Top 12 Pound-For-Pound: World's Best Freestyle Wrestlers

[arm-spin]

I might try to update this a few times this year, kind of a really basic ranking. So far this year a lot of these guys haven't been active to the best of my knowledge... I'm aware of the following:

Gatsalov won a Russian tournament, had a tough 3 round final.

Taymazov won the Asian championship, relatively easily I think,

Kumar won the Commonwealth championships, pinning Barnes in the final. He did not wrestle is the Asian games.

Lebedev did not wrestle, but Yang (who beat him badly at Yarygin but didn't wrestle worlds) wrestled in the Asian games and placed second, losing to Mansurov who dropped back down to 55. If Mansurov stays at 55 he could do a lot of damage.

Fedorishin pinned European champion Sat but then lost to Chakaev in the finals of an international tournament (don't know which one).

Ganev lost badly to some unknown Russian recently- presumably he was out of shape- and then got stabbed in a bar fight. I hope he's OK but I doubt he wrestles anytime soon.

Other top contenders for the top 12: Sokhiev didn't wrestle the Asian games for some reason. Yazdani looked good in winning 96 kg at that tournament, beating some top guys.

[akzent]

Updates of your updates
Yesterday dual meet in the Iranian league:
Esmaeilpour beat Fedorishin.

Yazdani beat Gogshelidze.

[gbdaz]

Updates of your updates
Yesterday dual meet in the Iranian league:
Esmaeilpour beat Fedorishin.
Yazdani beat Gogshelidze.

Any link to the results or even better vids?

[Tofurky]

Nice list, arm-spin.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; I really like Sushil Kumar and love that he came out of nowhere (India being nowhere in terms of world class wrestling is concerned) to not only take home a bronze in '08, but then to place fifth in '09 and win it all in '10. Truth be told, he was a medal contender as far back as 2003 when he placed fourth at Worlds at 60 kilos. However, he is one seriously lucky duck in that Garzon, Yonemitsu, Sahin, Stadnick and Taghavi were all grouped together on the same side of the bracket and only one of them could make the semis. Garzon made it, only to lose to the Russian upstart, Gogaev, but that random bracketing had to be a dream come true to Kumar last year.

[Tofurky]

[MENTION=25501]gbdaz[/MENTION] - http://www.fila-wrestling.com/moscow10/

[gbdaz]

@gbdaz - http://www.fila-wrestling.com/moscow10/

I'm talking about reza and gog's match.

[bwh27]

Excellent list, any difference of opinion would really be nitpicking. Might be interesting to include their dates of birth, especially if we make a separate "top contenders" list. Some of the top 12 are getting up there in age and some of the younger contenders would be most likely to replace them. Some of these birth dates might be wrong, but here's what I found from FILA's database for your top 12...

Besik Kudukhov, Russia, 60kg, 08/1986 (3x World Champ)
Khetag Gazumov, Azerbaijan, 96kg, 04/1983 (2010 World Champ)
Beylal Makhov, Russia, 120kg, 09/1987 (3x World Champ)
Khadshimourad Gatsalov, Russia, 96kg, 12/1982 (5x World Champ, 2nd 2010 Worlds)
Denis Tsargush, Russia, 74kg, 09/1987 (2x World Champ)
Artur Taymazov, Uzbekistan, 120kg, 07/1979 (3x World Champ, 2nd 2010 Worlds)
Sushil Kumar, India, 66kg, 05/1983 (2010 World Champ)
Georgia Gogshelidze, Georgia, 96kg, 11/1979 (5x World medalist)
Viktor Lebedev, Russia, 55kg, 03/1988 (2010 World Champ)
Vasyl Fedorishin, Ukraine, 60kg, 03/1981 (3x World medalist, 3x European Champ)
Geandry Garzon, Cuba, 66kg, 11/1983 (4x World medalist)
Michail Ganev, Bulgaria, 84kg, 01/1985 (2010 World Champ)

Some of the top contenders include...
Zaurbek Sokhiev, Uzbekistan, 84kg, 06/1986 (4x World medalist, 2009 World Champ)
Reza Yazdani, Iran, 96kg, 08/1984 (2x World medalist, 2010 Asian Champ, beat Gogshelidze in Iranian league)
Yabrail Hasanov, Azerbaijan, 66kg, 02/1990 (2010 European champ, 3rd 2010 Worlds) - Fila gives results for both Yabrail and Jabrail Hasanov, these are different people? I assumed the one who competed at 2010 Europeans also competed at 2010 Worlds
Henry Cejudo, USA, 55kg, 09/1987 (2008 Olympic Champ)
Kyong-Il Yang, North Korea, 55kg, 08/1987 (2009 World Champ)
Togrul Asgarov, Azerbaijan, 55kg, ? (2nd 2010 Worlds)
Machmud Magomedov, Azerbaijan, 55kg, 08/1986 (2010 European Champ)
Sadegh Goudarzi, Iran, 74kg, 09/1987 (2x World medalist)
Alan Gogayev, Russia, 66kg, 03/1990 (2nd 2010 Worlds)
Opan Sat, Russia, 60kg, ? (2010 European Champ)
Mehdi Taghavi, Iran, 66kg, 02/1987 (2009 World Champ)

[arm-spin]

Tofurkey, I agree that Kumar had a good draw (especially as Garzon was paid to lose to Gogaev as has been alleged.) However, he also beat Hasaynov- my pick to win it all- in the semis.

bwh, wow your list is great! Must have been a lot of work putting it together. Almost positive it's the same Hsaynov. Also I think Asgarov was 17 at the worlds last year.

I would add the following guys to the "top contenders" list: Chamasurlaev from Azerbayjan, and Shahin from Turkey (I still think he's the best 66 there is if he starts competing regularly again.)
Anyone know what the deal is with Mansurov? If he stays at 55 he could start winning titles again.

[akzent]

gdbaz, I haven't seen yet any video uploaded. I watched live online.
Yazdani - Gogshelidze 1:0 (or 2:0?), 0:1, 2:1
1st period - Yazdani single leg push out for 1 point (in the official results 2:0; I have no idea where the 2nd point came from; maybe it's a mistake).
2nd period - Gogshelidze from the clinch.
3rd period - Yazdani 1 on push out; Gogshelidze 1 on single leg (then he attemted leg lace but couldn't score); Yazdani 1 takedown (then he successfully leg-laced Gogshelidze but at the point of the very turn, the time was over).