The Senior World Wrestling Championships in Zagreb proved to be a roller coaster ride for Team USA. While they celebrate Zahid Valencia’s gold, they also have Wyatt Hendrickson’s 1st round defeat to deal with. But nothing comes close to Jax Forrest’s ending on Day 2 of the Championships, which has left USA Wrestling disappointed, perplexed, and with lots of questions.

The match in question is Forrest’s bout with Assylzhan Yessengeldi of Kazakhstan for the bronze medal. And it looked like the Bishop McCort High Schooler was bringing home a medal for his country. Until his opponent challenged, and the score ended 9-8 against Forrest. But way too many things were going on in the match, and some mistakes that USA Wrestling thinks the match officials missed.

FloWrestling shared the big news on September 15 on their – X handle: “After Jax Forrest’s controversial loss, @USAWrestling has filed an official complaint.” Along with that, they shared a video where USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender explained the entire thing. “We’ve officially filed a complaint with the International Federation, UWW,” Bender said. “I’ve been assured that they’re going to review the call, review the entire match in the morning.”

The call he was talking about was the big alleged singlet pull and the decision of warning/caution that was given. Obviously, there is no provision to overturn the decision now. But Team USA mentioned where they have a problem. Bender said, “We think, significant mistakes were made in the match. There was a mechanical error. In the reality that Zo clearly pushed the challenge button in a clear singlet pull.”

There were only 10 seconds left on the clock when the incident happened. Zoheir El Ouarraqe, the coach in the Cowboys camp, threw the Challenge Brick at an alleged illegal action (grabbing the opponent’s clothing) committed by Forrest’s opponent. But an issue with the button led to the challenge not being registered. Crucial seconds were lost until Ouarraqe asked for a challenge vocally.

Well, eventually the referee took notice of the challenge with 3 seconds remaining. The video review panel (the table) looked at the Cowboys’ complaint and awarded Forrest a point to penalize his opponent’s caution call. Score reading 9-9. And since the criteria was with the US wrestler, it meant Jax Forrest was the winner when the timer was done. But then came the challenge from Assylzhan Yessengeldi’s camp.

“At the end of the match, the referee clearly saw something to make the call. We think that there was a mistake at the table in looking at the wrong hand,” Bender said. “I can’t remember if it was the right or left hand that was up on the singlet. Jax felt that was where the singlet pull was happening.”

The USA Wrestling ED thinks the overturning of the decision to grant Forrest a point that would have made him the winner was because the Table looked at the wrong footage, which makes it quite a glaring error. However, Rich Bender doesn’t think it’s corruption or anything. “Anytime that there’s a human element, mistakes can be made.”

Well, as for Team USA, its objective is to get to the bottom of this. They think they have a case. But what will be the ultimate outcome, no one knows. Jax Forrest’s amazing campaign will probably remain with no medal to show for. But he gives the Cowboys a lot of positives to take away from the Championship. And it’s not just him.

David Taylor’s Cowboys shining for USA Wrestling

Forrest’s run in the 61 kg weight class came as a real surprise, especially when he took down 2025 Asian Champion Takara Suda (Japan) in the R16. He got the wrestling circles in the US dreaming. A gold win and he would have become the youngest American ever to become a senior World Champion. But Forrest fell in the semi-finals to eventual champion and 2020 Tokyo Olympics Champion Zavur Uguev.

Meanwhile, USA Wrestling has already clinched gold thanks to David Taylor’s Cowboys juggernaut Zahid Valencia. Valencia has been in a blazing form in the last few months, claiming the US Open Championships, the Pan American Championships, and the Final X.

And how dominant he was! A 49-0 campaign is a statement made on behalf of USA Wrestling. And Team USA is still not done.

Levi Haines (79 kg) and Trent Hidlay (92 kg) have their gold matches on Monday. Haines takes on Georgios Kougioumtsidis while Hidlay faces Amanula Gadzhimagomedov. Will Team USA return with 2 more golds? We will find out soon enough.