Poland Day 1: Men's Freestyle Bracket Reactions
Poland Day 1: Men's Freestyle Bracket Reactions
Quick takes on the men's freestyle brackets from Poland, covering 57, 70, 79, 86 & 97kg.
We've finally got brackets from Poland. How wonderful! The first five men's freestyle weight-classes will be contested in just a few hours, those being 57, 70, 79, 86 & 97kg.
The entries have changed a bit from the initial registration but we should still see plenty of fire matches. So let's run through those brackets for some Ziokowlski quick takes.
57 Kilograms
We didn't get to see much of Stevan Micic during folkstyle season, as he deferred another year of NCAA eligibility, and we'll only get to see two matches from the Olympian in Poland as his bracket is just three wrestlers deep.
Micic will be favored in both bouts, but Bujiashvili was a nice surprise entry for Georgia. He's got medals at a couple of lower-level European tournaments recently and was Georgia's rep at the 2021 European Championships, where he placed eighth.
70 Kilograms
Only seven wrestlers deep, so we have two round robins, one with three wrestlers and one with four. Then two semifinal bouts, a final, and a true bronze match.
Two Americans, James Green and Alec Pantaleo, were drawn into the three-man pool with a Ukrainian they'll both be favored to beat. Alec will get the first crack at Ukraine, and then he'll get an opportunity for revenge against Green, who he lost to at the Flo 8-Man Challenge.
Assuming Green then takes care of business against Ukraine regardless of what happens with Pantaleo, things get interesting, as the four-man pool has some contenders.
One of those contenders is Zurabi Iakobishvili, another surprise entry from Georgia who is also a 2017 World Champ and 2018 World bronze medalist. Another contender in the four-man pool is Haji Aliev, the Azerbaijanian superstar who has accumulated three world gold medals and an Olympic bronze from Rio.
Green, Pantaleo, Aliev, and Iakobishvili are a salty quartet that will be favored to make the semifinals, from whom we'd then get four more total matches.
Honestly, seven-man brackets are kinda nice, maybe even preferable to eight-mans.
79 Kilograms
But eight-man brackets are cool too, like this one.
No Americans but look for the ageless wonder and 2011 Asian champ, Rashid Kurbanov of Uzbekistan (originally from Dagestan), to make the finals from the top side, and 2021 European champ, Akhsarbek Gulaev of Slovakia (originally from Ossetia) to make it from the bottom half.
Between the two, Kurbanov has tenure by dint of his ten-year head start on the senior circuit.
86 Kilograms
Nine participants, four of which are Olympians. Though they don't come from traditional wrestling powers, Switzerland's Stefan Reichmuth and San Marino -and Michigan's- Myles Amine will wrestle in the quarters, as a warm-up to a potential face-off in Tokyo.
The winner, probably Amine, but don't sleep on Reichmuth, (the Swiss have a larger cultural affinity to their own folkstyle* of wrestling than most give them credit for), will likely get Zahid Valencia, though the two-time NCAA champion Sun Devil will have to get by a Polish wrestler in the pigtail bout and then Indian Olympian Deepak Punia.
No favorites (we are objective journalists), but fingers-crossed for a Valencia vs Amine semifinal.
That's the bottom side, on the top it'll likely be another pleasant Georgian surprise registrant in Sandro Aminishvili, the runnerup at the 2021 European Championship, although he'll first have to best Peru's Olympian, Ambrocio Pool.
97 Kilograms
We've saved the best for last, as 97 is undeniably the highest quality bracket of Day 1.
Iran is using this tournament to help determine their Olympic rep, as they have an embarrassment of riches to choose from. On the top, and smaller, half of the 11-man bracket is Shabanibenga, the 2021 Asian Champ. On the bottom half, and with a bye to the quarters, is Karimi, a three-time world medalist, though all at lighter weight classes.
Rounding out the Iranian trio is Mohammadian, who sits all the way at the bottom of the bracket and has Kollin Moore in his first match. For an idea of Mohammadian's ability, you can watch his match against Kyle Snyder from the 2020 Pellicone.
Or you can just take our word for it that Mohammadian is very good. Seriously, you don't have to watch that match, as much as we'd appreciate the click. Really, just skip it.
Should Moore get by Mohammadian, he'll have either a young and untested Kazakhstani or Fardj from Algeria, an Olympian. A win there in the quarters and it's back into the fire for Moore, as he'll get either Italy's Olympian by way of Cuba, Abraham Conyedo, or living legend Sharif Sharifov, or the aforementioned Karimi, in the semis.
Back on the top side, Shabani has North Macedonian Olympian by way of Dagestan in the quarters, then likely a match with Kazakhstani Olympian, Alisher Yergali, in the semifinals.
Pretty much every match in this bracket will be on par with what you'll see at the Olympics, a treat everywhere you look!
*Which is, to the best of our knowledge, not at all related to the Wayne's World catchphrase.