The chief wrestler of the 663rd Historic Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling was Yusuf Jan Zeybek, who defeated his opponent Mustafa Tash in the final wrestling.
Yusuf Can Zeybek, the chief wrestler of Kirkpinar in 2023, reached the final after defeating Kurshat Korkmaz, Yildirai Akın, Mustafa Arslan and Hüseyin Gümşaran in the rounds at Saraç El Square. Turan Balaban faced Mustafa Taş, the chief wrestler of Kirkpinar in 2022, who had overtaken Orhan Okur, Enes Doğan and Serhat Gökmen to reach the final.
Yusuf Can Zeybek (30 years old), known as the “tireless wrestler” from Antalya, is one of the young wrestlers on the steppe and has been wrestling as a chief wrestler since 2021. Yusuf Can Zeybek has quickly attracted attention with his physique and conditioning, which has allowed him to become one of the favorite names of wrestling authorities. Yusuf Can Zeybek, known for analyzing his opponent’s wrestling and playing accordingly, entered the final wrestling match as last year’s champion to continue the series this year.
Mustafa Taş, 27, from Sinop and resident of Antalya, known as the “Master of the Grasslands”, attracted attention in 2022 with his competitive performances, taking second place in his first match in Kırkpinar. A year at this height. After the rankings changed due to the penalty received by Cengizhan Şimşek, Mustafa Taş, who won the Kırkpinar Başpelivan title in 2022, went to the grasslands to continue the series last year and lost to Yusuf Can Zeybek in the second round. Mustafa Taş was oiled for the rematch of this wrestling match.
Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, CHP Chairman Ozgur Ezer, Minister of Youth and Sports Osman Ashkin Bak, Edirne Governor Yunus Sezer, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Hamza Yerlikaya, Mayor of Edirne Filiz, Gencan Akın, Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, Mayor Muhitin Becek, Mayor of Balikesir Metropolitan Municipality Ahmet Akın, President of the World Federation of Ethnic Sports Bilal Erdoğan, and President of the Turkish Traditional Wrestling Federation Ibrahim Turkış descended on the private square and wished the wrestlers success before the group headed to the protocol seats to watch the competition.
After the salawat of leading wrestler Shukur Kayabaş, the crowd gave a rapturous welcome to the leading wrestlers.
The two wrestlers, of equal height and size, started the match strong. Yusuf Can made multiple double dive moves from the hoop, and Mustafa made great efforts to eliminate these moves. Mustafa Tash was warned for passive wrestling in the 20th minute of the match. After this decision, the wrestling got a little livelier, and Yusuf Can Zeybek excited the crowd with a one-dive attack, but this move did not yield any results. The two wrestlers, who do not usually like to take risks, fought with no tempo in order to move the match to the “winner of the points” scoring section. With no winner, the match moved to the scoring section. Mustafa Tash was given another warning in the scoring section.
In the 52nd minute of the match, Yusuf Jan Zeybek caught Mustafa Tash’s hoop and foot, drove his opponent off balance and scored the match-winning goal.
