Great Rivalries: Heydarov vs Hashimoto

One of the great rivalries of our time is the one between Soichi Hashimoto (JPN) and Hidayat Heydarov (AZE). They first met at the 2017 Paris Grand Slam. There, Hashimoto threw him with his trademark one-handed sode-tsurikomi-goshi.

Hashimoto would go on to throw Heydarov with that exact same technique for their next three match-ups, in the 2017 Budapest World Championships, the 2017 St Petersburg World Masters and the 2018 Baku World Championships.
This was a throw that frustrated Heydarov to no end and by the time they met again, at 2019 Paris Grand Slam, Hashimoto's one-handed sode was no longer working on him. But Hashimoto had something else up his sleeve. Hashimoto fist threw him with a right-handed cross tai-otoshi, then a left-handed osoto-gari.

At the 2021 Budapest World Championships, Hashimoto threw him with a right-handed osoto-gari.

Then at the 2023 Doha World Championships, Hashimoto threw him with a left-handed cross-grip tai-otoshi followed by a right-handed cross-grip tai-otoshi.

After seven straight defeats, it seems like Hashimoto was the bogeyman for Heydarov. But in a precursor to the year that would be Heydarov's best (2024, when he won gold at the World's and the Olympics), Heydarov finally beat Hashimoto at the 2023 Tokyo Grand Slam, whisking him over with a rather unorthodox sumi-gaeshi.

Hashimoto did not take part in the 2024 Doha World's and they did not meet at the 2024 Paris Olympics as Hashimoto lost in the quarterfinal to France's Joan-Benjamin Gaba