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Real Woods' bronze leads Hawkeye men at World Championships

by: Tanner Lafever09/18/25TannerLafever
Real Woods celebrates bronze medal win.
A jubilant Real Woods celebrates in the aftermath of his bronze medal victory at 65 kilograms. (Photo Credit: Tony Rotundo/WrestlersAreWarriors.com)

After four days of Men’s Freestyle competition at the 2025 World Championships, one Hawkeye is returning home with a medal around his neck – just probably not the one most would’ve predicted.

That’s right, in his first appearance at a World Championship event in nine years – and his debut at the Senior level – Iowa alum Real Woods is a 65-kilogram bronze medalist.

The Albuquerque, New Mexico native went 4-1 in Zagreb, Croatia – his only loss coming against the eventual World champion.

Before this, Woods hadn’t wrestled at Worlds since 2016, when he finished 15th in Greco-Roman in the U17 division.

Nearly a decade later, he’ll return stateside with hardware from the toughest tournament in the world. A tournament at which only 2/37 wrestlers finished above him on the podium – both of whom competed in last summer’s Olympic final.

Only two men stood above Real Woods on the podium at 65 kilograms – 2024 Olympic gold medalist Kotaro Kiyooka (Japan – far left) and 2024 Olympic silver medalist Rahman Amouzad (Iran – second from left). (Photo by Kadir Caliskan – United World Wrestling/Getty Images)

Opposite Woods’ elated end of the spectrum, however, was Spencer Lee – who entered the week as a prohibitive gold medal favorite at 57kg only to stunningly see his tournament come to an end in the quarterfinals (and in equally stunning fashion).

Lee’s ninth-place finish wasn’t the only ‘unfathomable’ result of the Men’s Freestyle competition (look up Bahrain’s Akhmed Tazhudinov at 97kg). But it was certainly the biggest shocker for Team USA – and by extension Hawkeye wrestling fans everywhere.

As for the final entry with Iowa ties, Victor Voinovich III was also making his Senior World Championships debut.

Competing for Serbia, the Hawkeye senior went 1-1 at 70kg, finishing 16th.

Welcome to our Iowa-centric Men’s Freestyle recap – covering the highest of highs and the lowest of lows from the week that was in Zagreb.

Real-y freaking cool

As I mentioned in the intro, a Real Woods bronze medal performance was not something a lot of folks would’ve had on their BINGO card prior to this week.

65 kilograms is a notoriously difficult weight class, not to mention one that has been particularly challenging for Americans:

Add to it Woods’ lack of experience on the World stage, his entering the tournament unseeded, plus any number of other factors, and this was a serious accomplishment for the two-time Hawkeye All-American (2023-24).

For some additional context as to what Woods just accomplished, this was the same guy who, back in April, finished fourth at the US Open – losing twice to Stanford freshman Aden Valencia (the younger brother of Iowa women’s wrestler, Nyla Valencia).

Not quite five months later, Woods finished third in the world.

Here’s how he did it.

The path to bronze – Day 1

It was hardly an easy opener for Woods in the Round of 32 against 2024 Olympian Maxim Sacultan (Moldova) – but the Hawkeye sure made it look that way.

After some early hand fighting, Woods score an activity clock point and a takedown in quick succession – then nearly ended the match with three gut wrenches from the top position.

Sacultan – fifth at 2023 Worlds – reversed Woods to his back momentarily during the sequence, but Woods stayed calm and ended the period with a 10-2 lead.

He wouldn’t wait long to stick the final nail in the coffin either, taking Sacultan to his back early in the second period for a decisive 14-2 technical superiority win.

With the victory, Woods’ reward was top-seeded Rahman Amouzad (Iran) – a 2022 World champion and 2024 Olympic silver medalist. And unlike all his other opponents in Croatia, this one had familiarity with the American.

Woods and Amouzad wrestled back in February at a Ranking Series event in Albania, where the Iranian pulled away for an 11-2 win.

Seven months later, the score would be almost identical (12-1) – though Woods arguably had a far better showing against his supremely talented opponent.

This time around, Woods had the first great scoring opportunity, but Amouzad somehow countered a deep shot with a two-point score of his own. Woods would get to legs a couple more times during the match, but the Iranian always had the answer – in addition to plenty of offense of his own.

Ultimately, Amouzad was just too much, securing the technical superiority win with about one minute remaining.

That said, Amouzad was also ‘too much’ for everyone at 65kg – including a 10-0 win in the gold medal bout over the reigning Olympic champ from Japan.

The path to bronze – Day 2

With Amouzad reaching the final, Woods was pulled back into repechage on Day 2, needing three more wins to earn a medal of his own.

It took him barely a minute to get the first one, as Woods scored an early go-behind followed by two gut wrenches to build a 6-0 lead.

He’d cap the same sequence in a fashion that harkened back to his Hawkeye days – hitting a pair of folkstyle-esque tilts to secure the 10-0 victory over Kyrgyzstan’s Ikromzhon Khadzhimurodov.

Next up was #8 Sujeet Sujeet (India) – who gave the aforementioned Amouzad by far his closest bout of the tournament in a 6-5 quarterfinal loss.

Yet again, Woods got on the board early – scoring five points (takedown, gut wrench, reversal) amidst a sequence that gave him a 5-2 advantage.

Then, just seconds before intermission, the American took advantage of a stuffed shot by Sujeet and rolled the Indian through for a two-point exposure.

A defensive second period meant Woods wouldn’t score again. But he didn’t need to, either, keeping Sujeet at bay (and without a takedown) until the final buzzer sounded in a 7-5 victory.

All that remained to earn bronze was a bout against Canada’s Peiman Biabani (a 2016 U20 World champ) – who’d made his own surprising run in Zagreb, reaching the semifinals.

It certainly wasn’t pretty, but Woods got gritty and got it done.

After the two traded minimal committed attacks and activity clock points in each period, Woods trailed on criteria with 1:44 to go. But his pace/aggression had already picked up, and as he continued to take ground the referee was left with no choice but to put Biabani back on the clock.

With 0:52 left, Woods took a 2-1 lead knowing if he could just defend for a little longer a medal would be his. And that’s exactly what he did, although his opponent didn’t make it easy.

Biabani hit a low single with about 20 seconds remaining, but Woods whizzered hard once, and then again, finally clearing his leg just before time expired.

It marked the end of a hard-fought, and incredibly rewarding tournament for the Hawkeye.

It also sets him up in an advantageous position to repeat as Team USA’s 65-kilogram rep in 2026.

Spencer’s shocking exit

In my preview article of this event, I talked plenty about Spencer Lee’s favorite status when it came to the field at 57 kilograms.

As the top seed and reigning Olympic silver medalist, that certainly seemed to be an appropriate prediction based on the information at hand.

But as we (and Lee) have seen before, there are no guarantees when it comes to wrestling.

Things started fine for the Hawkeye, with a brisk 10-0 technical superiority win in the Round of 16 over Yusuf Demir (Türkiye).

It’s what happened next that left plenty of folks stunned by what they’d just seen – this writer included.

But first, let’s start with the obvious – Arsen Harutyunyan is no slouch of a wrestler.

Among the Armenian’s credentials entering these World Championships:

  • Two-time Olympian (seventh in 2024, 13th in 2021)
  • Three-time World bronze medalist (2021-22 at 61kg, 2023 at 57kg)
  • Two-time U23 World Champion (2021-22)
  • Two-time U20 World medalist (bronze in 2017-18)

In his last major international competition prior to this week, Harutyunyan finished second at the European Championships – falling in the 61-kilogram final (7-5) to Russia’s Zavur Uguev.

Uguev, mind you, just so happened to be a two-time World champion and 2021 Olympic gold medalist. In fact, he’s now a three-time World champion – having won gold this week at 61kg while outscoring his opponents by a combined margin of 45-7.

Point being, perhaps not enough credit was given to Harutyunyan’s form/credentials entering this event.

Does it explain his dominant victory over Spencer Lee? Hardly.

But hey, I’m scrambling to try to make things make sense just like the rest of you guys out there.

Rather than break down the entire match moment by moment, I’ll let the footage itself do the talking (if you can stomach watching it as Hawkeye fans):

Simply put, Lee just never looked like the dude we’ve grown so accustomed to watching for all these years.

Even his 1-0 lead was an unusual sight, as he uncharacteristically struggled to finish a single leg shot, then had to scramble out of trouble just to get a step-out point on the edge.

And from that moment onward, Lee was darn near unrecognizable.

Harutyunyan scored off Lee’s attacks, his own attacks, step-outs, two-pointers, four-pointers and par terre. You name it, the Armenian did it – a sentence we’re used to using to describe Lee, not his opponents.

Before you knew it, the deficit had ballooned, and Lee wasn’t showing any signs of stemming the tide.

His one best chance was while trailing 5-1 early second period, when he tried to counter a deep shot with double overs – and despite giving up four points for landing on his back, rolled Harutyunyan over into serious peril of his own.

But once again, in very un-Lee-like fashion, he was unable to secure the fall.

Not long after that it was all over, with Harutyunyan a 14-3 winner in just 4:13 of action.

To make matters worse, the Armenian didn’t even do Lee the ‘favor’ of pulling him back into repechage.

Instead, Harutyunyan (who’d go on to win bronze) was thrown and pinned in the semifinals by an athlete from North Korea.

In a matter of hours, Lee had gone from title hopeful/favorite to living in a reality in which his tournament was over, and he’d be returning stateside without a medal of any color.

As I type these words a few days later, I still can’t believe it.

So, imagine how he feels.

Valiant Voinovich does Serbia proud

The third and final Iowa (men’s) entry didn’t advance as far as either of his fellow Hawkeyes.

But even so, Victor Voinovich still has plenty to be proud of.

Making his Senior World Championships debut through his Serbian heritage, Voinovich got his first-ever win thanks to a 4-2 decision over Mohammed Kareem (Iraq) in the Round of 32.

The Hawkeye lived on Kareem’s legs throughout the six-minute bout, but after an early takedown found finishing elusive for the remainder of the match.

Kareem kicked out of no fewer than seven different single leg attempts by Voinovich.

(Seriously, I counted.)

But other than one counter score following a prolonged scramble he never once threatened Voinovich with any offense of his own.

The victory set up Voinovich with a staunch Round of 16 foe – fifth-seeded Arman Andreasyan (Armenia).

A 2023 World bronze medalist (and 2025 European Championships runner up), Andreasyan controlled much of the action in this one.

The Armenian built a 2-0 lead at the break thanks to a step out and an activity clock point – then added another step out just 0:07 into the second period.

Yet another step out pushed the lead to 4-0, and though Voinovich certainly picked up his aggression over the final 120 seconds, he could only manage one deep attack that resulted in a step out of his own.

For a while the Hawkeye harbored hopes of being pulled into repechage, as Andreasyan won again to reach the semifinals. But his championship run ended there, with an 8-0 loss to Japan’s Yoshinosuke Aoyagi – the eventual gold medalist.

The result meant Voinovich’s tournament was over.

With this valuable experience now in hand, he’ll return to Iowa City in pursuit of a starting spot at either 149/157 in this year’s Iowa lineup.

Short time

As I wrote in the open, this was a week of several highs and one big-time low for the Hawkeye men’s competitors in Zagreb.

But this is a tough sport, for tough-minded people. And I have no doubt each one of these three will respond to their disappointments (and successes) in a positive manner.

These World Championships also at long last wrap up the 2025 (men’s) freestyle schedule for wrestlers with Iowa ties.

And that means the next item on the calendar is the start of the 2025-26 NCAA season – which sits not even 1.5 months away.

Until then, I’ll be covering any other news/events that come about – including a women’s freestyle World Championships recap that should publish in the coming days.

In the meantime, thank you guys as always for following along – and I’ll talk to you again real soon.

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