Valencia sails past Ghasempour into men’s freestyle finals at 2025 World Championships

ZAGREB, Croatia – The pace was relentless for Zahid Valencia. He unleashed his offensive arsenal to down two-time World champion Kamran Ghasempour of Iran in the 86 kg semifinals to become the first American finalist of the 2025 World Championships. And it wasn’t close.

A physical open to the match that saw multiple stoppages, including one for a Valencia blood time, gave way to a tactical masterpiece from the American side. Valencia capitalized in the final 30 seconds of the first period with a pair of crafty misdirection takedowns in rapid succession to capture the momentum. After Valencia kicked out of a deep Ghasempour single leg attempt midway through the second frame, the Iranian’s gas tank went to empty. Valencia added a pair of step-out points to finish with a comfortable 7-0 decision.

The win guarantees Valencia his first appearance in a Senior World final, and his second World medal overall. He was bronze at the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia at 92 kg. The championship bout has Valencia paired against 2024 Olympian Hayato Ishiguro of Japan, who owns an 11-0 win over Valencia from the 2023 Zagreb Open. It’s undoubtedly a bulletin board match for Valencia.

Valencia wrapped up the first day of men’s freestyle wrestling at Arena Zagreb with three 10-0 technical falls, on top of the signature semifinal win against Ghasempour. A 37-0 point total against four of the world’s best speaks for itself.

Competing alongside Valencia in the semifinal round was his Cowboy RTC teammate Jax Forrest, the 18-year-old prodigy. Forrest’s day one run at 61 kg ended in the semis with a tough outing against 2020 Olympic champion and two-time World champion Zavur Uguev of UWW.

Forrest matched Uguev’s intensity early, taking a 2-0 lead in the first 29 seconds. The turning point in the match came at the end of the period with Uguev trapping Forrest on his back from a knee pick attack for nearly a minute. With much of his energy spent fighting to get to the second period, Forrest didn’t have the same juice in the final stages of the match. An ankle pick-to-gutwrench combination from Uguev put the match out of reach late. It was a 10-3 final and beneficial learning experience for the young talent out of Pennsylvania.

Courtesy of reaching the semifinals, Forrest is guaranteed a bronze medal match.  His opponent will be the repechage winner between Manvel Khndzrtsyan of Armenia and Assylzhan Yessengeldi of Kazakhstan, both of whom own multiple age-group World medals.

Newly minted U20 World champion PJ Duke was in the hunt for a 70 kg repechage match entering the semifinals. However, fate didn’t turn his way as returning World champion Nurkozha Kaipanov of Kazakhstan, who beat Duke 11-7 earlier in the day, was defeated in the semifinals. Duke finished with a 1-1 record at his first Senior World Championships.

Heavyweight Wyatt Hendrickson was eliminated from medal contention in the morning session following a 14-4 technical fall loss to UWW athlete Abdulla Kurbanov, who went on to lose in the quarterfinals.

The tournament resumes at 10:30 a.m. local time on Sunday with the men’s freestyle group one (61-70-86-125 kg) repechage and the men’s freestyle group two (57-74-79-92 kg) preliminary rounds. Spencer Lee, David Carr, Levi Haines and Trent Hidlay take the mats tomorrow for Team USA. Zagreb, Croatia, is in the GMT +2 time zone, which is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The Senior World Championships are streaming live on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results are available on UWW Arena.

USA Wrestling will provide regular updates on TheMat.com and its social media platforms throughout the event.

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61 kg – Zavur Uguev (UWW) vs. Ahmad Mohammadnezhadjavan (Iran)

70 kg – Yoshinosuke Aoyagi (Japan) vs. Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia)

86 kg – Zahid Valencia (United States) vs. Hayato Ishiguro (Japan)

125 kg – Giorgi Meshvildishvili (Georgia) vs. Amir Zare (Iran)

Zavur Uguev (UWW) dec. Jax Forrest (United States), 10-3

Ahmad Mohammadnezhadjavan (Iran) dec. Kum Hyok Kim (North Korea), 3-2

Yoshinosuke Aoyagi (Japan) dec. Arman Andreasyan (Armenia), 8-0

Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia) dec. Nurkozha Kaipanov (Kazakhstan), 5-2

Zahid Valencia (United States) dec. Kamran Ghasempour (Iran), 7-0

Hayato Ishiguro (Japan) tech. fall Rakhim Magamadov (France), 17-7

Giorgi Meshvildishvili (Georgia) dec. Robert Baran (Poland), 2-0

Amir Zare (Iran) dec. Shamil A Sharipov (Bahrain), 7-3

WIN Sangboum Han (Korea), tech. fall, 10-0

WIN Takara Suda (Japan), 7-2

WIN Taiyrbek Zhumashbek Uulu (Kyrgyzstan), 13-8

LOSS Zavur Uguev (UWW), 10-3

VS Manvel Khndzrtsyan (Armenia) or Assylzhan Yessengeldi (Kazakhstan)

WIN Shuang Chen (China), tech. fall, 11-0

LOSS Nurkozha Kaipanov (Kazakhstan), 11-7

WIN Mukul Dahiya (India), tech. fall, 10-0

WIN Fateh Benferdjallah (Algeria), tech. fall, 10-0

WIN Ivars Samusonok (Latvia), tech. fall, 10-0

WIN Kamran Ghasempour (Iran), 7-0

VS Hayato Ishiguro (Japan)

LOSS Abdulla Kurbanov (UWW), tech. fall, 14-4