Rio 2016: Olympic Wrestling Preview Day 7: Men’s Freestyle 86kg & 125kg

We’ll begin this preview of Day 7 as we will all future previews, with a link back to our Olympics Wrestling primer, which has a cheat sheet and live stream details. Also a link to NBC’s wrestling webpage where you can find video streams. And here is a link to CBC’s streams for all you Canadians (or global citizens with computers that are pretending to be Canadian for now).

Also a note that wrestling brackets are random draw and uneven. You can check out the brackets from the 2015 World Championship and the European Olympic Qualification Tournament to give you a better idea of what the Rio brackets will look like.

All to the point that picking place finishers before the weigh-ins are completed and brackets are released (which happens the day before each tournament) is a fool’s errand. Which is perhaps why I find it so much fun.

Men’s Freestyle 86kg

PICKS

GOLD: Abdulrashid Sadulaev RUS

SILVER: Selim Yasar TUR

BRONZE: Sharif Sharifov AZE

BRONZE: J’Den Cox MIZZOU

CONTENDERS

No one has so thoroughly dominated a weight class in men’s freestyle over the last 3 years than the Russian Tank, Abdulrashid Sadulaev. The native of Dagestan has not lost since 2013 and there is no bigger favorite in any weight class then Saddycakes. If anyone even scores a point on him in this tournament, I will be genuinely shocked.

Yashar of Turkey (by way of Ingushetia, a southern Russian republic neighboring Dagestan) is the only wrestler to last a full 6 minutes on the with Sadulaev on multiple occasions. He will also be placed on the opposite side of the bracket as the Mad Bad Sadulaev by dint of his 2nd place finish at last year’s World Championship.

Sharifov of Azerbaijan (also by way of Dagestan) is a bit of a wild card. He won gold in London and then decided he’d had enough weight cutting and has been competing (ineffectively) up a 97kg for the last 3+ years. He decided to drop back down for the big quadrennial, and if the cut’s not too bad and he is in form, he will be tough to beat.

College senior and Renaissance Man, J’Den Cox, is a dark horse on the international level, but anyone following US wrestling should be very familiar with the 2X NCAA champion.

OTHERS OF NOTE

Reineris Salas of Cuba has three world medals but has never ascended the top of the podium. His best finish was losing to Sadulaev in 2014, in a match where he was so frustrated by the indomitable Russian that he took a an open fist left handed roundhouse swing (and miss) at his face. Sadulaev looms rather large over this weight class.

And if you’re looking for a longshot, a good candidate would be China’s Shengfeng “Big Confucius” Bi. China has never had a world or Olympic medalists at any weight, so it will be a very big deal indeed of Bi battles his way to an Olympic medal.

RANKINGS

1 RUS Abdulrashid SADULAEV

2 CUB Reineris SALAS

4 TUR Selim YASAR

6 MGL Uitumen ORGODOL

9 USA J'den COX

10 GEO Sandro AMINASHVILI

13 IRI Alireza KARIMI

14 POL Zbigniew BARANOWSKI

15 AZE Sharif SHARIFOV

16 HUN Istvan VEREB

17 BLR Amarhajy MAHAMEDAU

18 KAZ Aslan KAKHIDZE

19 CHN Shengfeng BI

20 KOR Gwanuk KIM

BUL Mihail GANEV

EGY Mohamed MOHAMED

PUR Jamie ESPINAL

TUN Mohamed SAADAOUI

VEN Pedro CEBALLOS

Men’s Freestyle 125kg

PICKS

GOLD: Taha Akgul TUR

SILVER: Geno Petriashvili GEO

BRONZE: Bilyal Makhov RUS

BRONZE: Jamaladdin Magomedov AZE

CONTENDERS

The 25 year old Akgul from Turkey has run roughshod on the heavyweight division over the last two years, winning the last two world championship in Tashkent and Vegas. He stumbled at this year’s European Championship, finishing off the podium, but he’ll still walk step on the mats in Rio as the consensus gold medal favorite.

Georgia’s Petriashvili has been incredibly consistent, and at a mere 22 years old, should be a fixture on the medal stand for years to come. Geno911 emerged victorious at the aforementioned European Championship and captured bronze medals at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships.

Russia’s Man Mountain, Bilyal Makhov, is hoping to secure his first Olympic gold to go with his seven world championship medals (three of which are gold, and two of which are in Greco-Roman, astoundingly not his preferred style). He’s already signed with the UFC, where one would expect him to rapidly move the up ranks of the heavyweight division, so this may be our last chance to see the man from the Kabardino-Balkar Republic on a wrestling mat.

Magomedov of Azerbaijan (by way of the Islamic Republic of Dagestan - a popular place for quality wrestlers if you haven’t noticed) is a veteran with a trophy case overflowing with major tournament medals. He is just 27, so Rio will likely not be the end of his freestyle wrestling career.

OTHERS OF NOTE

Returning Olympian and Texan American, Tervel Dlagnev, has finished no worse than fifth in every senior level tournament he’s entered (as far as I can figure), but he’s biggest challenge may be his own back. The health problems he has been having almost kept him out of the USA Olympic Team Trials, and consequently the Olympics. The only reason I didn’t slot Dlagnev in for a homer bronze pick is the unknown condition of his back.

If any of my picks don’t pan out, the next likeliest candidate is Iran’s Komeil Ghasemi. Though he barely squeaked by his own national team tryouts, he’s got an Olympian’s pedigree, with two world medals and three asian continental medals (including one gold) to his name.

Zazieiev of Ukraine (by way of the partially recognized de facto independent state of South Ossetia [but de jure constituent province of Georgia]) somehow did not make the UWW 125kg top 20 rankings, but he will be a strong contender to medal. He is also about 8 feet tall. Potentially 8’1’’ depending on what kind of shoes he’s wearing.

RANKINGS

1 GEO Geno PETRIASHVILI

2 RUS Bilyal MAKHOV

4 TUR Taha AKGUL

5 AZE Jamaladdin MAGOMEDOV

6 IRI Komeil GHASEMI

7 CHN Zhiwei DENG

8 ARM Levan BERIANIDZE

9 KAZ Daulet SHABANBAY

10 MGL Chuluunbat JARGALSAIKHAN

11 POL Robert BARAN

12 HUN Daniel LIGETI

14 USA Tervel DLAGNEV​

17 KGZ Aiaal LAZAREV

20 EGY Diaaeldin ABDELMOTTALEB

BLR Ibrahim SAIDAU

BUL Dimitar KUMCHEV

CAN Korey JARVIS

PLW Florian TEMENGIL

TUN Radhouane CHEBBI

UKR Alen ZASIEIEV

COACH MIKE’S TAKE

I was expecting Coach Mike to add some comments on each day’s events, to be doled out evenly over each blog post, but instead he put all his thoughts in this one post that ran yesterday. So hopefully Mike will grace us in the comments section with his presence. If not I will have to resort to shaming him on twitter.

AND NOW FOR A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

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