The 2023 UWW Senior World Championships will take place in Belgrade, Serbia at the Stark Arena. In addition to competing for individual medals and team trophies, wrestlers will be attempting to qualify their country for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Medalists gain a golden ticket to the Olympics. Additionally, there will be a special match between the fifth-place finishers to determine an additional representative.
SCHEDULE
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 -- ZANE RICHARDS WRESTLES
TIME: 3:30 am (Central)
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 -- ERMAK KARDANOV WRESTLES
TIME: 3:30 am (Central)
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 -- KAMAL BEY WRESTLES
Time: 3:30 am (Central)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 -- JOE "THE RAUSTLER" RAU WRESTLES
Time: 3:30 am (Central)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 -- ZAC BRAUNAGEL WRESTLES
Time: 3:30 am (Central)
TV/STREAMING
FloWrestling (subscription service) The 2023 Senior World Championships broadcast starts on Sep 16, 2023 and runs until Sep 24, 2023. Stream or cast from your desktop, mobile or TV. Now available on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast and Apple TV. Don’t forget to download the FloSports app on iOS or Android! If you can’t watch live, catch up with the replays! Video footage from the event will be archived and stored in a video library for FloWrestling subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscription.
UWW+ (subscription service) United World Wrestling has just started their own subscription service for world-level wrestling and grappling events. There's more information here. It is likely that a VPN alone won't work to watch Worlds any longer.
THE ILLINI RTC BLOG AND DONATIONS
Before going one step farther, we want to make sure you are aware of the ILLINI RTC Blog and what has been written about the journey so far. Here's a small, fun snippet:
"We have continued with the training plan that we first incorporated in the fall of 2022. It is Zane's final phase of his periodization and we could not be happier with the way he looks. His normal training partner, 2x World Medalist Bekhbayar Erdenebat, wasn’t able to travel with us due to visa issues between Mongolia and Germany. We did all the paperwork needed and worked extremely hard to get him here, but Germans just won’t let Mongolians in their country for some reason. Genghis Khan probably did something hundreds of years ago that they are still holding some secret grudge about. While Beke will meet us in Serbia (Serbians apparently do not have the same disdain for Mongolians), we were lucky enough to be able to get someone last minute to train with us in Germany, U20 Silver Medalist Luke Lilledahl. Luke is a great kid that wrestles with a lot of speed, so he has been perfect for Zane."
Check out the rest here, and then go to this link to donate to a worthy cause. We've said it before, but to reiterate, The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond is so penny-poor that when our bank account gets hacked, the criminal leaves us money. Still, we just donated.
Also, free t-shirt!
ZANE RICHARDS
This is a twelve-year-old clean-shaven Zane as a Tulsa Nationals Champion in 2007:
57kg SEEDS FREESTYLE
No. 1 - Wanhao ZOU (CHN)
No. 2 - Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB) Zane beat him in practice match
No. 3 - Zanabazar ZANDANBUD (MGL) Zane teched him at World Cup
No. 4 - Darian CRUZ (PUR) Zane teched him at Zagreb
No. 5 - Almaz SMANBEKOV (KGZ)
No. 6 - Stevan Andria MICIC (SRB)
No. 7 - Aliabbas RZAZADE (AZE)
No. 8 - Beka BUJIASHVILI (GEO) Zane teched him at Budapest
THE 57KG BRACKETS
Zane Richards will have both the Russian Uguev and last year's World Champion, the Albanian Abakarov, on his side of the bracket. First things first, he will need to beat Aliabbas Rzazade of Azerbaijan, who won a Gold and Silver at the last two Euro Championships.
He has a Nick Suriano physique, and he's pretty young. This will be his first World Championship tournament. Rzazade loves the right-arm underhook, and he will fight all day in the whizzer/seat belt position if you let him.
The Azerbaijaini wrestled Austin Desanto and almost got into a fist fight. He actually threw a pretty weak slap at the rascally Hawkeye. This was up at 61kg, and he lost. Now, he'll have to lose weight to wrestle Zane, another American!
Get past Rzazade, and Zane will likely face the Iranian, Milad Valizadeh in the next round. Iran's World Medalist is out because of injury, and although Valizadeh has a lot of confidence--perhaps way too much confidence--he hasn't had the results. At the ranking tournament in Budapest, Zane teched this fellow.
The good news is that Zane has two wrestlers who are long drinks of water in the first two rounds. He has had oodles of success with this body type (e.g. Zandanbud, Suriano, Gilman, Stechele). This is the tougher of the two brackets, but as long as Zane gets to the match with Uguev, he should be on the podium.
ZANE'S FIRST MATCH
Zane would like to have that one back. He had the only takedown in a 2-3 loss, while the Azeri Euro Championships Gold had two pushouts and a shot clock. I would just note that the one takedown in the match was so beautiful and effortless, if Zane had done that to Gilman, everybody would say Gilman was not Gilman that day.
Will Rzazade make the Finals? Very long odds. Even though he's this year's Euro Gold at 57 kg, the 61 kg Euro Gold and the last World Champion at 57 kg (Abakarov) is still in it, along with dark horse Aman Aman of India and World and Olympic champ Uguev of Z. They're all on Rzazade's side of the bracket, too.
So, he'll need to beat two of them.
But don't feel sorry for Zane. Feel sorry for me. After the match, I started drinking. I'm two beers in and my wife has already thrown me out of the house for complaining about the pancakes. I just wish she'd thrown me out before I took the call from my boss, who wanted me to come in to work tomorrow, and I slurred at him, "**** off." He said, "You're fired," and I said, "Fine, see if you can find a better french fry guy in Myrtle Beach." Now, I'm resorting to free internet at the library.
UPDATE: Rzazade did not make the Finals. The Iranian (who Zane had recently teched in Budapest) beat him. It was hoped that we would get to see Zane versus Abakarov and Uguev. That was not to be.
In the future, Richards would benefit from a good seed in the tournament. Facing Euro Gold in round one is not optimal. If he can win Pan Ams and go to multiple ranking series tournaments--and of course qualify the weight for the Olympics--he can secure that seed.
As it stands, as the World Teamer, he will have an advantage in the American Olympic trials series.
ERMAK KARDANOV
ILLINI Regional Training Center athlete Ermak Kardanov wrestled for his birth country of Russia, even making it to the quarterfinals of Russian Nationals on two occasions. He is now wrestling for Slovakia out of Champaign, ILLINOIS.
Most recently, Kardanov won a Bronze Medal at the European Championships. In his medal match, he dominated the #6 seed for the World Championships, Matt Finesilver. In the process the IRTC athlete earned himself a #8 seed.
92kg FREESTYLE SEEDS
No. 1 - Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO)
No. 2 - Osman NURMAGOMEDOV (AZE)
No. 3 - Gankhuyag GANBAATAR (MGL)
No. 4 - Feyzullah AKTURK (TUR)
No. 5 - Rizabek AITMUKHAN (KAZ)
No. 6 - Matthew Phillip FINESILVER (ISR)
No. 7 - Zahid VALENCIA (USA)
No. 8 - Ermak KARDANOV (SVK)
PREVIOUS WORLD MEDALISTS IN THE FIELD
2022 World Championships
Miriani Maisuradze (GEO) Bronze -- Seeded 1st
Osman Nurmagomedov (AZE) Bronze -- Seeded 2nd
2021 World Championships
Osman Nurmagomedov (AZE) Bronze -- Seeded 2nd
The entry list is short, but there are other problems at the weight, including the fourth seed, Feyzullah Akturk of Turkey, who is a two time Euro Champion. The Kazakh seeded just below him finished second in the Asian Championships.
92KG FREESTYLE BRACKETS
Ermak gets a bye in the first round with his #8 seed. He will face the winner between Pruthviraj Patel of India or Demian of Moldova. The Indian is a wide-body 747 who will use his strength and not his speed (which isn't going to be a key weapon for this fellow).
Deepak Punia of India--somebody who would have given Kardanov a good match, injured his elbow and is out of the World Championships.
Ion Demian of Moldova lost in the first round of the 2023 European U23 tournament. Two years ago, Jaxon Smith of Maryland almost teched this guy in the U20 World Tournament.
I don't see Ermak losing to either of these guys.
ERMAK'S FIRST MATCH
Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. I really like Ermak, but he was awful in this match, losing to the Indian by a bunch.
Then, there was the head-butting.
Once that had run its course, it was time to gas. He was pushed out three times in a row. The IRTC wrestler tried one shot the whole match, and it was ugly. The whole thing was embarrassing.
There is no chance for repechage because his opponent is terrible.
FURTHER NOTE: After some reflection, it should be noted that Kardanov had words with the Indian after the match. It may have been something his opponent did that triggered him. We'd like to think it didn't just come out of the blue. Thing is, we're not going to go back and look at that match. Ever.
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