The tournament did not end how Max Black (60 kg, NYAC/NTS) and Beka Melelashvili (82 kg, NYAC) wanted but neither athlete deserves to hang his head, and the United States showed for a second consecutive year the kind of quality that is present in their talented young depth pool.
The fourth and final day of Greco-Roman at the 2025 U23 World Championships began at 10:00am local time from Novi Sad, Serbia (4:00am ET) and streamed live in the US on FLOWrestling.
Melelashvili — U23 World silver a year ago — had went 1-1 on Wednesday with his vanquisher, Ruslan Abdiev (UKR), having made the bracket final to pull the American back in for today’s repechage. Black’s path to potential bronze was more direct. He had advanced to the 60 kg semifinal round yesterday and fell to Koto Gomi (JPN), and was therefore already sitting in the bronze-medal round scheduled for this evening.
Melelashvili needed to win one repechage match to reach the bronze round but was defeated by Abolfazi Mohmedi (EGY). With bronze on the line, Black faced off with ’23 U20 World gold Suren Aghajanyan (ARM) and trailed 5-0 early in the first period. Aghajanyan had executed a short arm attack, but it was one in which Black had come close to defending by clasping around the Armenian and covering from behind. When the points were awarded to Aghajanyan, the US corner challenged; after a review, the call was upheld and Aghajanyan had a 5-0 lead.
Despite Black having made intentional attempts to weave his right arm in for under hooks, he was cited for passivity midway through the second period. That made the score 6-0 and Aghajanyan converted one rotation of a gutwrench to force a halt to the contest, leaving Black in 5th place.
Black went 3-2 in the U23 Worlds with victories over Alhaji Turay (SEL), Olivier Skrzypczak (POL), and Zhojian Wang (CHN). Gomi went on to earn gold by defeating Sajjad Abbaspourragani of Iran.
The United States matched its win total from ’24, when, as mentioned, Melelashvili came away with silver. Last year, in addition to Melelashvili’s run, both Billy Sullivan (55 kg, Army/WCAP) and fresh bronze Payton Jacobson (87 kg, NYAC/NTS) placed 5th — and the US totaled 12 individual victories in that tournament as well as this one.
But the ’25 collective produced two medalists for the first time since the event’s inception in ’17 — Jacobson and Otto Black (67 kg, NYAC/NTS).
The ’25 USA U23 World Team also tied the ’24 roster in points with 40 — but climbed one spot in the final team standings from 10th to 9th. Iran won this year’s tournament with 128 points; Azerbaijan finished second with 91, and Ukraine came in third with 76.
2025 U23 World Championships
October 20-23 — Novi Sad, SRB
TEAM USA FULL RESULTS
55 kg: Kenny Crosby (NMU/NTS) — 18th
LOSS Vishvajit Ramchandra More (IND) 9-1, TF
60 kg: Max Black (NYAC/NTS) — 5th
WON Alhaji Turay (SEL) via forfeit
WON Olivier Skrzypczak (POL) 2-1
WON Zhaojian Wang (CHN) 8-0, TF
LOSS Koto Gomi (JPN) 8-0, TF
LOSS Suren Aghajanyan (ARM) 8-0, TF
63 kg: Kaden Ercanbrack (NMU/NTS) — 23rd
LOSS Jeremy Peralta Gonzalez (ECU) 9-0, TF
67 kg: Otto Black (NYAC/NTS) — BRONZE
WON Adomas Grigaliunas (LTU) 7-3
WON Yanis Guendez Nifri (FRA) via fall
LOSS Mohamed Abdelkerim (EGY) 1-1 (criteria)
WON Bagdat Sabaz (KAZ) 8-6
72 kg: Aliaksandr Kikiniou Jr. (NYAC) — 23rd
LOSS Danil Grigorev (UWW) 3-0
77 kg: Aydin Rix-McElhinney (Northern Colorado WC) — 22nd
LOSS Temuri Orjonikidze (GEO) 4-1
LOSS Alexandru Solovei (MDA) 8-0, TF
82 kg: Beka Melelashvili (NYAC) — 11th
WON Samandar Bobonazaranov (UZB) 10-7
LOSS Ruslan Abdiev (UKR) 2-1
87 kg: Payton Jacobson (NYAC/NTS) — BRONZE
WON Rohit Bura (IND) 8-0, TF
WON Gabriel Lupasco (MDA) 7-1
WON Zaur Shangereev (UWW) 5-3
LOSS Gholamreza Farokhisenjani (IRI) 9-0, TF
WON Lachin Valiyev (AZE) 5-3
97 kg: Max Ramberg (Viking WC) — 18th
LOSS Kiyo Kitawaki (JPN) 12-1, TF
130 kg: Aden Attao (NYAC) — 11th
WON Mikhailo Vyshnyvetskyi (UKR) 8-1
LOSS Laszlo Darabos (HUN) 9-0, TF
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