By Richard Immel
USA Wrestling

NOVI SAD, Serbia – A fourth finalist in men’s freestyle is on the board for Team USA at the 2025 U23 World Championships. Jax Forrest picked up his third technical fall of the day to advance to the 61 kg gold medal final.

In the semifinals against Japan’s Akito Mukaida, Forrest opened up a tied match in the second period with some slick takedown-to-lace transition offense. The match was 5-5 with two minutes left before Forrest exploded with 10-straight points.  

The 61 kg championship bout, which is set for tomorrow evening at SPENS in downtown Novi Sad, pits Forrest against 2024 U17 World champion Omurbek Asan Uulu of Kyrgyzstan, who was equally as dominant on Sunday. Asan Uulu won four bouts by technical fall to make the final.

Two-time age-group World champion Marcus Blaze at 65 kg, Rocco Welsh at 86 kg and Garavous Kouekabakilaho at 97 kg were dealt a bad hand in the semifinal round and were not pulled back into the tournament. Forrest will be the only group three wrestler for Team USA to advance to Monday’s medal round.

The tournament continues at 6 p.m. local time on Sunday with the men’s freestyle group two (57-70-74-125 kg) medal matches. Novi Sad, Serbia, is located five hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

Two-time age-group World champion Luke Lilledahl and Senior World silver medalist Levi Haines will compete for gold this evening. Going for bronze are U20 world champion PJ Duke and Heavyweight Daniel Herrera.

The U23 World Championships are streaming live on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results can be found on UWW Arena.

2025 U23 World Championships 

At Novi Sad, Serbia, October 26 

Reference Links 

• Live stream and archived matches

• Brackets and results

• Event photo gallery

• Team USA interviews
  

Men’s Freestyle Results 

Gold Medal Match Pairings | Group Three 

61 kg – Omurbek Asan Uulu (Kyrgyzstan) vs. Jax Forrest (United States)

65 kg – Sujeet (India) vs. Umidjon Jalolov (Uzbekistan)

86 kg – Eugeniu Mihalcean (Moldova) vs. Arsen Balaian (UWW)

97 kg – Merab Suleimanishvili (Georgia) vs. Arash Yoshida (Japan)

Semifinal Results | Group Three 

61 kg 

Omurbek Asan Uulu (Kyrgyzstan) tech. fall Tolga Ozbek (Türkiye), 12-1

Jax Forrest (United States) tech. fall Akito Mukaida (Japan), 15-5

65 kg 

Sujeet (India) dec. Yuto Nishiuchi (Japan) vs. Sujeet (India), 3-2

Umidjon Jalolov (Uzbekistan) dec. Bilol Sharip Uulu (Kyrgyzstan), 5-2

86 kg 

Eugeniu Mihalcean (Moldova) dec. Abolfazl Rahmani Firouzjaei (Iran), 2-1

Arsen Balaian (UWW) tech. fall Tornike Samkharadze (Georgia), 10-0

97 kg 

Merab Suleimanishvili (Georgia) tech. fall Soslan Dzhagaev (UWW), 16-5

Arash Yoshida (Japan) fall Rizabek Aitmukhan (Kazakhstan), 2:05

U.S. Results 

Men’s Freestyle | Group Three 

61 kg – Jax Forrest (Johnstown, Pa./Cowboy RTC/Titan Mercury WC), gold medal match 

WIN Vasile Marcu (Moldova), tech. fall, 13-0

WIN Mykyta Abramov (Ukraine), tech. fall, 10-0

WIN Akito Mukaida (Japan), tech. fall, 15-5

VS Omurbek Asan Uulu (Kyrgyzstan)

65 kg – Marcus Blaze (State College, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC), eliminated 

LOSS Bilol Sharip Uulu (Kyrgyzstan), 4-2

86 kg – Rocco Welsh (Fredericktown, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC), eliminated 

WIN Aaron Ayzerov (Israel), tech. fall, 10-0

WIN Minghui Liang (China), tech. fall, 10-0

LOSS Abolfazl Rahmani Firouzjaei (Iran), 7-4

97 kg – Garavous Kouekabakilaho (San Diego, Calif./Viking WC), eliminated 

WIN Mohamed Salaheldin (Egypt), tech. fall, 12-1

LOSS Rizabek Aitmukhan (Kazakhstan), tech. fall, 11-0