Ali Shabani

Ali Shabanibengar (, born 18 May 1995) is an Iranian freestyle wrestler who competes at 97 kilograms. Shabani has claimed the 2021 Asian Continental Championship as well as a bronze medal from the 2018 U23 World Championships. He was also the World Championship representative for Iran in 2019 and is a two–time IRI World Team Member.

2018–2019
After winning the U23 Iranian World Team Trials, Shabani made his international debut at the 2018 U23 World Championships, where he claimed a bronze medal. In 2019, he competed at the World Championships (Reza Yazdani, who had beaten Shabani was forced to pull out of the event, and as Shabani had been the '19 IRI World Team Trials runner–up, he was a replacement), helped his homeland place first at the Clubs World Cup and also claimed silver from the Yasar Dogu.

2020–2021
After the COVID-19 outbreak slowed down, Shabani competed at the Iranian World Team Trials in November 2020, in an attempt to qualify for the Individual World Cup. After notably defeating Mojtaba Goleij, he went on to violently upset the dominant Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian twice in a row to claim the spot, although he ended up not being sent to the Individual World Cup.

To start off 2021, Shabani claimed the Asian Continental Championship. Days before, Mohammadian qualified the weight for the 2020 Summer Olympics for Iran with a dominant run at the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament. The Iranian Wrestling Federation decided that the Poland Open (which took place on June 8) would decide the country's representative at the Summer Olympics, contested between Shabani, Alireza Karimi and Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian. After wins over '19 World Championship medalist Magomedgadzhi Nurov and multiple–time Asian Championship medalist Alisher Yergali, he was defeated by Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian in a closely contested two–point final bout. This result determined Mohammadian as the representative for Iran at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Freestyle record
! colspan="7"| International Senior Freestyle Matches ! Res. !  Record ! Opponent ! Score ! Date ! Event ! Location ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2021 Poland Open at 97 kg 🇵🇱 Warsaw, Poland ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2021 Asian Championships at 97 kg 🇰🇿 Almaty, Kazakhstan ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2020 Iranian Premier Wrestling League 4th as Team Ghaemshahr at 97 kg Tehran, Iran ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2020 IRI World Team Trials at 97 kg Tehran, Iran ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2020 Takhti Cup at 97 kg Kermanshah, Iran ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2019 World Clubs Cup as Team Bazar-e Bozorg at 97 kg Isfahan, Iran ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2019 World Championships 10th at 97 kg 🇰🇿 Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2019 Yasar Dogu at 97 kg 🇹🇷 Istanbul, Turkey ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2019 IRI World Team Trials at 97 kg Mazandaran Province, Iran ! style=background:white colspan=7 |2018 U23 World Championships at 97 kg 🇷🇴 Bucharest, Romania
 * Loss
 * 22–6
 * align=left| Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian
 * style="font-size:88%"|1–1
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=3|June 8, 2021
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=3|2021 Poland Open
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=3|
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=3|
 * Win
 * 22–5
 * align=left|🇰🇿 Alisher Yergali
 * style="font-size:88%"|7–2
 * Win
 * 21–5
 * align=left|🇲🇰 Magomedgadzhi Nurov
 * style="font-size:88%"|9–2
 * align=left|🇲🇰 Magomedgadzhi Nurov
 * style="font-size:88%"|9–2
 * Win
 * 20–5
 * align=left|🇰🇿 Alisher Yergali
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 12–2
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=3|April 13–18, 2021
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=3|2021 Asian Continental Championships
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=3|
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=3|
 * Win
 * 19–5
 * align=left|🇮🇳 Satyawart Kadian
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 10–0
 * Win
 * 18–5
 * align=left|🇰🇷 Minwon Seo
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 11–0
 * align=left|🇰🇷 Minwon Seo
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 11–0
 * Win
 * 17–5
 * align=left| Hossein Shahbazi
 * style="font-size:88%"|5–0
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|December 17, 2020
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|2020 Iranian Premier Wrestling League
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=2|
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=2|
 * Win
 * 16–5
 * align=left| Alireza Safar
 * style="font-size:88%"|
 * style="font-size:88%"|
 * Win
 * 15–5
 * align=left| Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian
 * style="font-size:88%"|4–0
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4|November 5, 2020
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4|2020 Iranian World Team Trials
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4|
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4|
 * Win
 * 14–5
 * align=left| Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian
 * style="font-size:88%"|8–4
 * Win
 * 13–5
 * align=left| Danial Shariati
 * style="font-size:88%"|6–2
 * Win
 * 12–5
 * align=left| Mojtaba Goleij
 * style="font-size:88%"|7–3
 * 12–5
 * align=left| Mojtaba Goleij
 * style="font-size:88%"|7–3
 * Win
 * 11–5
 * align=left| Esmaeil Nejatian
 * style="font-size:88%"|FF
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|January 7–8, 2020
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|2020 Takhti Cup
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=2|
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=2|
 * Loss
 * 10–5
 * align=left| Mojtaba Goleij
 * style="font-size:88%"|4–6
 * style="font-size:88%"|4–6
 * Win
 * 10–4
 * align=left|🇨🇳 Rusidanmu Reheman
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 11–0
 * style="font-size:88%" |December 19, 2019
 * style="font-size:88%" |2019 World Clubs Cup
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" |
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" |
 * Loss
 * 9–4
 * align=left| Elizbar Odikadze
 * style="font-size:88%"|8–11
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|September 21, 2019
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|2019 World Championships
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=2|
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=2|
 * Win
 * 8–3
 * align=left|🇹🇷 Ibrahim Ciftci
 * style="font-size:88%"|9–1
 * style="font-size:88%"|9–1
 * Loss
 * 7–3
 * align=left|🇺🇸 Kyle Snyder
 * style="font-size:88%"|1–2
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4|July 11, 2019
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4|2019 Yasar Dogu International
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4|
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4|
 * Win
 * 7–2
 * align=left|🇦🇿 Aslanbek Alborov
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 10–0
 * Win
 * 6–2
 * align=left|🇹🇷 Fatih Yaşarlı
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 10–0
 * Win
 * 5–2
 * align=left|🇮🇹 Abraham Conyedo
 * style="font-size:88%"|6–2
 * 5–2
 * align=left|🇮🇹 Abraham Conyedo
 * style="font-size:88%"|6–2
 * Loss
 * 4–2
 * align=left| Reza Yazdani
 * style="font-size:88%"|1–2
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|July 1, 2019
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2|2019 IRI World Team Trials
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=2|
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=2|
 * Win
 * 4–1
 * align=left| Hamed Talebi Zarrinkamar
 * style="font-size:88%"|3–2
 * style="font-size:88%"|3–2
 * Win
 * 3–1
 * align=left|🇨🇳 Chaoqiang Yang
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 11–0
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4|November 12–18, 2018
 * style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4|2018 U23 World Championships
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4|
 * style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4|
 * Loss
 * 2–1
 * align=left| Givi Matcharashvili
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 0–10
 * Win
 * 2–0
 * align=left|🇩🇪 Erik Thiele
 * style="font-size:88%"|8–0
 * Win
 * 1–0
 * align=left|🇮🇹 Simone Iannattoni
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 11–0
 * 1–0
 * align=left|🇮🇹 Simone Iannattoni
 * style="font-size:88%"|TF 11–0