Lasha Shavdatuashvili and Tommy Macias fight for the world title U73kg

Lasha Shavdatuashvili and Tommy Macias are going to fight for the world title for men U73kg in Budapest. The Swede is the first Swedish man to qualify for the final ever.

Shavdatuashvili has performed so well in the class U73kg but never won a medal at the World Championships. Shavdatuashvili defeated Bilal Ciloglu of Turkey in the semi final. Shavdatuashvili grew from a European and Olympic Champion U66kg into a mature player U73kg. This is chance on the world title and he can be the fifth world champion for his country. Shavdatuashvili defeated Miklos Ungvari of Hungary in the quarter final, it was a repetition of the Olympic final U66kg in 2012, but now in Budapest for Ungvari’s home crowd. The result was the same though, the 40-year old Ungvari gave the Georgian fighter a hard time but Shavdatuashvili qualified for the semi final. Ungvari binded the home crowd with his performance but lost his repechage match against Hidayet Heydarov, another great match with lots of emotions and Heydarov understood the reputation well.

In the final Shavdatuashvili will fight Swedish Tommy Macias and that man is loose today with great victories Scvortov, Sulca, Turaev and double World Champion Soichi Hashimoto in the semi final. In the match Macias got a wazari against Hashimoto but the score was taken back, but did it twice and that upset Hashimoto. When you are so strong and strike twice, you are in the shape of your life.

Macias is the European Games winner in 2019 but can differs in form with lows and highs, today he is in his best ever form. This is his chance for the world title after defeating Hashimoto it seems he might have stepped over the last hurdle. Macias has to feel that he can win it this time for his country. He defeated the number one seed and done his homework, but has to deliver against Shavdatuashvili. The Georgian defeated Macias six times though and seems to be the favourite. Macias won against Shavdatuashvili in 2019 at those European Games, but on paper Shavdatuashvili has the world title under his belt.

Hidayet Heydarov qualified for the bronze medal bout, finally he is back in his weight category where he was so successful and caught a World medal in 2018 in his own country. This time he will have to face Soichi Hashimoto in the bronze medal bout. Khikmatillokh Turaev (UZB) will fight Bilal Ciloglu who might win a medal for Turkey, the fifth man to do so (Demirel, Tataroglu, Ozkan and Albayrak). Ciloglu won four contests including Heydarov and became the winner of his pool but lost to Shavdatuashvili in the semi final.

Turaev is perhaps not a surprise, although he didn’t have the strongest fighters in the prelims, he lost to Macias in the quarter final and came back in the repechage against Cases Roca (ESP). Turaev is a nemesis of Ciloglu who lost three times.