Forrest to men’s freestyle semis at U23 World Championships

NOVI SAD, Serbia – The U.S. picked up its sixth men’s freestyle semifinalist at the 2025 U23 World Championships with Senior World Team member Jax Forrest exploding to two first-period technical fall wins at 61 kg on Sunday morning.

Forrest let his offense loose against both opponents—Vasile Marcu of Moldova and Mykyta Abramov of Ukraine—putting up 23 points to his opponents none. He converted two four-point takedowns against Marcu. An ankle pick leading to a leg lace sequence ended the match against Abramov.

Up next for the high school phenom is Japan’s Akito Mukaida, who hasn’t logged much in the way of international competition. Forrest finished in fifth place at the Senior World Championships last month in Zagreb, Croatia, and was a silver medalist at the 2022 U17 Worlds.

The three remaining men’s freestyle group three athletes for Team USA all dropped tough matches in the morning session but still have hopes of a repechage berth entering the semifinal round.

Two-time age-group World champion Marcus Blaze took a 4-2 loss to Bilol Sharip Uulu of Kyrgyzstan in his opening match at 65 kg. Sharip Uulu kept Blaze at arm’s length for the bulk of the match. The only offensive points scored were step-outs. Sharip Uulu needs a win over 2025 Senior World bronze medalist Umidjon Jalolov of Uzbekistan tonight to keep Blaze in the bronze medal hunt.

Rocco Welsh and Garavous Kouekabakilaho picked up technical fall wins in every bout leading into the quarterfinals. Welsh fell to two-time age-group World medalist and Senior Asian champion Abolfazl Rahmani Firouzjaei of Iran, 7-3, at 86 kg. Kouekabakilaho was stifled by 2023 Senior World champion Rizabek Aitmukhan of Kazakhstan in an 11-0 loss at 97 kg.

The tournament continues at 5 p.m. local time on Sunday with the men’s freestyle group three (61-65-86-97 kg) semifinals, followed by the men’s freestyle group two (57-70-74-125 kg) medal matches at 6 p.m. Novi Sad, Serbia, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

Two-time age-group World champion Luke Lilledahl and Senior World silver medalist Levi Haines will compete for gold this evening. Going for bronze are U20 world champion PJ Duke and Heavyweight Daniel Herrera.

The U23 World Championships are streaming live on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results can be found on UWW Arena.