Aghayev takes world number one at -60kg

Balabay Aghayev has reached the top of the IJF World Ranking at -60kg. The list of 27 April 2026 puts the Azerbaijani first, the reward for a spring in which he won the Grand Slam in Paris in February, beating Dilshot Khalmatov of Ukraine in the final, took silver at the Grand Slam in Tashkent and finished fifth at the European Championships in Tbilisi.

The climb started a long way back, as his JudoInside profile shows. Aghayev took silver at the Junior World Championships in Nassau in 2018 and won his first Grand Slam in Paris in 2021, followed by Baku in 2022, Paris again in 2023 and Dushanbe in 2025. European silver came in Zagreb in 2024, the year he reached the Olympic Games in Paris, where Kim Won Jin of Korea stopped him in the round of 16. Victory at the Grand Prix in Guadalajara in October 2025 started the run that has now carried him to number one.

The rival in his own team

His most awkward opponent wears the same flag. Ahmad Yusifov beat him in the Tashkent final in February and again in the bronze medal contest at the European Championships in Tbilisi this month. JudoInside records three contests between the two Azerbaijanis, the first at the Grand Slam in Baku in 2021, and Yusifov won all three (records up to 27 April 2026). Khalmatov tells the opposite story, with one win in six meetings against Aghayev.

That leaves Azerbaijan with an unusual problem at -60kg. The ranking says Aghayev, the head to head says Yusifov, and both will want to be at their best when the World Championships come to Baku in October. For Aghayev, number one is a strong position to defend, but the title he has never won will only come if he finds an answer to the teammate who keeps beating him.

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