Over the past few months, the Iran Premier League has been taking place with a number of notable results. The finals went down on Friday with a major upset in Ali Savadkouhi taking out world and Olympic Champion Zaurbek Sidakov. Check out the below article for a recap and all of the match results for the finals.

Savadkouhi’s Big Upset

Wrestling up at 79kg from his normal weight of 74kg, world and Olympic champion Zaurbek Sidakov lost to Iran’s Ali Savadkouhi on criteria, 2-2. In their match, Sidakov got out to a 1-0 lead in the first period after Savadkouhi failed to score while on the shot clock. In the second period, Savadkouhi was placed on the shot clock again and gave up another point to go down 2-0. However, with about 1:30 left in the match Savadkouhi scored a takedown off a hard snap and go behind to take the lead on criteria. The Iranian was able to fend off many of Sidakov's takedown attempts in the final 90 seconds to hold on for the win. That loss was Sidakov's first loss since October 2020 when he lost to Khetik Tsabolov at Russian Nationals. 

Ali Savadkouhi had a great year for Iran and was one of the main contenders to win the world team spot at 79kg. In February, Savadkouhi almost defeated Jordan Burroughs at the Yasar Dogu. Savadkouhi held a 1-1 criteria lead over Burroughs with 30 seconds left in the match before giving up a penalty point and losing 2-1. Then in July, Savadkouhi defeated 2021 and 2022 world silver medalist Mohammad Nokhodi but lost to Chance Marsteller keeping him off Iran’s world team. Savadkouhi looks to have jumped a level in recent months. He defeated Nokhodi again on Thursday in the Iran Premier League Semifinals and with his win over Sidakov, Savdkhoui is a real threat to win a world title in 2023.

Burroughs’ win over Ali Savadkouhi from February 2022:

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Other Notable Results

A number of other top wrestlers were in competition during the Iran Premier League finals including #1 Zaur Uguev, #1 Abasgadzhi Magomedov, #2 Hassan Yazdani, #2 Amir Zare, #3 Amir Firouzpour, and #4 Mohammad Mohammadian. Take a look below to see the full results of this top-level event:

57 kg: #1 Zaur Uguev over #15 Alireza Sarlak, 3-3 

61 kg: #1 Abasgadzhi Magomedov over Majid Dastan Safar, 11-0

65 kg: Morteza Ghiasi over Mohammad Ramzanpour, 3-2

70 kg: #15 (at 74kg) Magomedrasual Gazimagmedov over Mehdi Yeganeh Jafari, 10-0

74 kg: #17 Yunus Emami over Jamal Ebadi, 8-2

79 kg: #14 Ali Savadkouhi over #1 (at 74kg) Zaurbek Sidakov, 2-2

86 kg: #2 Hassan Yazdani over #11 Alireza Karimi, 7-4 

92 kg: #3 Amirhossein Firozpour over #11 Mohammad Javad Ebrahimi, 7-3

97 kg: #4 Mohammad Mohammadian over Amir Ali Azarpira, 2-1

125 kg: #2 Amir Zare over Amin Taheri, 2-1