TEHRAN – Iran’s Hassan Yazdani hopes to break a three-game losing streak against his American rival David Taylor in the 2021 World Wrestling Championships.

The competition will be held from Oct. 2 to 10 in Oslo, Norway.

The 2021 World Championships will take place less than three months after the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics, where Yazdani lost to Taylor in the 86kg final bout for the third time in a row.

Yazdani and Taylor first met at the 2017 Wrestling World Cup in Kermanshah, Iran. Despite Yazdani getting out to a 3-0 lead, Taylor stormed back and was ahead 8-4 before eventually pinned Yazdani.

A year later in the 2018 World Championships, Yazdani was up 6-2 before Taylor came back to win 11-6.

And in the 2020 Olympic Games final, Yazdani was ahead 3-2 with only 18 seconds left in the match before Taylor scored the winning takedown.

The Iranian wrestler, nicknamed “The Greatest”, has seemingly closed the gap against Taylor but has failed to win each time.

Yazdani is determined to end the losing streak in their fourth meeting in Oslo.