On the first day of Greco-Roman at the 2025 Polyak Imre Memorial — United World Wrestling’s final “Ranking Series” tournament of the season — five Americans were in action but their efforts did not translate into podium appearances.
Competition began at 10:30am local time from Budapest, Hungary (4:30am ET) and is streaming live in the US on FLOWrestling.
Team USA started Saturday morning’s slate of action with Aliaksandr Kikiniou Jr. (72 kg, NYAC), Aden Attao (130 kg, Beaver Dam RTC), and Courtney Denzel Freeman (130 kg, Marines) — as well as World Team members Payton Jacobson (87 kg, NYAC/NTS) and Cohlton Schultz (130 kg, Atreus WC). Schultz and Freeman were the only athletes of the group to have earned victories but neither they — or anyone else from the US on Day 1 — saw their tournaments deliver opportunities in the medal rounds.
WT Members Schultz & Jacobson
For Schultz, this edition of the Hungarian “Ranking Series” event started with a clean and controlled win at the expense of two-time World bronze Mikheil Kajaia (SRB). US fans might find that name recognizable, for in ’21 G’Angelo Hancock defeated Kajaia in the round-of-16 at the Tokyo Olympics. That match occurred in the 97 kg weight division. In this tournament, the 35-year-old (who in fact turns 36 tomorrow) bumped up to heavyweight for only the second time in his impressive career (’21 Gedza Memorial).
From the outset, it was apparent that Schultz would have very little trouble determining when and where he wanted Kajaia’s feet to move. He burrowed inside the arms and, inch by inch, used his own feet to coax Kajaia into consistently having to reset. Soon enough, passivity rang on Kajaia. From top, Schultz looked for his go-to, a front headlock; nothing was doing, but he then clamped a gutwrench and managed to rotate twice for a 5-0 lead. Kajaia was given a point in the second period but the margin was by and large safe for Schultz, who collected the 5-1 decision to advance to the quarterfinal opposed by ’20 Olympian Matti Kuosmanen (FIN), whose career saw a resurgence upon climbing in weight from 97 to 130 towards the end of the Tokyo quad.
For a second match in a row, Schultz was the recipient of the bout’s opening passivity/par terre chance, but Kuosmanen quickly negated the front headlock try and reached his feet. Later in the first period, Kuosmanen nudged Schultz off the line for a step-out. In the second frame, the Finnish wrestler was gifted passivity/PT; though he could not drum up a score, he was ahead 2-1. Schultz looked to generate movement in the ties and avail possible scoring windows, but Kuosmanen remained upright till the whistle to walk away the winner via razor-close decision. Kuosmanen was clipped by Marat Kamparov (AIN/RUS) in the semifinal to halt Schultz from continuing on in the repechage portion of the 130 kg bracket.
Jacobson clashed in the qualification round against ’22 U23 World Champion Exauce Mukubu (NOR), with whom the American is intimately familiar. The two had trained together in the past, including last summer when the Norwegian rep helped Jacobson prepare for the Paris Olympics. Jacobson also downed Mukubu in September of ’24 for bronze at the Valamar Cup in Croatia.
This time around, the result went in the other direction. Jacobson held a 1-0 lead into the second period when Mukubu received a passivity/par terre opportunity. Upon the whistle, Mukubu attempted to latch a front headlock but Jacobson immediately found his feet and the hold fell apart. The pair jockeyed for position towards the edge and, eventually, Mukubu knocked Jacobson off the boundary to pick up two points. The officials then conferred and, oddly enough, Jacobson was also penalized for an apparent (and undeserved) fleeing caution to put the score for Mukubu at 4-1.
Jacobson was unable to make up the difference and Norway had moved onto the round-of-16. Mukubu recorded an impressive victory in his next match by decisioning two-time U23 World champ Aues Gonibov of Russia; however, a 1-1 defeat to well-decorated Islam Abbasov (AZE) in the quarterfinal derailed Mukubu’s trek to the final and therefore eliminated Jacobson from re-entering the fray in the repechage bracket.
Freeman Pounds KAZ
Freeman, who has over the past four years developed into a formidable heavyweight capable of big scores, notched one of the more impressive international wins of his career by dismantling Assylbek Abdikalyk (KAZ) in the qualification round. There wasn’t much of a score for either party heading into the second period of their contest (1-1), but that changed in a hurry. Coming in off of a brief exchange, Freeman escorted Abdikalyk to the tarp for a takedown-gut combo to make the score 5-1. After the reset, he clawed his way to an open look at Abdikalyk’s midsection and pounced on a body attack to collect four more points. Abdikalyk was essentially flat on his back, anyway, and the official result of the match was recorded as a win by fall for Freeman.
A step-up in competition was on the docket in the proceeding round as Freeman found himself facing off against Sarkahn Mammadov (KAZ), who was a U20 silver medalist in ’21 and has been progressing on the Senior circuit ever since. It was a close battle between the two, but one in which Mammadov emerged as the victor 4-3. Mammadov was then defeated in the semifinal by Hungarian Dariusz Vitek to cap Freeman’s time in the tournament.
Kikiniou & Attao
Young Kikiniou — whose potential as a top Senior competitor is evident to serious observers of the sport — demonstrated steely instincts and composure beyond his years against Merey Maulitkanov (KAZ) in what was ultimately a 7-2 decision loss. Maultikanov broke the ice by using his first-period passivity/PT opportunity to execute a lift (including another off the edge that was eventually expunged via challenge) and hand Kikiniou a 5-0 deficit. Yet, he hardly flinched. Later in the frame, Kikiniou scored a step-out point to stay firmly within striking range — and right before the end of the period, he compromised Malitkanov’s positioning enough at the boundary to make the score 5-2.
Not long into the second period, Kikiniou flashed a headlock try to which Maulitkanov responded by covering. It appeared to be a slip, but the officials scored the sequence as a takedown for Kazakhstan. There was no further scoring in the contest and Maulitkanov fell in the next round to multi-time World/’24 Olympic medalist Hasrat Jafarov (AZE) to eliminate Kikiniou from repechage.
Attao drew the aforementioned Mammadov in his first outing and wound up on the wrong end of a 9-0 VSU. It was all derived from par terre. Mammadov had been awarded passivity/par terre and proceeded to gut Attao the requisite number of times to end the match prematurely. As the whistle sounded, Attao was clearly frustrated with the outcome but, as is the case with Kikiniou, he is widely-regarded as an immensely-promising part of Greco-Roman’s future in the US.
2025 Polyak Imre Memorial
July 19-20 — Budapest, HUN
TEAM USA DAY 1 RESULTS
72 kg: Aliaksandr Kikiniou Jr. (NYAC)
LOSS Merey Maulitkanov (KAZ) 7-2
87 kg: Payton Jacobson (NYAC/NTS)
LOSS Exauce Mukubu (NOR) 4-1
130 kg: Aden Attao (Beaver Dam RTC)
LOSS Sarkhan Mammadov (AZE) 9-0, VSU
130 kg: Courtney Denzel Freeman (Marines)
WON Assylbek Abdikalyk (KAZ) via fall
LOSS Sarkhan Mammadov (AZE) 4-3
130 kg: Cohlton Schultz (Atreus WC)
WON Mikheil Kajaia (SRB) 5-1
LOSS Matti Kuosmanen (FIN) 2-1
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