World Champs Highlight Iran's 2022 World Cup Lineup
World Champs Highlight Iran's 2022 World Cup Lineup
Iran's team for the upcoming Men's Freestyle World Cup on December 10-11.
Iran's roster for the 2022 World Cup has been released and it's filled with world champions and medalists. Take a look below at the roster with each wrestler's accolades.
Iran's 2022 World Cup Roster:
- 57 kg: Reza Hossein Momenijoujadeh - 2022 U20 Asian Silver
- 61 kg: Armin Mehdi Habibzadehsaroukolaei - 2022 U20 World Silver medalist
- 65 kg: Rahman Mousa Amouzadhalili - 2022 World Champion
- 65 kg: Mohammadreza Bagheriheidarabadi
- 70 kg: Aliakbar Fazlikhalili - 2021 U23 World Bronze medalist
- 70 kg: Amirmohammad Yazdanicherati - 2021 World Silver medalist (at 65kg)
- 74 kg: Mohmmadsadegh Firouzpourbandpei - 2022 U23 World Champion
- 79 kg: Mohammad Nokhodarimi - 2021 & 2022 World Silver medalist
- 79 kg: Ali Bakhtiar Savadkouhi - 2021 U23 World Bronze medalist
- 86 kg: Alireza Mohammad Karimimachiani - 2019 World Silver medalist (at 92kg), 2018 World Bronze medalist (at 92kg), 2015 World Bronze medalist
- 92 kg: Amirhossein Firouzpourbandpei - 2022 U23 & U20 World Champion
- 97 kg: Kamran Ghasempour - 2021 & 2022 World Champion (at 92kg)
- 97 kg: Amirali Azarpira - 2022 U23 World Champion
- 125 kg: Amirreza Masoumi Valadi - 2022 U20 & U23 World Champion
The majority of the above roster is the same as Iran's U23 world team, however, there are a few notable wrestlers that stand out. First is their 65kg wrestler, Rahman Amouzad - the 2022 world champion who defeated Yianni Diakomihalis in the finals. After that are the 2 entries at 79kg - Nokhodi and Savadkouhi. Nokhodi lost to Jordan Burroughs in both the 2021 and 2022 world finals. Savadkouhi recently defeated Mohammad Nokhodi and world and Olympic champion Zaurbek Sidakov.
Amouzad's win over Yianni in the 2022 world finals:
Iran's team is especially strong at the upper weights. At 86kg, 3X world medalist Alireza Karimi will be the rep. Karimi notably lost to J'den Cox at both the 2018 and 2019 world championships. Kamran Ghasempour is listed as one of the 97kg representatives. American fans will remember Ghasempour as the wrestler who defeated J'den Cox the last 2 years at worlds. And then there's heavyweight phenom Amirreza Masoumi who won U20 and U23 worlds this year. Masoumi notably teched Nick Feldman at U20 worlds and teched a wrestler who defeated Tony Cassioppi at U23 worlds.
Overall, Iran's team will be incredibly hard to beat and capable of winning every dual met at the upcoming world cup. You can check out all of their competition for the rosters that have been released below: