Wrestling World Championships:
All eyes on stacked 97kg field as Yazdani enters new territory
If there were to be a search for a marquee division at the 2026 UWW Wrestling World Championships in Astana, it would be hard to look past the freestyle 97kg category, where four of the biggest names in world wrestling will battle it out for the top prize.
Between them, American Kyle Snyder, Russia’s Abdulrashid Sadulaev, Akhmed Tazhudinov of Bahrain and Iran’s Hassan Yazdani hold five Olympic gold medals and 14 world titles. Over the past 11 years, every world title in this weight class has been won by either Snyder, Sadulaev or Tazhudinov.
Of these four champions, it is probably Yazdani, making his World Championships debut at this weight, who will find it hardest. Yazdani won his Olympic title at 74kg in 2016 before winning three world titles at 86kg and now moving up to 97kg.
A second Olympic gold has proved elusive for the Iranian sensation after successive final defeats against his familiar American foe David Taylor and Bulgaria’s Magomed Ramazanov at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, respectively. With Los Angeles 2028 two years away, Yazdani has moved up two weight classes – after returning from an 18-month injury layoff last year – to compete in the Olympic 97kg category ahead of chasing the ultimate prize at the sporting extravaganza.
He secured his place at the World Championships by beating Olympic bronze medalist Amirali Azarpira twice in the national team trials. While that result shows he will be a threat, Yazdani’s form will be tested in a division that has no shortage of challengers.
None are greater than Snyder and Sadulaev. For the better part of the last decade, the 97kg class has been synonymous with the rivalry between the two. The American, who won his third world title in 2022, made a resurgence of sorts by winning world gold in 2025.
Sadulaev, who won his last world title at 97kg in 2021 before dropping to 92kg to claim his sixth world gold in 2024, had begun his return to the weight class impressively. He won the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series in February and later claimed gold at the European Championships. He will arrive in Astana with something to prove against his longtime rival.
Tazhudinov, the 2023 world and 2024 Olympic champion, has had a mixed run. He finished third at the 2025 World Championships and the 2026 Asian Championships. He bounced back to win the Budapest Ranking Series in July.
But why assume that the 97kg division will be a four-way fight for gold? Over the past few months, Japan’s Arash Yoshida has emerged as a genuine dark horse looking to upset the established order. The 22-year-old won the Asian Championships in April, beating Tazhudinov emphatically before defeating Azarpira 4–0 in the final, though he lost 4–3 to the Iranian in the semifinals of the Asian Games. He will be itching to put that result behind him.
Snyder, who has never locked horns with Yazdani throughout their illustrious careers, hopes the two wrestling greats will cross paths when the 97kg competition gets underway in the Kazakh capital on Thursday.
“I spoke with Yazdani maybe a month ago, and we both said it would be great to compete against each other at this tournament, so hopefully it happens,” Snyder said at a press conference on Friday.
“I think that this is the deepest weight class that I’ve ever wrestled in in my life,” Snyder said. “There are a lot of really tough guys in the weight class. That’s what makes it exciting.”
It is not hard to see what has gotten the juices flowing for the 30-year-old two-time Olympic medalist.
As the top seed, Snyder faces a potential quarterfinal clash with longtime nemesis Sadulaev, who will be chasing a seventh world gold.
What remains unknown is whom Snyder will have to beat first to reach the quarterfinals. And, as he pointed out at the press conference at Barys Arena, any one of a number of unseeded wrestlers is capable of taking down the reigning champion in the first round.
Topping that list is Yazdani.
Snyder said he was impressed with Yazdani, adding that the Iranian appeared to have no difficulty making the transition in terms of power.
“When I watched him wrestle Azarpira, I didn’t see any difference between the two. Both looked similar in regard to strength, and I think Azarpira is one of the strongest guys in the weight class,” Snyder said.
“I wrestled Yazdani one time in practice, for about 20 minutes,” Snyder said. “It was many years ago, so we haven’t wrestled in a while.”
Still, he knows that Yazdani could not have accomplished what he has without possessing what Snyder called “the will of a champion.”
“He’s so determined, he’s so resilient. I think about all the things that he has gone through and experienced in his career. All of the legends that he has defeated. There aren’t many wrestlers who have had that level of experience.
“And then, of course, tactically, everyone knows he’s going to underhook you, he’s going to wrestle at a really high pace immediately when the match starts. He’s a good scrambler, he has good leg attacks. So, being ready for all those different things. I think that he’s a very worthy competitor.”