​First, Ridge Lovett put himself on the map on the college scene when he won an NCAA title in 2025.Earlier this year at the US Open, Lovett put the rest of America’s Senior-level freestylers on notice when he won the US Open and advanced to Final X — Lovett fell to former World Champion Zain Retherford in two matches.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAfter winning gold at the Pan-American Championships without giving up a point earlier this summer, Lovett went into Budapest on Wednesday and took on some of the best in the world at the Hungary Ranking Series event and came out on top.In his first match in the quarterfinal round, Lovett faced Iran’s Ebrahim Elahichouran — a former U17 World Champion and U20 bronze-medalist — and he earned a 9-4 decision win with some crafty par terre and counter wrestling.In the semifinal round, the opponent didn’t get any easier, but Lovett made it look that way. Facing Azerbaijan’s Kanan Heybatov — a U20 and U23 World Champion who last year beat Penn State’s PJ Duke 14-4 by technical superiority — Lovett wasted little time in locking up a cradle while leading the match 6-0 and getting the pinfall.Moving on to the finals, Lovett faced multi-time European medalist Akaki Kemertelidze of Georgia. In the other semifinal, Kemertelidze beat the top-rated 70 kg wrestler in the world Tulga Tumur-Ochir of Mongolia 3-2.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLovett dominated in the first period against Kemertelidze. Lovett scored first on a counter then scored two more on a gut wrench for the 4-0 lead. Lovett added another takedown later in the period, building a commanding 6-0 lead.In the second period, it was obvious that Lovett was essentially waiting for Kemertelidze to shoot, so he could use his elite counter scoring, but Kemertelidze never really made any real attempts, giving Lovett the 6-0 win and the Ranking Series gold medal.Lovett came into this tournament ranked #16 in the world at 70kg according to FloWrestling, but I assume he’ll be moving up that list. On Wednesday, he beat both #15 Heybatov and #12 Kemertelidze (right after he beat #1 Tumur-Ochir) fairly dominantly.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI know he won’t get a shot this year, but Lovett is looking more and more like a future World Champion all the time.