The Genius

All fair points. Yazdani was at 66kg as a junior and started his senior career at 70kg. While he has clearly grown into 86kg, a 16kg jump is huge and I agree that Taylor fits the weight better and generally looks bigger than Yazdani when they compete (but not stronger). The main caveat, which also applies to Yazdani, is that the competition at 86kg has not been very strong, with DT and Yazdani sharing Golds between them as Sadulaev and Sharifov moved up after 2016. The next best guys were likely Iranian (Ghasempour, Karimi) or American but the rest of the world was not competitive (shown in DT and Yazdani's finish rate at Worlds/Olympics).

The last time Yazdani lost to someone who hasn't DT was to Tsabalov in 2016. The last time DT lost to a non-American who wasn't Yazdani was to a Ukrainian also in 2016. Kinda funny. But the big difference is that DT has a lot of losses to quite a few Americans (5 losses to Dake alone, 4 losses to JB, 2 losses to Cox, 2 losses to Brooks) while Yazdani has never lost against an Iranian. I would say Yazdani has the superior resume overall but they both have excellent wins (DT's 1-2 record against Cox and 1-4 record against JB, the only win coming against a much older JB, arguably let him down a bit). Yazdani has wins over 6 World or Olympic champions: Tsabalov, Gadzhiev, Taghavi, Sharifov, Ghasempour, and Taylor. Taylor has wins over 5 World or Olympic champions: Kurbanaliev, Sharifov, Yazdani, Cox, and Burroughs.

Some fun trivia: Tsabalov is the only wrestler to have wins over both Hassan Yazdani and David Taylor (Tsabalov is 1-2 against Yazdani and 1-0 against DT). Yazdani has wins over every wrestler he has faced at 74kg and 86kg. The only guy he wrestled and hasn't won against is Gazimagomedov (Yazdani lost to him 3-1 in 2015 worlds at 70kg in Yazdani's last match at 70kg, when he was only 19 years old). Yazdani has lost to 4 wrestlers in his career (Gazimagomedov, Shabanau, Tsabalov, and Taylor) and DT has lost to 6 non-American wrestlers (11 total) (Tsargush, Tsabalov, Nurmagomed, Rochniak, Lasghari, and Yazdani) in his career.

That's unfortunate timing for him but you miss all the shots you don't take. The MMA route might be better for him. Or just wait a year and return, not like he's getting old. I don't love TUEs because they can be a loophole for PEDs (which adderall definitely is hence why you need a TUE). But I'm not a doctor and if the diagnosis/TUE is legit then fine by me. Weird no statement by the UWW though.

Have to imagine Dake will do something similar after Paris. Changing of the guard. Any idea why no news about Gable returning to compete at 125kg? Odd that he returned to compete at Worlds last year, pulled out last minute, then we never heard from him again.

Damn. At least Americans can stop acting holier than thou and blaming PEDs every time they lose to an Iranian or Russian wrestler. Seems weird to give DT the place if Brooks is suspended given DT went 0-2 in the trials. What about Valencia? He should probably wrestle DT to determine who gets the place if it comes to that, he was robbed against Brooks to begin with. But Twitter talk is that the Brooks side is confident they will be able to compete. Presume Brooks passed all the tests since U23 worlds last year.

It's difficult to compare domestic match ups with international match ups given familiarity etc. And that Amine result is a bit of an anomaly because Yazdani was injured. But fair enough. I probably got a bit too carried away though still stand by the fact I think healthy Yaz techs everyone in the US below DT and Brooks. Hopefully we see the best Yazdani and the best Brooks (and everyone else) and the rest will take care of itself. The US team looks weaker than I can remember for a long time but I am sure you will find a way to beat us anyway lol

You mix up random matches from all sorts of years for no apparent reason ... No idea what your point was there. My point was DT is the only one who couldn't score on Brooks (in two matches) which suggests DT was off rather than Brooks was amazing. Brooks was very lucky to be gifted the win against Valencia too. Yazdani wrestled Amine twice and beat him 11-0 then 7-2. Second time he was injured and had the tape on his shoulder (and needed severe shoulder surgery months later). I would almost bet the house on Yazdani teching Mirasola and Dieringer back to back. Kurugliev gave Yazdani and DT good matches and so has Naifonov lately. I don't know why you keep mentioning Amine, a healthy Yazdani clearly techs him easily. I don't necessarily disagree with your last paragraph but I just wouldn't be as surprised as you if he lost to a Kurugliev or Naifonov (especially Naifonov).

you are extremely biased if you think those first two guys wouldn't get teched 10-0 by Yazdani in 3-4 minutes 90% of the time they wrestle. More of a fun trivia than evidence of this, but Yazdani beat Dieringer 10-0 in 2016 actually Those guys all scored (repeatedly) on Brooks because they are "very dynamic in moments". So DT couldn't score a single TD on Brooks in two matches because he is not dynamic in moments? the guy who got a clutch takedown losing 3-2 with 5 seconds to go in an Olympic final? Azarpira was 19-20 years old and hadn't even wrestled at 92kg as a junior... and he was a last minute replacement for Ghasempour so he didn't even have time to acclimate to the weight. so yes on balance and seeing their more recent results I will attribute that loss to the weight. which isn't to say that Zahid is not very good. he is. but he is not a serious contender to Yazdani or DT at their best. Don't give him any chance of beating Ghasempour either. Brooks might be the toughest challenge to Yazdani. but maybe not. I wouldn't be surprised if he loses to Naifonov or Kurugliev, to be honest.

it was only 1-0 to Valencia after the first period. it was 3-1 to Brooks with 1:48 to go. and obviously it finished 7-6 to Brooks (controversially after Valencia was leading 6*-6 with 6 seconds to go and the ref gives a point to Brooks for a Valencia singlet grab foul) Brooks beat Mirasola 11-5, Dieringer 8-4, Valencia 7-6 then DT 4-1 and 3-1 DT was the only guy of those three who couldn't get a single takedown on Brooks (and he had two matches to do it)... looking at those results I have to conclude that DT was simply not at his best

Iran is sending Alireza Sarlak to the World OG Qualifier in Istanbul (May 9-13) in the last chance to qualify 57% for Paris Also, it is possible that both Yazdani and Ghasempour will be sent to the ranking series tournament in Hungary (June 6-9) to help decide who should represent Iran at 86kg Yazdani is back in light wrestling training as of a week ago, seems slightly ahead of schedule. He will join the national team training camp soon (May 10th). I think he will make it and win Gold.

The last time we saw Geraei wrestle he won Bronze at worlds (wrestling 5 matches over 2 days and going 4-1). I would like to see him wrestle again before Paris

Kamran said weight won't be a problem and he can make 86kg again. It's a no brainer to send him if Yazdani can't go. Both should win Gold. But I think 3 full months of wrestling training will be enough for Yazdani

Esmaeili looks very promising but he's very young and was his first tournament at 67kg and it wasn't at a senior worlds caliber, so it's too risky to send him instead of Reza Geraei IMO, even if Geraei has looked very bad at 67kg lately. Esmaeili will probably have to wait for 2028

Iranian Olympic GR team: 60kg: Mehdi Mohsennejad 67kg: Reza Geraei 77kg: Ali Geraei (I guess?) 87kg: Alizadeh / Mohmadi (TBD) 97kg: Mohammad Hadi Saravi 130kg: Amin Mirzazadeh All five weights are qualified now thanks to Kavianinejad and Mohmadi today. 3 strong medal chances with Mirzazadeh, Saravi and Reza Geraei.