“Don’t Really Care”: Aaron Brooks Unfazed Over Iran’s Hassan Yazdani’s Big Advantage Over USA Wrestler

Aaron Brooks slayed a metaphorical giant in David Taylor at the U.S. Olympic Trials 86kg finals. The 24-year-old earned wildcard status after his stunning victory as the defending Olympic champion. However, it turns out the 4x consecutive NCAA champ has become a wild card in more ways than one because he remains an “unseeded” wrestler at the Paris Olympics.

Unseeded wrestlers will have to wait until the day before wrestling officially kicks off at Paris 2024. However, this means there’s a chance the Nittany Lion may face his biggest challenge in his opening match. Unlike Brooks, Iran’s Hassan Yazdani is among the top-seeded at the 2024 Games. Yet, despite the disadvantage, the 4x Big Ten champion isn’t losing any sleep.

Yazdani earned his seed after defeating the best wrestlers in the world at the 2023 World Championships. “I didn’t do any of them because I was wrestling the college season,” Aaron Brooks explained. “A lot of those guys wrestled a lot of them, so they got seeded. But for me, man, I don’t really care. Let’s just go wrestle. If I’m the best in the world, I’m the best in the world.” a supremely confident Brooks told the Hagerstown Herald-Mail.

To unearth the root of his confidence against a two-time Olympic medalist, we need to travel back in time. For six years, from 2018 to 2023, Hassan Yazdani was one of the two most dominant wrestlers in the 86kg category. During this period, the only man to defeat the Iranian world champion was David Taylor.

However, since Brooks defeated the Olympic gold medalist with relative ease, he is confident going up against Yazdani. Another factor boosting the American’s confidence is his experience with the random draw. The former U23 World Champion has won random draw contests against the best in his age group. It seems the Hagerstown, Maryland native is poised to make history.

Is Aaron Brooks the next big thing at 86 kg?

After defeating the defending Olympic gold medalist, the NLWC star ended the longstanding rivalry between Taylor and Yazdani. The victory immediately propelled him among the best of the best. Taylor and Yazdani locked horns six times, including their epic Tokyo Olympics clash. The 3x world champion managed to get the better of his rival on five occasions. The only time the Iranian champion got the upper hand was at the 2021 World Championships final.

Now, Aaron Brooks has taken Taylor’s place in the Team USA and the intense rivalry. Logic says if the Penn State wrestler was able to defeat the Magic man, Yazdani shouldn’t stand a chance. However, logic breaks its own rules in combat sports. The national champion’s stunning upset over David Taylor doesn’t seem so uncommon on a grander scale.

While Aaron Brooks is confident that he will defeat Hassan Yazdani, even the Iranian’s longtime rival isn’t sure. The Magic Man himself believes we’ll have to wait and see how a bout between Brooks and Yazdani will play out. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.