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The United World Wrestling (UWW) 2025’s Senior World Championships has finished. Iran won the freestyle team trophy so we’re going to look at their most interesting wrestler and talk about another gold medalist who’s fancy footwork came in clutch.
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Now let’s get into it.
What's In Today's Letter?
UNORTHODOX CHAMPIONSHIP UNDER HOOKS
Rahman Mousa’s Amouzad Khalili’s Unique Style
With nothing going on in professional Jiujitsu nor MMA I went back to watch more of the UWW’s Senior World Championships. I’m not the biggest freestyle wrestling fan, but I like watching the gold medal runs to see how the best wrestlers get it done, study the athletes that do things differently, and try to steal a few tricks for myself.
Iran’s 65KG wrestler Rahman Amouzad moves like no one I’ve seen before. Just look at his stance below.
Rahman’s stands wide and flat. This limits his ability to get in and out quickly but it also takes away his lead leg. That means his opponent can’t just easily pick up a single on him.
Rahman’s palms are opened up to the ceiling. This makes it harder for him to grab his opponents but it helps him lift them off of his hips and get under hooks.
Rahman’s head is way ahead of his feet. This creates a hard first line of defense.
Now let’s look at how Rahman used this weird stance to win a world championship.
Rahman’s defense was rock solid. He only gave up 6 points across all 5 of his matches. But really only one of his opponents actually got a takedown on him.
When Rahman’s opponents grabbed onto anything he quickly reversed them.
Woods is bouncing in and out. Rahman is staying low, looking to counter. Woods snaps on Rahman’s head and grabs a single. Rahman pushes on his head, sprawls, and then locks his hands for a chest wrap. He throws Woods backwards for a quick two points.
Rahman Amouzad Khalili - Real Woods
Rahman has long limbs relative to his opponents. In this tournament, that meant whenever someone got past his hands he would wrap them up, throw them, or cut an angle to get to their backside.
Sujeet grabs Rahman’s ankle. Rahman gets a cross face in front of Sujeet’s chin. Rahman drops his hips, hooks Sujeet’s thigh, and walks around to his back side. Rahman switches to a body lock. Sujeet tries to counter with an uchi mata but Rahman runs him to the floor.
Rahman Amouzadkhalili - Sujeet Sujeet
My favorite part of Rahman’s defense was how he ripped his opponents’ ankles around when they shot on him.
Woods gets a single leg. Rahman can’t sprawl out of the shot. Woods lifts Rahman so he reaches over Woods’s back to grab a far ankle. By pulling the foot and ankle out of line with the knee, Woods can’t keep driving forward. Rahman sprawls and throws his hips into Woods’s face to get out of the single. Then they return to their feet.
Rahman Amouzad Khalili - Real Woods
Far ankle defense is something that is desperately missing in jiujitsu. It opens up many opportunities and you can get to the position while defending a takedown or wrestling up from bottom.
If you want to see some examples of what I’m talking about read this old article I wrote about scrambling up from bottom.
Okay back to Rahman’s defense and scrambling. He beat the 2024 Olympic Gold Medalist 10-0 and notched these insane scrambles.
Kotaro grabs Rahman’s ankle. Rahman gets a crotch lock, sits back, and throws Kotaro over his own shoulders. They roll and Rahman holds onto Kotaro’s ankles while popping his head up. Then he stands over Kotaro with a cradle to throw him back and collect his points.
Rahman Amouzad Khalili - Kiyooka Kotaro
To seal the match, Rahman climbed up from a single leg to get a crotch lock and throw his opponent again.
Kotaro tries to grab Rahman’s ankle again. Rahman down blocks and circles behind him. Then he grabs Kotaro’s ankle. Kotaro shoots a single of his own. Rahman goes back to the crotch lock to launch Kotaro backwards. Rahman hops over Kotaro to end up on top and score the match winning points.
Rahman Amouzad Khalili - Kiyooka Kotaro
Rahman got most of his offense going with an under hook, and he would use this one attack to set up attacks in every direction.
He can run his opponents off of the mat for a quick push out point.
Rahman and Kotaro are hand fighting. Rahman drops to a knee like he's going to shoot but he comes up with a right under hook. He lifts with his right, reaches with his left, and runs Kotaro out of bounds before he can grab a leg.
Rahman Amouzad Khalili - Kiyooka Kotaro
Standing strong in front of Rahman wasn’t really an option. When his opponents tried not to concede ground, he just lifted them up and grabbed their hips.
Rahman punches a right under hook in. He goes forward and Khadzhimurodov holds the line. Rahman lifts Khadzhimurodov up for a single. Then he starts running. Khadzhimurodov tries to sprawl and fight his head, but Rahman blocks Khadzhimurodov’s far knee for a knee tap.
Rahman Amouzad Khalili - Ikromzhon Khadzhimurodov
Rahman was looking for under hooks proactively through the whole tournament. But he claimed them reactively when his opponents shot as well. The coolest takedown I saw him get came off of an under hook he got on defense.
Woods fakes Rahman out and gets him to change his level so he can grab a front head lock. Rahman throws Woods to the side with his under hook and frees his head. Now both men have an under hook and an over hook. Rahman hops to his left, drops to his knees, and lifts with his under hook to throw Woods by and get to his back side.
Rahman Amouzadkhalili - Real Woods
Now let’s look at my favorite performance from the Women’s Championships.
WORLD CLASS FOOTWORK:
How Helen Maroulis Stole Gold At The Last Second
Helen Maroulis is on the short list of best American women to ever wrestle. She was the first American woman to win gold and she did it by beating Saori Yoshida.
If you don’t recognize that name, know that Yoshida won 1st place at the Olympics and World Championships every year between 2002 and 2015. In fact, Yoshida’s one career loss as an adult came from Maroulis.
This year Maroulis made her opponents look silly with her fancy foot work and trips.
Maroulis snaps on Cakmak’s head. As Cakmak tries to back up and stand, Maroulis hops forward for an inside trip. Cakmak falls to her knees. Maroulis pulls on Cakmak again before running her out of bounds with her under hook to score a quick push out point.
Helen Maroulis - Emine Cakmak
It’s not like she was a one trick pony. Maroulis made her trips work both inside and outside.
Maroulis steps out from Tokuhara’s snap down. They square up again and Tokuhara shoots. Maroulis sprawls and gets a power half on Tokuhara. Tokuhara tries to stand up as Maroulis steps out and around her for an easy outside trip. Maroulis falls on Tokuhara’s leg to finish the takedown. She keeps lifting
Helen Maroulis - Himeka Tokuhara
Maroulis showed a serious clutch gene in her gold medal match. With less than 20 seconds left she scored the match winning points.
Maroulis snaps on Son’s head and steps inside for a trip. She finishes it by grabbing Son’s ankle. Son tries to stand and run away but Maroulis locks her hands around Son’s waist for the score. Son gets out and tries to circle but Maroulis holds onto her tricep to keep her in front and win the match.
Helen Maroulis - Sim Il Son
Both of these performances have inspired me to play around with more under hooks and trips. Maybe I’ll even combine them this week?
HELP DESK UPDATES:
Pawel Jaworski’s ADCC Trials Run
Pawel Jaworski is the most accomplished newcomer at the 2026 ADCC World Championships.
He won double gold in the IBJJF European and No Gi World Championships brown belt divisions. Then he made it onto the European CJI 2 team. And he accomplished all of that before turning 22!
Jaworski is methodical like a much older competitor. He carefully climbs his opponents’ legs and sneaks into his spots. He didn’t have the flashiest ADCC Trials run, but he didn’t give up a single point.
If you want to see how he did it and learn how to chain leg locks and back attacks like the best in the world, read his Rookie Report article on the Help Desk.
If you want to study the most accomplished European ADCC newcomer? Ready to learn how to effortlessly glide to the back like him? Click here to upgrade your subscription and access the the Help Desk. The Help Desk comes with:
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LINKS, INSTRUCTIONALS, AND MORE MATCHES TO STUDY:
Watch More Of Rahman’s And Maroulis’s Matches
Watch all of Rahman Mousa Amouzad Khalili’s gold medal run here.
Click here if you want to see a highlight of just his under hook from earlier this year.
Helen Maroulis’s gold medal run is available here as well.
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS (you might have missed)
Gable Steveson is the hottest prospect in MMA. He’s the youngest man to ever win a freestyle gold medal in the Super Heavyweight division and he’s only lost 1 match since 2019. After a successful MMA debut, Steveson hinted that Craig Jones wanted him to take a dive in the BJJ match that Steveson dropped out of. Now, Jones is going on a tear digging up the questionable behavior from his past. This is not a public feud Steveson should seek out.
While the USA descends into chaos the bread and circuses are still be ready to go. Dana White shared the mock-ups for UFC White House next year and Conor McGregor announced he’s fighting Michael Chandler on the card. We’ll see if either of these make it past Twitter.
Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez was supposed to take on Reinier de Ridder (RDR) next month but Fluffy got injured. Now Brendan Allen will fight RDR in a fight that should give us some fun sloppy scrambles.
Thanks for reading today. If you enjoyed this piece and want to read more about the top techniques, principles, and stories from the world of fighting upgrade to the Help Desk! The Help Desk has:
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