U23 Wrestling Worlds: At 65kg, the Next Level Is Already Here
ROAD TO LAS VEGAS . U23 WORLDS 2026
From U20 world champion Bowen Bassett to U23 European champion Magomedkhan Magamedkhanov, the 65kg field brings together young wrestlers already testing themselves beyond their age group.
A month ago, Bowen Bassett was celebrating a U20 world title. Yesterday, he beat a current Senior World medalist twice. That changes the conversation around 65kg at the upcoming U23 World Championships in Las Vegas.
Bassett defeated 2025 World bronze medalist Real Woods 8–4 and 9–5 at Final X on September 25 to earn the United States spot at the 2026 Senior World Championships. The second match may have said even more: Bassett trailed 5–1 before scoring eight unanswered points in the final two minutes to win 9–5.
Now he heads toward Las Vegas as the U20 world champion — but also as a wrestler who has already shown he can win at a much higher level.
And he isn’t the only young wrestler in this 65kg field starting to push beyond his age group.
Bassett is moving fast
Bassett’s rise over the past year has been difficult to ignore.
At the U20 World Championships in Bratislava in August, he opened with an 11–0 win, pinned Bashir Verdiyev in 41 seconds, and later pinned Russian Zalimkhan Umarov in the semifinal before defeating Japan’s Takuto Osedo 8–2 for gold. A month later came Real Woods.
The first match showed Bassett could stay with an experienced Senior World medalist and pull away late. The second asked a different question. Down 5–1 with two minutes remaining, could he find another gear? He did.
That doesn’t tell us what will happen in Las Vegas. But it does make Bassett one of the most interesting wrestlers to follow at 65kg — especially because his U23 campaign now sits between a U20 world title and a place on the U.S. Senior World Team.
65kg has more than one story
Magomedkhan Magamedkhanov of Belarus arrives with a very different kind of result behind him.
At the U23 European Championships earlier this year, Magamedkhanov found himself down 8–0 against Russia’s Dzhambulat Kizinov in the final. Two more points would have ended the match.
Instead, Magamedkhanov attacked. Kizinov responded with a chest-wrap, but during the exchange his back ended up exposed and Magamedkhanov held him there for the fall. From 8–0 down to U23 European champion. That alone makes him difficult to overlook in Las Vegas.
Musa Aghayev of Azerbaijan is another familiar name from that European field. He lost 7–4 to Magamedkhanov in the quarterfinals but came back through the tournament to take bronze.
Viktor Borohan of Ukraine also left those championships with bronze, while Yusuf Tumer of Türkiye, Daniel Sandu of Romania and several others from that European tournament are entered in Las Vegas as well.
Canada has a name to follow
For Canada, it’s Karson Brown. Brown won the Canadian U23 title at 65kg in June and was named the Outstanding Male Wrestler of the championships.
He is also not arriving in Las Vegas without experience beyond the Canadian U23 level. Brown competed at the U20 World Championships in August and has been gaining international matches as Canada develops another young wrestler in a traditionally deep freestyle weight.
For Wrestling Podium Radio, Brown will naturally be one of the athletes we follow closely in Las Vegas, not simply because he is Canadian, but because this is an opportunity to see where he currently fits against a field containing wrestlers already testing themselves at senior level.
Iran brings a young wrestler moving up
Ahora Khateri adds another interesting question.
The 19-year-old Iranian is a former U17 world champion and the 2025 U20 World silver medalist at 61kg. He returned to the U20 Worlds this year and took bronze, defeating Mexico’s Moses Mendoza 12–7 in the medal match. Now his name appears at 65kg on the Las Vegas entry list. That move matters.
Khateri has spent much of his international career at 61kg, so Las Vegas gives us a first look at what his wrestling can become against bigger U23 opponents at 65kg.
For a wrestler who already has world medals across age groups, the question is no longer simply whether he has talent. It is how that talent translates as the weight, and the level goes up.
A deep 27-man field
The current 65kg entry list provided for Las Vegas includes 27 wrestlers:
Hayk Abrahamyan (Armenia), Musa Aghayev (Azerbaijan), Magomedkhan Magamedkhanov (Belarus), Karson Brown (Canada), Congbao Xie (China), Gabriel Yanga (DR Congo), Roger Cruz Saenz (Colombia), Shehabeldin Mohamed (Egypt), Saba Gambashidze (Georgia), Zoltan Mizsei (Hungary), Jaskaran Singh (India), Ahora Khateri (Iran), Daniele Gubbiotti (Italy), Kaiji Ogino (Japan), Sherkhan Abil (Kazakhstan), Oskonbai Abdisamatov (Kyrgyzstan), Pavel Graur (Moldova), Zachary Espalin Aguirre (Mexico), Kaige Brown (New Zealand), Omar Ayoub (Puerto Rico), Daniel Sandu (Romania), Eldar Akhmadudinov (Russia), Samilj Dadajev (Serbia), Yusuf Tumer (Türkiye), Viktor Borohan (Ukraine), Bowen Bassett (United States) and Joseph Chavez (Venezuela).
Not all of those names arrive with the same international résumé. And before the draw, there is little value in trying to predict who will meet whom.
What we do have is a weight containing a newly crowned U20 world champion who just beat a Senior World medalist, a U23 European champion who came back from the edge of technical superiority to win by fall, European medalists, young wrestlers moving up in weight, and national champions looking for their first major U23 breakthrough.