Top Iranian wrestler Amirreza Masoumi is ready to compete for Armenia

Freestyle wrestler from Iran Amirreza Masoumi plans to change his sports citizenship, and his first choice is Armenia.

According to Sportaran.com, the 20-year-old athlete is currently in Yerevan and is in talks with the Armenian Wrestling Federation. Our sources indicate that both sides are interested in this transition, and an official announcement is expected soon.

Amirreza Masoumi in Yerevan

Amirreza Masoumi competes in the 125 kg weight class and has already established himself as one of the world's strongest wrestlers in this category. However, he has been unable to break into Iran's main senior national team due to competition with Amir Hossein Zare, who, at 24, is a two-time world champion and an Olympic silver and bronze medalist. Amirreza dreams of participating in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, so he decided to change his sports citizenship and chose Armenia for this.

Masoumi has won numerous gold medals at both junior and senior levels:

At the senior level:

• Asian Champion (2025)
• Winner of the Zagreb Ranking Tournament (2025)
• Silver medalist at the Zagreb Ranking Tournament (2024)

At the junior level:

• U23 World Champion (2024)
• U20 World Champion (2024)
• U20 Asian Champion (2024)
• U20 World Champion (2023)
• U23 World Champion (2022)
• U20 World Champion (2022)
• U17 World Champion (2021)

It is worth noting that Armenia's freestyle wrestling super heavyweight division has previously featured wrestlers from other countries. From 2006 to 2012, Ossetian wrestler Ruslan Basiev competed for Armenia in the 120 kg category, winning a bronze medal at the 2006 World Championships and a silver at the 2009 European Championships. From 2014 to 2020, Georgian wrestler Levan Berianidze represented Armenia, earning bronze medals at both the World and European Championships.

At the 2025 European Championships, Armenia had no representative in the 125 kg category, while at the 2024 tournament, Leva Gevorgyan competed but lost in the first round. Armenia also had no wrestlers in this weight class at the 2021, 2022, and 2023 European Championships.

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