The 25th of October, 2025, will go down in the annals of Sakartvelo’s sporting life and athletic endeavor as a landmark date, when, in the new Sports Palace of Tbilisi, 54 Georgian-style wrestlers representing 25 nations competed with each other, including the host country: Italy, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, USA, Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania, Israel, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Armenia, Iran, and Georgia.
Tbilisi-2025 revealed the strongest athlete of the globe in what we call Kartuli Chidaoba – Georgian Wrestling. This was the first world championship in history in the absolute (meaning no-limit) weight category. The unique tournament was organized by the National Federation of Georgian Wrestling, headed by its president Tengiz (Temur) Khubuluri, retired half-heavyweight judoka, World and European champion, Olympic runner-up, coach, and politician.

The championship was sponsored and supported by the current Georgian government, represented by the country’s Sports Minister Shalva Gogoladze, who opened the official ceremony, bejeweled with fiery Georgian dancing and polyphonic national singing. Together with him, the event was introduced by Necmettin Bilal Erdogan, President of the World Ethnosport Confederation. Incidentally, he is a successful Turkish businessman and the second-born child of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Republic of Türkiye.
During his visit to Georgia, he met with the Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to discuss the World Wrestling Championship in Tbilisi. The meeting also focused on the friendly relations and strategic partnership between Georgia and Türkiye, as well as cooperation in the field of sports.