Jeyhun Mammadov
Azerbaijan's lightweight who ruled the world for a decade
- Born
- May 23, 1968, Aghdam, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union
- Nationality
AzerbaijanSoviet Union- Style
- Wrestling-based lightweight
- Weight
- 48 kg, 52 kg
- Active
- 1986–1997
- Status
- Retired · age 58
The medals
7 world titles (1988–1997) in Russian and Azerbaijani records, one shared in 1997; the FIAS Hall of Fame lists 6
The story
eyhun Mammadov joined a freestyle wrestling class at 11 without his parents' permission, then switched to sambo at the Aghdam school and became one of the finest lightweights the sport has produced. He won the 1987 world youth title and, a year later in Montreal, his first senior world title at 48 kg for the Soviet Union. Fighting for independent Azerbaijan in the 1990s, mostly at 52 kg, he kept winning: Russian and Azerbaijani records credit him with seven world titles between 1988 and 1997, while the FIAS Hall of Fame lists six. His 1997 final in Tbilisi against Armenia's Yervand Grigoryan was so disputed that both men were given gold. After his fifth world title, in 1995, President Heydar Aliyev congratulated him in person. He has led the Azerbaijan Sambo Federation since 2003.
- World champion, 48 kg (1988, 1990) and 52 kg (1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, the last shared)
- European champion (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997)
- USSR champion (1988, 1990, 1991)
- World youth champion (1987)
- FIAS Hall of Fame
- Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR (1990)
- Shohrat (Glory) Order, Azerbaijan (2009)
- Progress Medal, Azerbaijan
Defining matches
- 1988Gold World Championships, Montreal (48 kg, first senior world title; Dimitar Dimitrov of Bulgaria took silver)
- 1994Gold World Championships, Novi Sad (52 kg; Yervand Grigoryan of Armenia took silver)
- 1995Gold World Championships, Sofia (52 kg; his fifth world title)
- 1997Shared gold with Yervand Grigoryan (World Championships 52 kg final, Tbilisi; both finalists received gold after a disputed bout)
Bring wrestling into your sambo: sambo allows leg grabs, so a sharp single- or double-leg attack gives a small fighter a way under a taller opponent's jacket grips. Mammadov came to sambo from freestyle wrestling.
2008–2023
