Ildar Hafizov named USA Wrestling’s Athlete of the Week

Hafizov in the finals against Hayden Tuma. Photo by John Sachs, tech-fall.com.

Ildar Hafizov (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP) has been selected as TheMat.com Athlete of the Week on May 2, 2017.

Over the weekend, Hafizov made his first U.S. World Team at the 2017 Greco-Roman World Team Trials as part of the U.S. Open at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas.

Wrestling at 59 kg/130 lbs., arguably the deepest Greco weight class, Hafizov solidified himself as a World-class competitor.

To open his tournament, No. 2 seed Hafizov defeated Andrew Ibarra with a 10-2 technical fall late in the second period.

The 2016 Olympic Trials runner-up followed it by edging out 2016 Junior World bronze medalist Taylor LaMont in a wild 8-8 semifinals bout with Hafizov holding criteria.

Advancing to the finals, Hafizov was set to meet up with 2017 U.S. Senior Nationals champion and WCAP teammate  Hayden Tuma in the best-of-three finals series.

The first bout saw all its scoring come in the first period. Tuma put the first point on the board, but a flurry came shortly after with Hafizov going up 5-3, thanks to a big five-point move. He later scored a takedown, which proved to be enough as he won the first bout 7-3.

In the second match, Tuma scored first on passivity, but in the second period, Hafizov put up seven points with a body-lock for four points followed by a gut wrench. He went on to win the match 7-1 and make his first U.S. World Team.

Formerly an athlete for Uzbekistan, Hafizov has competed in three World Championships (2007, 09, 11) and an Olympics (2008) for his home country. In 2007, he finished seventh in the world.

He has only been competing as an American athlete since late 2015.

Representing the USA for the first time at the World level, Hafizov will head to his fourth World Championships in Paris, France, Aug. 21-26.

Each week USA Wrestling will select an Athlete of the Week based upon performance within wrestling for that week. The selection committee will consider any level of wrestling from youth programs through the senior level.

To nominate a wrestler for this honor please send the athlete’s name, wrestling program and weekly and career accomplishments to Richard Immel at rimmel@usawrestling.org.