UWW Ranking Series:
Ma’soumi, Firouzpour win golds as Iran bags eight FS medals at Zagreb Open
Iranian wrestlers bagged four golds and silvers apiece as the country finished runner-up to the United States in the freestyle contests of the Zagreb Open.
Iran tallied 182 points in the first World Ranking Series event of the international season – eight points adrift of Team USA – with Azerbaijan standing third with 125 points.
Reigning world junior and under-23 champion Amirreza Ma’soumi cruised to the 125kg title to bring the curtain down on a decent run for the young Iranian squad on Thursday.
Having eased to the final showpiece without conceding a single point, the 20-year-old prodigy rounded off his campaign in emphatic fashion, making a quick work of former world bronze medalist Mason Parris of the US by a superiority win inside the first period.
Beaten by fellow-Iranian Amirhossein Zare’ – world champion and silver medalist in Paris Olympics – in last year’s final in the Croatian capital, Ma’soumi said he will be looking to return to Arena Zagreb for September’s World Championships and win the superheavyweight title.
“Zare’ and I are two of the top heavyweights in Iran,” Ma’soumi said, adding: “We’re scheduled to wrestle each other [at the National Championships] in two months. I hope that the winner of the bout gets the chance to represent the country at the world event. I’ll be eager to claim the world title in this arena.”
Earlier in the day, Amirhossein Firouzpour defeated three-time world medalist Osman Nurmagomedov 11-4 in a thrilling 92kg final, making up for the last-four loss to the Azerbaijani wrestler in the 2021 U23 World Championships.
Firouzpour took an 8-2 lead after launching a gut wrench and, despite a few strokes of brilliance from Nurmagomedov, the Iranian managed to keep the Azerbaijani wrestler at bay to win his second Ranking Series gold.
Abalfazl Babalou, a world under-20 champion in 2023, enjoyed an impressive run to reach the 97kg showdown, but was the second best against American great Kyle Snyder, suffering a 12-1 hammering by the former Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion.
World under-23 gold medalist Mahdi Yousefi also had to settle for a silver in Zagreb, following a 5-3 defeat against Russian-born Zelimkhan Khadjiev, who was representing France, in the 79kg final.
Thursday’s results came after Ahmad Mohammadnejad-Javan had outmuscled Ebrahim Khari by superiority in an all-Iranian 61kg final on the preceding night.
Abbas Ebrahimzadeh, a borne medalist in last year’s U23 Worlds, won a second gold medal for the country thanks to an 8-6 victory over American Joseph McKenna in the 65kg weight class.
Meanwhile, a 12-1 rout against Azerbaijan’s Kanan Heybatov saw Iranian Sina Khalili finish on the second podium in the 70kg event.