Iran Wins in U.S. – at Wrestling

April 13, 2015

On April 12, Iran’s national wrestling team beat the U.S. squad 5-3 to win the 2015 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup. It was Iran’s sixth time taking the title and its fourth consecutive victory. A congratulatory message was posted on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Twitter account soon after the match.

The competition was held in Los Angeles, California, which is home to a large community of Iranian expatriates. Iranian fans reportedly made up more than half of the 4,234 spectators at The Forum and cheered so loudly that the Iranian team may have had “the sense of a home-mat advantage,” according to the Orange County Register.
 
As an individual, American Olympic gold medalist and two-time World champion Jordan Burroughs performed well. But his 10-0 victory over Iran’s Morteza Rezaei Ghaleh was not enough to turn the match around. “There aren’t a lot of times you beat an Iranian 10-0, so it was a great win,” he said. “They were giving it to us, they were relentless. They’ve got bells, whistles,” Burroughs told the Register. The following is a roundup of coverage of the event.
 

 

Click here for the full results of the match.