December 25, 2025 - 11:08 By Eric Olanowski

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 24) -- There were several dominant performances in 2025 on the wrestling mat. But it was three wrestlers who remained at the top of their weight classes and racked up dominant wins one after another. Two were Olympic champions while one was an Olympic silver medalist. All three became world champions in Zagreb.

Freestyle Most Dominant Wrester: Rahman AMOUZAD (IRI)

- 14–0
- Rank 1 at 65kg 
- 58,000 RS points 
- Outscored world and Olympic medalists 42–4
- World Championships, Tirana RS and ISG golds

Rahman AMOUZAD (IRI) was about as perfect as you could be in a season, returning to prominence with title-winning efforts at the World Championships, Islamic Solidarity Games and Muhamet Malo Ranking Series event and finishing the season as the No.1 ranked wrestler in the world at 65kg with 58,000 Ranking Series points.

The Paris silver medalist, collected an unblemished 14-0 record in 2025 -- with five of those wins coming against top-level opponents who have world or Olympic medals on their resumes in Olympic champion Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN), Umidjon JALALOV (UZB), Taiyrbek ZHUMASHBEK UULU (KGZ) and Real WOODS (USA). The craziest part about those five matches against the world’s best, Amouzad outscored 42-4.

But without a doubt, the highlight of Amouzad’s season came in Zagreb when he finally got his long awaited rematch, beating Kotaro KIYOOKA in a revenge match from the Paris 2024 Olympic finals.

The scariest part about Amouzad’s dominance -- he’s only 23 years old and he’s still getting better.

Women's Wrestling Dominant Wrestler: Sakura MOTOKI (JPN)

- 9-0
- Five pins, two technical superiorities
- 45,000 RS points 
- 8/9 bouts finished before regulation
- Completed Golden Grand Slam (U17, U20, U23, Senior World and Olympic gold)

Coming into the 2025 season, Motoki made her goals crystal clear -- become the third wrestler in history of the sport to win wrestling’s Golden Grand Slam -- and for those who don’t know, that is gold medals at the U17, U20, U23, Senior World Championships and the Olympic Games.

The only two missing from the Olympic champ's resume were the U23 and Senior World golds.

At the 2025 U23 and senior World Championships, Motoki showed that she’s in a league of her own, as she went 9-0, with eight  matches finishing before time expired. She scored five falls and two technical superiority wins.

Her win in the final of the World Championships will be one that will be talked about for ages as the most dramatic win of the season. Motoki scored a buzzer-beating takedown against Ok Ju KIM (PRK) with a 10-second flurry that consisted of a head outside single, arm throw, over-under knee pick, before head locking Kim with four tenths of a second left to keep her history making hopes alive.

In the end, Motoki’s heart and courage under fire helped her close out the year as the third wrestler to complete the Golden Grand Slam and she did it with a level of dominance we may not see again for a very long time.

Greco-Roman Dominant Wrestler: Saeid ESMAEILI (IRI)

- Rank 1 at 67kg 
- 58,000 RS points  
- 11–0 Record
- World Championships, Asian Championships and  ISG golds

In a 2025 campaign that saw him become a world champion, Esmaeili's season was immaculate, as he cemented his place among the sport’s top pound-for-pound wrestler with a season full of titles, stacking gold-medals at the World Championships, Asian Championships and Islamic Solidarity Games, rounding out the season ranked No. 1 in the world at 67kg.

The Paris Olympic champion remained unbeaten in 2025, winning all 11 bouts of his bouts in dominant fashion -- scoring eight shutout wins, with seven technical falls -- including a pair of 9-0 win against world champions Aytjan KHALMAKHANOV (UZB) and Sebastian NAD (SRB). The reigning Olympic gold medalist also collected two victories over Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Hasrat JAFAROV (AZE), one in the world final and one in the Islamic Game gold-medal match, where he tossed his Azeri opponent for four as time expired to rob his rival of the title.

His opponents should not ease up because at just 22 years old, Esmaeili is still sharpening his tool set and leveling up his skills.