Blades Heads to World's in Weight to Watch

Photo: Clive Brunskill

Every World Championship there are a few weight classes that stand out, and I am making a case for Women’s 68 kg, and without Sadulaev 97 kg for the men lost some luster.

The World Championship each year has so much turnover in a lot of weight classes it is somewhat tough to get excited for many brackets. The brackets being out ahead of time could help, but I wrote about that in the previous article.

Japan has won Olympic or World gold in the last two years in every women’s weight except for 68 kg. Do you think they’re mad? I doubt it, but you never know. Like Dan Gable spoke about the goal of having ten national champions, maybe Japan women are on the same thought process. It’s been since Dosho won in 2017 that Japan stood on top of the 68 kg podium.

The United States has firepower in and around this weight class , which could set up a really fun Real American Freestyle belt situation for the next few years. 2-time World Champion and 2021 Olympic Gold Tamyra Mensah-Stock is currently in WWE, but only 32 and could maybe return to the sport. 2-time World Champion and 2024 Olympic Gold Amit Elor is currently growing a human, but she’s just 21 and planning on competing as a mom. Adeline Gray, Kylie Welker and Yelena Makoyed are around as well for fun RAF possibilities.

Kennedy Blades went up to 76 kg to win the Olympic spot and won silver. She dropped down to 68 kg this year which appears to be her more natural weight while Elor went back to the non-Olympic 72 kg which best suits her. Blades at just 22 is an incredible talent who still likely hasn’t reached her ceiling, which is tough to type considering she already won an Olympic medal out of her weight class. There is much cause for hope for American gold here even though it may be the toughest women’s weight.

The 2021 and 2023 World Champions are slated to compete from Kyrgyzstan and Turkey respectively. Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan) added a 2024 Olympic silver to her resume falling to just Elor and is only 25. Tosun (Turkey) added an Olympic Bronze in 2024 also falling to just Elor.

Japan sends Ishii to break the curse. She won the non-Olympic world gold in 2024 at 72 kg, and was silver in 2022 at 68 kg falling to Tamyra. That’s an impressive resume for the 22 year-old, which wouldn’t surprise me to see her as a slight betting favorite to win gold if your apps had it.

If betting apps had it, a 5th person would likely be listed in the plus 100-300 range. That person would be Jia Long (China), the 2024 non-Olympic World Champion at 65 kg (and 2022 silver at 65 kg). Even though she’s bumping up a weight, her run last year was impressive with an 11-1 tech over Morikawa (Japan) and a pin in the finals over Zelenykh (Romania).

Pak (North Korea) shouldn’t be ignored as well as Zelenykh at just 24 years old.

Blades is a phenom and a marketable star in the making if she isn’t already. Most believe she has several Olympic/World golds in her future, but if she gets this one, she certainly earned it.