The US has had quite a muddy season at the World Wrestling Championship so far. After suffering several major upsets, the wrestling powerhouse nation has now pinned its hopes on a young Greco-Roman wrestler. The US Army champion now seeks to live up to the expectations of his countrymen and win the bronze medal.

Sergeant Xavier Johnson will enter the repechage match after he failed to progress to the finals. The young wrestler has a long shot at winning the bronze. However, he will look forward to making the most of his chance and walking back home with a world championship medal.

Army Wrestling champion with massive expectations in maiden world appearance

Sgt. Xavier Johnson is competing in his maiden senior world championship. Despite lacking experience on the world stage, the army man has fared strongly so far and entered the repechage stage. Azerbaijan’s Murad Mammedov halted the 60kg weight-class wrestling star’s championship campaign. The Azerbaijani wrestler later won the semi-final and confirmed Johnson’s slot in the repechage. Johnson will now compete against his Armenian counterpart Hrachya Poghosyan on 24th September 2023 to qualify for a possible bronze match. 

If the army wrestling champ succeeds against the Armenian, he will finally find himself in the bronze medal match. His lengthy journey will pit him against Serbia’s Georgii Tibilov for the bronze medal. While the wrestling powerhouse US always aims for the gold medal, it has already faced three big upsets this year. Thus, a bronze medal victory by Johnson will prove very valuable for the US. Johnson will look forward to winning a Greco-Roman bronze medal for the US, just the way Zahid Valencia claimed a freestyle bronze.

Zahid Valencia enjoys his maiden world championship while claiming the bronze

America’s 92kg weight-class wrestler Zahid Valencia entered the World Championship at Belgrade to test himself against the best international wrestlers. In fact, the amazing wrestling sensation added another challenge to his maiden journey, by moving up a weight class. Wrestling involves different weight classes to ensure fair competition, the American however, entered Belgrade with a billed weight of 88kg.

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Valencia used his superior wrestling technique to advance to the bronze medal match and cruised through an easy win. Interestingly, the fun and challenge-loving wrestler won the bronze medal with an overwhelming win of 11-0. Valencia gave a humble post-match interview, where he didn’t gloat about his success, but claimed the bronze signifies there’s room to improve. The US will look forward to seeing another Zahid Valencia performance from the wrestler-soldier, Xavier Johnson.

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