Evloev vs Khloyan, Amoyan vs Abuladze: Draw held in Yerevan for the Benur Pashayan tournament

The draw for the 2026 Benur Pashayan International Greco-Roman Wrestling Tournament was held in Yerevan on June 29.

The competition will take place at the Dinamo Sports Complex. The tournament is scheduled to begin on June 30, while the final bouts will be held on July 1. The competition will start at 10:00 Yerevan time.

Wrestlers from 11 countries will take part in the tournament: Armenia, the United States, Iran, Uzbekistan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Georgia, Finland and Estonia.

The list of participants is highly representative. Many national teams have brought strong wrestlers to Yerevan, and the level of competition in several weight categories is close to that of a World Championship.

Armenia will be represented by a large squad across all weight categories at the home tournament. However, not all leaders of the national team will compete in Yerevan. In particular, Olympic champion Artur Aleksanyan continues to recover from injury and will miss the tournament, as will Slavik Galstyan, Gaspar Terteryan and Suren Aghajanyan.

Armenia will be represented in the 77 kg weight category by Artur Amoyan, the nephew of Malkhas Amoyan. He will start his campaign from the round of 16, where his first opponent will be Georgia’s Otar Abuladze, the bronze medalist of the 2024 World Championships.

U23 world champion Alexandrin Gutu of Moldova will also compete in the same weight category, making the 77 kg division one of the most interesting at the tournament.

Special attention will be focused on the 97 kg weight category. One of the main bouts of the opening day is expected there: Armenia’s Hayk Khloyan will face Olympic champion Musa Evloev in the very first round of the round of 16. The Russian wrestler is well known to Armenian fans: in the final of the Tokyo Olympic Games, he defeated Artur Aleksanyan.

Hayk Khloyan is considered one of the main contenders to become Armenia’s number one wrestler at 97 kg after Aleksanyan. In his very first bout, he will face an extremely serious test against one of the most decorated wrestlers in the tournament.

The 97 kg category also features European silver medalists Arvi Savolainen and Magomed Murtazaliev, experienced Estonian wrestler Richard Karelson, promising Uzbek representative Amirkhon Berdikulov, as well as Georgia’s Gor Ayvazyan, a U17 world champion and U20 European champion.

Iran has also brought a strong squad to Yerevan. Although the Iranian team has not entered its first-choice national team leaders, its representatives will traditionally be considered favorites in several weight categories, given the enormous domestic competition in the country.

Russia will also compete without its main squad, but wrestlers such as Erzu Zakriev, Musa Evloev and Magomed Murtazaliev will be among the highlights of the tournament.

Moldova has brought its strongest wrestlers to Yerevan: Artiom Deleanu, Catalin Rusu and Alexandrin Gutu. Estonia, Finland and Poland are also represented by strong squads. The United States is not considered a traditional powerhouse in Greco-Roman wrestling, but the country’s best young wrestlers have arrived for the tournament. Uzbekistan and Georgia have also entered young and promising teams.

The full squads of the countries by weight category can be viewed in the draw brackets below.

Draw of the 2026 Benur Pashayan Tournament