For the 2026 Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam, there are five players who are seeded higher than Japan’s Ryuju Nagayama. But Nagayama has beaten all of them except one, Ishak Ashpiz of Israel.
The top-seeded player is Balabay Aghayev of Azerbaijan. Nagayama threw him with uchimata for ippon in the 2022 Jerusalem World Masters.
Next up in the seedings is Ahmad Yusifov, also from Azerbaijan. He actually threw Nagayama, with drop kata-guruma for waza-ari in the 2025 Budapest World Championships, but in the end lost by hansoku-make after receiving three shidos.
The third seed is France’s Luka Mkheidze, who has fought and lost to Nagayama twice. In their last encounter, at the 2025 Tokyo Grand Slam, Nagayama strangled him for submission.
Just behind Nagayama, is the fifth seed Yang Yung Wei of Taiwan. Nagayama has beaten him a whopping six times. The last time they fought was at the 2025 Tokyo Grand Slam, where Nagayama threw him with sode-tsurikomi-goshi for ippon.
The player Nagayama has not beaten is the fourth seed, Izhak Ashpiz of Israel. They fought recently, at the 2026 Paris Grand Slam. Their quarterfinal match was a good one with Ashpiz scoring first, with ouchi-gari for yuko.
Nagayama responded with a massive ura-nage that was given ippon by the referee but later changed to waza-ari. Nagayama then threw him with another ura-nage. This time it was for yuko.
With less than a minute left in the match, Azhpiz attacked him at the edge of the mat with a hugging kosoto that scored ippon. It was as stunning upset by the 18-year-old Israeli player.
Nagayama may be seeded sixth but a player with his pedigree – a World Champion and winner of 16 IJF World tour gold medals – is without any doubt the top favorite to win the gold in Ulaanbaatar. But could Ashpiz be his stumbling block?
