Nihat Mammadli reaches World Championship final once again

October 26, 2026

The Wrestling World Championships are underway in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

On the third day of the competition, finalists were determined in the Greco-Roman 63kg, 67kg and 87kg weight categories.

Nihat Mammadli (63kg) advanced to the Round of 16 after his American opponent, Xavier Johnson, failed to show up for the bout. The world champion then secured technical superiority victories over Norway’s Morten Thoresen (11-0) and Qatar’s Aref Mohammadi (10-1) to reach the semifinals. In the semifinal, Mammadli defeated Russian Olympic medallist, world champion and three-time European champion Sergey Emelin on criteria (2-2) to reach the World Championship final for the second time. Tomorrow, he will face Armenia’s Karen Aslanyan in the final.

Hasrat Jafarov (67kg), who also started his campaign in the Round of 16, secured convincing victories over Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khrushyn (7-1) and South Korea’s Hanjae Chang (6-1) to advance to the semifinals. On his way to the final, Jafarov faced Iran’s Saeid Esmaeili, an Olympic and world champion. Losing on criteria (1-1), Hasrat will compete for the bronze medal tomorrow.

Islam Abbasov (87kg) eliminated Turkish world champion Ali Cengiz in the opening round with a 6-0 victory. His Round of 16 bout against Bulgaria’s Olympic champion Semen Novikov was a closely contested affair. Abbasov surrendered his lead in the closing moments and suffered a narrow 5-6 defeat. He will compete in the repechage tomorrow, where he will face Latana Sopa of American Samoa.