The Greco-Roman portion of the 2022 calendar comes to a close November 5-6 in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. The Greco-Roman World Cup entries feature a mixture of credentialed veterans who own a combined eight world titles and a youthful group of rising stars ready to make their mark on the senior level.
With the insane level of talent headed to Baku, there will be some great matches on the two-day slate. Some matches we’ve seen before, while others we’ll see for the first time. Here are three potential matchups we’d like to see at next weekend in Baku.
3. 55kg – Eldaniz AZIZLI (AZE) vs. Poya DAD MARZ (IRI)
Azizli and Dad Marz head into Baku fresh off winning world titles.
Azizli was arguably the most dominant Greco-Roman wrestler at the World Championships in Belgrade. He added a second world title to his credentialed resume and further established himself as the weights top wrestler after outscoring his four opponents 34-0.
Dad Marz is two weeks removed from winning gold at the U23 World Championships, where he cruised past all four of his opponents en route to 55kg title.
Iran and Azerbaijan are in opposite groups. Depending on how the group stage plays out, this match will take place on November 6.
2. 77kg – Zoltan LEVAI (HUN/ All-World Team) vs. Sanan SULEYMANOV (AZE)
After facing devastating heartbreaks in Serbia, Levai and Suleymanov are poised to make some noise at the World Cup, and nothing would ease the pain of facing defeat more than picking up a win over a fellow world silver medalist.
These two met once before, and that was in the finals of the 2020 European Championships, where Suleymanov picked up the 3-1 win over Levai.
In addition to Levai having that European finals loss on his mind, he’ll also be thinking about his last loss, which came in Serbia. The Hungarian, who finished the season ranked third in the world, is fresh off punching his ticket to the world finals but he suffered an upsetting 8-0 first-period loss to Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ).
Meanwhile, Suleymanov, after reaching the 2021 world finals, lost to Idris Hanpasaevic IBAEV (GER) in their opening round meeting at the World Championships and failed to bring home a second consecutive world medal.
The All-World team Azerbaijan are in Group A. This match will take place during the third session on November 5 at 19:30 (local time).
1. 72kg – Mate NEMES (SRB) vs. Ulvu GANIZADE (AZE)
This will be the first of two matchups between a Serbian reigning world champion and an Azerbaijani wrestler who is ranked No. 1 in the world. The second will be between 67kg, where Sebastian NAD (SRB) will take on Hasrat JAFAROV (AZE).
This would be the first meeting between Nemes and Ganizade.
In his last outing, Nemes shocked the world by pulling off the biggest upset of the ’22 season, taking out defending world and Olympic champion Mohammadreza GERAEI (IRI) to win the 67kg world gold on home soil.
Ganizade rounded out his 2022 season as the top-ranked wrestler in the world at 72kg. The 23-year-old fell to Ali ARSALAN (SRB) in the finals of the World Championships and settled for a silver medal. Outside of his Belgrade silver, Ganizdae also won a bronze medal at the European Championships and a silver medal at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event.
Serbia and Azerbaijan are both in Group A. This match will take place during the first session on November 5 at 10:00 (local time).
Source: www.uww.org
