Payton Jacobson (87 kg, NYAC/NTS) gave fans a thrill in his first match today before a close loss in the next round dashed his hopes for bronze — and guaranteed that the US would depart from Croatia without a World medal for a fourth consecutive year.
The repechage round on the fourth and final day at the 2025 World Championships began at 4:30pm local time from Zagreb, Croatia (10:30am ET) and streamed live on FLOWrestling.
The opening round today provided to ’24 Olympian Jacobson the long and strong So Sakabe (JPN), whose Senior career has eclipsed over a decade’s worth of work. Static was achieved quickly by the pair, with Sakabe benefiting from the first passivity call. From top, he locked a gutwrench and went to rotate — but Jacobson swiveled his hips, stepped over the attempt, and had Japan close to being pinned. As Sakabe fought to return prone, Jacobson fully locked and — with a deep step — elevated Sakabe for a big four-point lift that crashed off the edge to make the score 6-1.
Jacobson did not relent upon the start of the second period and, perhaps surprisingly given typical in-match governance, he was awarded the next passivity/par terre opportunity. Now holding a 7-1 advantage on the scoreboard, Jacobson tried to finish Sakabe with a gutwrench before working for a lift — but neither attempts were successful and a reset was ordered. But as the second frame began to wane, Jacobson dropped the curtain, anyway, by securing a takedown off of an exchange to update the score to 9-1, thus ending the bout prematurely.
That win put Jacobson in against Islam Yevloev (KAZ), a fellow young Senior who is only just beginning to make his mark on the sport. Yevloev was a U20 World champ last year ahead of moving up to the top level for this season.
Passivity was directed first towards Yevloev and Jacobson attempted to gather a lift but nothing was doing. They jousted through the remainder of the period, though Jacobson did occasionally put his opponent on skates. Still, there was little space to operate for both as the pair varied between tight hand-fighting and fleeting pummels.
The passives flipped in the second period, which is when Yevloev capitalized. He had locked for a lift and rotated while Jacobson tried to contort in effort to either reverse position or simply avoid exposing. He then landed in such a way that prompted the officials to confirm four points for Yevloev. Initially, the US corner motioned that they wanted a challenge but instead waved it off and action resumed with Jacobson trailing 5-1. Despite a fire-breathing assault by Jacobson as the clock ticked away, Yevloev managed to bottle up the proceedings and keep the score unchanged until the conclusive whistle blew.
On Saturday, Jacobson, in lopsided fashion, defeated Karan Kamboj (IND) before falling via 5-1 decision to multi-time age-group World Champion Aleksandr Komarov (SRB) in the round-of-16. Komarov later advanced to the bracket final, which is how Jacobson became eligible for repechage on Sunday.
2025 World Championship Notes
— The United States finished in 18th place with 18 points, two points less than France and three points more than North Korea (which only acquired points from one athlete, 60 kg bronze medalist Ri Se-Ung, who had defeated Max Black (60 kg, NYAC/NTS) in the second round of Saturday’s repechage.
— Iran won the team title with 180 points (four golds, two silvers, and two bronze). Azerbaijan came in second place with 89 points (one gold, one silver, and two bronze); Uzbekistan finished third with 72 points (one gold, one silver, and one bronze).
— The United States’ combined individual record at the 2025 World Championships was 8-14.
— Four US wins were recorded as technical falls; one was a pin (Jayden Raney, 55 kg over Sajjad Albidhan of Iraq).
— Six athletes were making their Senior World Championships debuts: Raney, Black, Alston Nutter (67 kg, Army/WCAP), Beka Melelashvili (82 kg, NYAC), Jacobson, and Michial Foy (97 kg, Army/WCAP).
— There were four prior Olympians on the ’25 USA World Team: Ellis Coleman (63 kg, Army/WCAP, ’12 London), Alex Sancho (72 kg, Army/WCAP, ’20 Tokyo), Kamal Bey (77 kg, Army/WCAP, ’24 Paris), and Jacobson (’24 Paris).
— Two USA wrestlers earned more than one victory: Raney and Jacobson.
— Bey faced three consecutive prior World/Olympic medalists: Malkhas Amoyan (ARM); Mateusz Bernatek (POL); and Ahmet Yilmaz (TUR). Amoyan, who won a World title in ’21, also went on to win this year’s tournament, and Yilmaz finished the ’25 Worlds with bronze.
— The average age on the ’25 USA World Team was 25.5.
2025 World Championships
September 18-21 — Zagreb, CRO
TEAM USA DAY 3 RESULTS
55 kg: Jayden Raney (NYAC) — 7th
WON Koryun Sahradyan (UKR) 2-1
WON Sajjad Albidhan (IRQ) via fall
LOSS Eldaniz Azizli (AZE) 5-1
60 kg: Max Black (NYAC/NTS) — 13th
LOSS Aidos Sultangali (KAZ) 7-1
WON Melkamu Fetene (ISR) 5-1
LOSS Ri Se-Ung (PRK) 9-0, TF
63 kg: Ellis Coleman (Army/WCAP) — 11th
WON Moamen Mohamed (EGY) 10-2, TF
LOSS Azatjan Achilov (TKM) 12-1, TF
67 kg: Alston Nutter (Army/WCAP) — 33rd
LOSS Dominik Etlinger (CRO) 10-0, TF
72 kg: Alex Sancho (Army/WCAP) — 22nd
LOSS Ibrahim Ghanem (FRA) 4-0
LOSS Gor Khachatryan (ARM) 6-1
77 kg: Kamal Bey (Army/WCAP) — 10th
LOSS Malkhas Amoyan (ARM) 2-1
WON Mateusz Bernatek (POL) 11-2, TF
LOSS Ahmet Yilmaz (TUR) 4-2
82 kg: Beka Melelashvili (NYAC) — 19th
LOSS Shahin Badaghi Mofrad (QAT) 6-4
87 kg: Payton Jacobson (NYAC/NTS) — 7th
WON Karan Kamboj (IND) 8-0, TF
LOSS Aleksander Komarov (SRB) 5-1
WON So Sakabe (JPN) 9-1, TF
LOSS Islam Yevloev (KAZ) 5-1
97 kg: Michial Foy (Army/WCAP) — 16th
WON Mindaugas Venckaitis (LTU) 4-0
LOSS Giorgi Melia (GEO) 9-0, TF
130 kg: Cohlton Schultz (Atreus WC) — 16th
LOSS Sergey Semenov (UWW) 5-2
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