Men’s freestyle brackets released for Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov International

VARNA, Bulgaria – A group of 16 Americans have received draws for the men’s freestyle competition at the 2025 Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov International being held January 23-26 in Varna, Bulgaria.

2024 Olympian Mason Parris returns to the mat for the first time since the Paris Olympic Games. He is slotted in the 125 kg quarterfinals against Dian Manev of Bulgaria. While Parris is the most credentialled athlete in the field, expect 2023 U17 World champion Yusif Dursunov of Azerbaijan to be a good test in the semifinals. American Jordan Wood, a 2014 U17 World runner-up and recent bronze medalist at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix, is also in the mix at 125 kg on the opposite side of the bracket from Parris.

Past Senior World Medalists Daton Fix and Zahid Valencia, and 2023 U.S. World Team member Chance Marsteller, will be featured in the U.S. lineup this weekend.

Fix, a 2021 World silver medalist, will either face returning Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov runner-up Yaroslav Hurskyy of Ukraine or Stilyan Iliev of Bulgaria to open his run at 61 kg. Three more Americans—Michael McGee, Nahshon Garrett and Devan Turner—are also entered at this weight class. Notably, Garrett teched his way to gold at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix last weekend.

Valencia and Marsteller, who were teammates on the 2023 U.S. World Team, are both entered at 86 kg and on opposite sides of the bracket. Each man is guaranteed two matches in pool play and are favorites to reach the finals against one another. Marsteller is fresh off a gold medal win at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix. Both Marsteller and Valencia were runners-up at the 2024 Senior World Team Trials.

Yahya Thomas at 70 kg, Quincy Monday at 74 kg and Kennedy Monday at 79 kg join Garrett and Marsteller on the France-to-Bulgaria double header during this January tour. All three made the finals of last weekend’s Henri Deglane Grand Prix, with Kennedy Monday claiming gold. Thomas and the Monday brothers will each face a Bulgarian to open the Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov. Quincy Monday drew the toughest challenge in the form of 2023 World bronze medalist and three-time European medalist Ramazan Ramazanov.

2017 U17 World champion Will Lewan has drawn two-time U23 European medalist Andrei Svyryd of Ukraine at 70 kg. Lewan and Thomas will meet in the semifinals if both win their opening round matchup.

Other Team USA athletes entered in the field are Brandon Courtney and Liam Cronin at 57 kg, Elroy Perkin at 74 kg and Eric Schultz at 92 kg.

The men’s freestyle tournament will be wrestled in three waves over the next four days. A complete schedule of events and initial opponents for each Team USA athlete are listed below.

A live stream of the Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov will be provided for free on the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation YouTube Channel. Complete brackets and updated results are available on UWW Arena.