The 25th of October, 2025, will go down in the annals of Sakartvelo’s sporting life and athletic endeavor as a landmark date, when, in the new Sports Palace of Tbilisi, 54 Georgian-style wrestlers representing 25 nations competed with each other, including the host country: Italy, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, USA, Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Israel, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Armenia, Iran, and Georgia.
Tbilisi-2025 revealed the strongest athlete of the globe in what we call Kartuli Chidaoba – Georgian Wrestling. This was the first world championship in history in the absolute (meaning no-limit) weight category. The unique tournament was organized by the National Federation of Georgian Wrestling, headed by its president Tengiz (Temur) Khubuluri, retired half-heavyweight judoka, World and European champion, Olympic runner-up, coach, and politician.
The championship was sponsored and supported by the current Georgian government, represented by the country’s Sports Minister Shalva Gogoladze, who opened the official ceremony, bejeweled with fiery Georgian dancing and polyphonic national singing. Together with him, the event was introduced by Necmettin Bilal Erdogan, President of the World Ethnosport Confederation. Incidentally, he is a successful Turkish businessman and the second-born child of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Republic of Türkiye.
During his visit to Georgia, he met with the Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to discuss the World Wrestling Championship in Tbilisi. The meeting also focused on the friendly relations and strategic partnership between Georgia and Türkiye, as well as cooperation in the field of sports.
The participants in the competition were divided into two main groups – Georgians in one pool and foreign athletes in another. Based on this, the final bout and the fight for third place were completed by mixed Georgian–foreign pairs, which was probably the most rational competitive arrangement.
For the third place, the tense sparring took place between Ucha Tabatadze, the wrestler from the city of Zestafoni, Georgia, and an Uzbek sportsman, in which Ucha prevailed, winning the battle by a point in additional time and thus earning the bronze medal.
Concerning the final challenges, the clash was even more exciting. Paired were the Georgian wrestler from Kutaisi and world champion in judo among the youth, Saba Inaneishvili, and an athlete from Mongolia, the well-known judoka Ulzibayer Duranbayer. Saba came out the winner by a point in the final minute, winning the gold medal and leaving the Mongolian contender with only a silver decoration to enjoy. The fight was truly fierce and tense.
By the way, Inaneishvili managed to defeat, in the quarterfinals, the favorite athlete of the championship, Guram Tushishvili, captain of the Georgian National Judo Team, threefold absolute champion of Georgia, and world and European champion in judo.
In a word, the entire Tbilisi-2025 turned out to be an extremely interesting world-level competition, with an ample number of spectators watching the hot battles and enjoying the show. It should also be noted that the gold, silver, and bronze medals were accompanied by monetary rewards of 20, 10, and 5 thousand dollars respectively.
Just to reminisce, the European Championship in Kartuli Chidaoba, with 20 participating nations, took place in 2023 in the city of Salonika, Greece, where Saba Inaneishvili became vice-champion, having lost in the finals. This time, the picture has changed. What an amazing compensation!
The media service for Tbilisi-2025 was provided by journalist Tamaz Gogibedashvili, Public Relations Manager of the Federation of Georgian Wrestling and a true right hand to its president, Temur Khubuluri. To wit, Gogibedashvili is one of those, including myself, who strongly believe that Kartuli Chidaoba – Georgian Wrestling – has quite a chance to someday become one of the Olympic sports categories. There is every sign of this prospect, judging by the world-level excitement surrounding it.
Let’s live and see!
Blog by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
