Malkhas Amoyan (ARM) defeated top young Iranian prospect Alireza Abdevali in the 77 kg semifinal at the 2025 World Championships, which means that American Kamal Bey (Army/WCAP) will resume his trek for a World medal tomorrow morning.
Earlier on Thursday, Bey was on the wrong end of a 2-1 decision to recent World champ Amoyan. Bey brought a strong effort but neither of the two athletes were able to score an offensive point. Amoyan downed ’17 World silver Mateusz Bernatek (POL) and Ahmet Yilmaz (TUR) before facing Abdevali — which represents the string of opposition Bey will encounter, in order, if he is to earn his first-career Senior World medal. Bey, 27, was a Junior World gold medalist back in ’17.
Azizli Falls, Raney Eliminated
Four-time World Champion Eldaniz Azizli (AZE) was edged 3-1 by U20 World titlist Payam Ahmadi Balootaki (IRI) in the 55 kg semifinal round, thus bringing to an end the Senior World Championships debut of Jayden Raney (NYAC). Raney recorded victories over Koryun Sahradyan (UKR) and Sajjad Albidhan (IRQ) — the latter of which was a pin via arm bar — before falling to Azizli 5-1. Azizli’s loss to Balootaki (who like Raney is just 18-years-old, whereas Azizli is 15 years their senior) eliminated Raney from re-entry into the tournament by way of repechage.
Day 2
Three more USA Greco-Roman athletes will be starting their respective tournaments tomorrow morning in conjunction with Bey appearing in repechage. They are: Max Black (60 kg, NYAC/NTS), ’20 Olympian Alex Sancho (72 kg, Army/WCAP), and Michial Foy (97 kg, Army/WCAP). Wrestling begins at 10:30am local time from Zagreb, Croatia (4:30am ET) and will stream live in the US on FLOWrestling (subscription required). Below are the opening-round draws for each of the three Americans who will join Bey tomorrow morning.
60 kg: Max Black (NYAC/NTS)
vs. Aidos Sultangali (KAZ) — qualification round
72 kg: Alex Sancho (Army/WCAP)
vs. Ibrahim Ghanem (FRA) — qualification round
97 kg: Michial Foy (Army/WCAP)
vs. Mindaugas Venckaitis (LTU) — qualification round
2025 World Championships
September 18-21 — Zagreb, CRO
TEAM USA DAY 1 RESULTS
55 kg: Jayden Raney (NYAC)
WON Koryun Sahradyan (UKR) 2-1
WON Sajjad Albidhan (IRQ) via fall
LOSS Eldaniz Azizli (AZE) 5-1
77 kg: Kamal Bey (Army/WCAP)
LOSS Malkhas Amoyan (ARM) 2-1
vs. Mateusz Bernatek (repechage, Friday morning)
82 kg: Beka Melelashvili (NYAC)
LOSS Shahin Badaghi Mofrad (QAT) 6-4
130 kg: Cohlton Schultz (Atreus WC)
LOSS Sergey Semenov (UWW) 5-2
Listen to “5PM57: Kamal Bey and David Stepanyan” on Spreaker.
Listen to “5PM56: Rich Carlson and Spencer Woods” on Spreaker.
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