2023 Wrestling World Championships: Five fresh faces to look out for in men's freestyle

Belgrade hosts the 2023 World Wrestling Championships from 16-24 September with men's freestyle action taking place over the first four days, with action streamed live on Olympic Channel.

Five out of the six gold medallists from Tokyo 2020 in 2021 will be competing, with only 125kg Olympic champion Gable Steveson missing after the American pulled out at the start of the month.

As well as medals, coveted Olympic quota spots are up for grabs in Serbia's capital with five berths available in each weight class.

While the highlight look sets to be another clash between 97kg world champion Kyle Snyder and double Olympic gold medallist Abdulrashid Sadulaev, there are plenty of new names ready to launch their career on the world stage with the Olympic Games Paris 2024 just around the corner.

Read on to get the lowdown of five men who are ready to make an impact in global senior competition.

• How to qualify for wrestling at Paris 2024 Olympics

Mason Parris (USA) – 125kg

Steveson’s late withdrawal gives college standout Mason Parris his first opportunity at global level.

The 23-year-old from Lawrenceburg, Indiana, practised wresting, American football and athletics at high school and won three consecutive state titles from 2016-18. He was also named Defensive Player of the Year for the state playing at linebacker three years in succession.

Parris won the 2019 world junior title by pinning future Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist and world champion Amir Hossein Zare of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the final in Tallinn, Estonia.

In his second year at the University of Michigan, he fell to fellow American Steveson in a thrilling 285-pound (129.3kg) final at the Big Ten tournament before the NCAA Championships were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parris then captured the 2020 U.S. Senior Open title and was third at the national trials for Tokyo 2020.

He comes into these Worlds on the back of his best season yet. Unbeaten in his fifth and final year in college en route to the NCAA heavyweight title, he became the first Michigan student to receive the Dan Hodge Trophy for outstanding college wrestler.

In June, he lost again to Steveson at the Final X tournament which served as trials for these World Championships.

Now in the absence of his former college rival, Parris finally has his chance to win a global senior medal.

Rakhim Magamadov (FRA) – 86kg

While Olympic champions David Taylor and Hassan Yazdani are expected to contest a third consecutive 86kg world final – Yazdani won in 2021, Taylor in 2022 – Rakhim Magamadov will be hoping to make his presence felt in his second season in the senior ranks ahead of a home Olympic Games next year.

Born in the Chechnyan capital Grozny in 2003, Magamadov arrived in France four years later as his family fled war.

They settled in Montauban close to other Chechen refugees with young Rakhim soon taking up the national sport of his homeland.

An exciting, attacking wrestler, Magamadov won silver at the 2021 U20 World Championships, losing to Iran’s Amir Hossein Firouzpour in the final, but took gold the following year before making an early exit at his first senior World Championships.

This March, he became European U23 champion in Bucharest and defeated Turkey’s 2018 world silver medallist Fatih Erdin on his way to a bronze medal at Wrestle Budapest in July.

Having retained his U20 world crown last month in Amman, Jordan, Magamadov – who is carrying a slight knee injury - will hope for an extended run in Belgrade this time having led his opening bout 12 months ago before being pinned by Puerto Rico’s Ethan Ramos.

Amir Ali Azarpira (IRI) – 92kg

With injury denying Kamran Ghasempour the chance of a hat-trick of world titles, Iran have turned to Amir Ali Azarpira.

The 21-year-old from Tehran is the reigning two-time world U23 champion at 97kg and showed he was a test for anyone in that weight class last December by beating Slovakia's world silver medallist Batyrbek Tsakulov by a comfortable 10-0 margin.

In his first tournament since dropping to 92kg in July, the Hungarian Grand Prix, Azarpira defeated Georgia’s 2022 world bronze medallist Miriani Maisuradze by technical superiority on his way to the bronze medal.

While 92kg is not an Olympic weight class, Azarpira should have little trouble going back up to 97kg ahead of Paris next year with the Asian Qualification Tournament taking place in Kyrgyzstan next April.

Aman Sehrawat (IND) – 57kg

If there was an award for the quickest wrestler in Belgrade, Aman Sehrawat would certainly be among the contenders.

Born near Jhajjar in Haryana State, the home of Indian wrestling, Sehrawat was just 10 when he was brought by his father Somveer to the legendary residential training camp, or akhara, at Delhi’s Chhtrasal Stadium.

Sadly, Somveer passed away a year later with Sehrawat’s mother Kamlesh having died a year previously.

Despite his poor background and being orphaned at a young age, he thrived in his new surroundings and impressed with his exceptional work ethic.

He became national schools champion in 2017 and claimed bronze at the World Cadet (U17) Championships a year later.

In 2019, he won the Asian cadet title before collecting another world cadet bronze.

Employing a ferocious attacking style, which can see him concede early points, Sehrawat has continued to go from strength to strength and became India’s first U23 world champion last October in Pontevedra, Spain.

With Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya out injured, Sehrawat went to April’s Asian Championships in Astana in his place.

He took the opportunity with both hands, beating world number three Zou Wanhao of the People’s Republic of China in the semi-finals.

More relentless attacking in the final saw him defeat Almaz Smanbekov of Kyrgyzstan 9-4 - despite sustaining a late cut over his eye – to claim the Asian title.

With Kumar Dahiya aggravating his knee injury at July’s Asian Games trials, Sehrawat gets to test himself against the very best and try to win an Olympic quota spot for his nation.

Chance Marsteller (USA) – 79kg

Chance Marsteller booked his place in Belgrade by defeating London 2012 gold medallist and reigning world champion Jordan Burroughs in a dramatic three-match series at Final X in June.

Marsteller trailed 3-2 with 36 seconds remaining of the final bout when he threw Burroughs, starting the manoeuvre just before his feet went outside the mat perimeter, for a decisive four-point score.

That win completed an incredible life turnaround for the 28-year-old, born Chandler Shane Marsteller, whose childhood dreams of global medals were almost destroyed by drug and substance addiction.

• Former teen wrestling phenom Chance Marsteller back to chasing childhood dream after overcoming drug addiction: ‘I was confident that I would die’

Having had a 166-0 record in high school in Pennsylvania, Marsteller went to Oklahoma State University where his "cocky" behaviour prompted his suspension from the team.

He transferred to Lock Haven back in his native Pennsylvania but, days before the start of term in 2016, he was reported to police for banging on doors in a university apartment block while naked.

Speaking on the Fighting For Success podcast, he recalls, “I was partying one night. I end up getting arrested in my building. They take me to hospital… long story short, I get into a fight with six police officers and a nurse is in the room. They wrote me up with 21 charges that night.”

Addicted to alcohol and opioids, he reluctantly went into rehab.

He did so again four years later - willingly this time - after wrecking both his and his wife’s cars in one night while under the influence and has been clean since July 2020.

In 2021, Marsteller competed at the Tokyo 2020 USA Wrestling trials – going out in the second round – before serving five weekends in jail in Pennsylvania for his driving offence.

Moving training base to Hoboken just outside New York City at the start of 2022 has brought further improvement culminating in that epic win over Burroughs.

Coaching youngsters at the club he wrestled at as a youngster, and being a husband and father to two boys, has also helped him avoid returning to the cycle of addiction, and ahead of the 2023 Worlds he told Olympics.com, "That's the biggest part of my story. Someone gave me hope once upon a time and I hope that I can give someone else that same feeling.”

With 79kg not an Olympic weight class, Marsteller plans to move up to 86kg for Paris 2024. But Belgrade is his first goal with a world title – a goal he had set himself at 10 years of age – in his sights.

Where to watch the 2023 Wrestling World Championships

Wrestling's 2023 Senior World Championships takes place from 16-24 September.

The event will be streamed live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com for most of the world and you can watch the action here.

There is also coverage on the United World Wrestling website here (Regional restrictions may apply).