The Genius

May 6th was BTS when he got injured.

Thank you. Is the 130kg Hajipour related to the 65kg FS Abolfazl Hajipour lol? I am disappointed that no Kaviani (or others) are going to the U23s. They are just coming out of juniors and were fast tracked to seniors (and in Kaviani's case showed he wasn't ready), so to me going to U23 is a logical step for most of them.

So no Kaviani in the U23 team? Did he try? I know the FS team but can you post the GR team please?

Very good and fair rankings and reasoning. I'd only disagree with two things: I'd swap Yaz with Geno (multiple divisions + Geno won on criteria late and lost to Taha a few times recently too, so it's very hard to split them), and Uguev with Rashidov - Uguev had a lot of controversy himself in the match vs Amiraslanov and faced significantly weaker opposition than Rashidov (Rashidov beat 2 world champs whilst Uguev faced/beat 0).

Congrats on the 1 point lead in FS. Commiserations on the 57 point deficit to Iran in the other half of men's wrestling (Iran 4th... I can't be bothered to scroll far enough to find USA's rank there, sorry).

Wait, you guys pay and still get ads whilst the rest of the world doesn't pay and gets an ad-free experience? That's ridiculous.

I meant they had never won world medals...

By some remarkable coincidence, the Kazakhs managed to avoid virtually all the strong non-seeded guys until the SF/F. At 57kg Amiraslanov, Atri, Fix, Yatsenko, Bekhbayar, Armenian Euro Champ and Kumar all unseeded and all on the other bracket to Sanayev, giving him an easy path to the semis. At 65kg unseeded Haji Aliyev, Rashidov, Amir Yazdani, Valdes - same story, giving Niyazbekov clear road to the SF. Then lucky calls went his way (to say the last), giving him a final. At 70kg unseeded Green, Gadzhiev, Navruzov and Baev all on the other bracket to Kaipanov! I could go on but I think you get the idea...

He beat two non-medalists then lost to another non-medalist who then lost to San Marino, this is your #2 guy at 86kg?

The factor is the weight cut, Cox already looks massive at 92kg and at this stage of his career with the weigh ins it's hard to imagine he could make 86kg without sacrificing at least some performance.

what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Yeah absolutely. It would be nice to see Dake vs Sidakov or Chamizo... I think where it differs for Cox is the fact that hes never not made a team...so favoring him over DT (whos been on the shelf and Cox has beaten) or Snyderman (who i just think he's better than :) ) is reasonable.... im very excited to see how this all unfolds and also very excited to see which athletes go down to 57kg. Such a cut.... going to be a weird year As an Iranian I hope Cox moves to 86kg because Yazdani has major issues with DT, but I think it would be better for the US if Cox moved to 97kg. Cox already beat DT and Dake in trials (2/3 each I think?), so we can't just say his results are inflated because of a weak division to dismiss him (even though it is true in itself, 92kg is very very weak). Cox looks huge and very strong at 92kg, so I feel like 97kg would be better for him than 86kg at this stage of his career. JB/Dake is the real tough call, both are incredible in their own right.

In the least condescending way...do you think JB.... or even Ringer... would look anything but stellar, if their only competition was Hasanov? Yep you're totally right, and the same applies to Cox. Especially this year. It's very harsh on JB especially for people to be talking about replacing him with Dake. BUT their dominance still merits consideration of the 'what if' and when 2020 is coming up it makes sense to want to see what Dake can do at 74kg (vs JB) and Cox can do at 97 (vs Snyder).

America is a corporatist oligarchy, which is the root of the problem. If these Americans want to get political about Iran's internal affairs (with false stories/narratives and things they have no clue about) then I think the war crimes (etc) of America and Israel should be fair game for discussion too.

DT is a strong favourite for Gold in 2020 at 86kg so it would be silly to replace him now in my opinion. On the other hand, Snyder is now a significant underdog at 97kg so the time is right to see what Cox can do at 97kg. At 74kg I think Burroughs was superb, he had a very tough run and lost on criteria because of a last second step out. But JB is 0-2 against Sidakov now and Dake is a monster so I want to see Dake at 74kg. Dake-Taylor-Cox is an incredible mix. Clearly should be Yianni at 65kg too. No idea about 57kg or 125kg though.