After surprising the world in 2024 by making it to the world final in Abu Dhabi, all eyes have been on the rising star that is Timur ARBUZOV (IJF). Now in Budapest, he proved that he could rise to the occasion and took the World Champion title, defeating Tato GRIGALASHVILI of Georgia for the second time in 2025 and stripped him of his red back patch that he held for three consecutive year.
I am so happy that this year it turned out to be gold. Going in the final for a second year in a row, I didn’t want to leave without it, I would have been happy to leave with a medal but all year I have thought about this gold and I really wanted to take it.
I listened to what the coaches said, all of this helped me toward the gold medal. I felt confident against my rivals, and we have prepared well for this tournament for the past month and a half, the training camp really got me ready.

I tried to fight with pleasure, but I knew that this year, my result should be no worse than the last year, I knew that I worked and gave a lot. I worked on injuries, my regime, observed nutrition, sleep. I worked on all my mistakes and I believed that all of this would pay off, and today, to be honest I have positives and negatives but now I have the gold medal.
I was 100% in the moment, but in these times when he [Grigalashvili] had to leave the tatami, I was collecting some energy, I felt that I was just growing and I felt cheerful! In the moment, I didn’t even know how I threw, I just felt it. Then the crowd was busy and cheering!



My coach, Dzhambulet Naguchev has long deserved to have a world champion in his hall and I am sure I will not be the last, maybe the first, not the last, tomorrow Mikhail Igolnikov is performing with us, he is also from my hall and we will root for him. We have a young team growing up that are very good with coaches that have devoted their whole lives to this sport, who deserve the medals more than us. They follow us like I followed others, saving videos on instagram, watching for such a long time and rooting for others.
With all of the athletes researching his judo for the past year, he had to come fresh in Budapest, he put everything he could in to achieving world status but attests this as a team win.
What I want to do most is be with my family and loved ones, I want to say to my coach, thank you very much to everyone, to convey because this is a common victory, it turned out, so big thanks to the people close to me, the district club, the national team coaches personally, the national team coach, my father, mother, friends, I will repeat myself, huge thank you too, very much, fans, everyone!

Incredibly, the 21 year-old judoka has a very mature attitude to his success today, and though of course he is happy, he will not be resting on this achievement.
It is nice to win the gold medals and to be in the top but now I have to work harder to stay there! The way we think is that as soon as you step off the podium, you lose everything, you start all over again to fight for the next medal.
There is little doubt in anyones mind that Arbuzov will be on many a podium moving forward and we are excited to see it!
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen