Two of Turkey's top weightlifters came to blows — figuratively speaking, of course — during the Men's 73KG Group A event at the 2025 European Weightlifting Championships. For Yusuf Genc and Muhammed Furkan Ozbek, head-to-head battles are part of the job.
- Remind Me: Turkey's dynamic duo in the 73-kilogram division collided repeatedly over the past few years as both bid for the single available seat in their category; Ozbek came out on top and finished fourth in Paris.
Genc and Ozbek may be foes on the weightlifting platform, but they're both friends of Weightlifting House (and get on just fine with each other off the platform).
We caught up with Ozbek shortly before the 73-kilogram session on Apr. 16 to see whether tensions had eased in the year-ish since each tried to outdo the other at the last-chance qualifier, the 2024 IWF World Cup.
Showdown at the European Weightlifting Championships
"I love having a competitor from my own country," Ozbek told us on site at the European Weightlifting Championships the day before he and Genc took to the stage. "I think we will have two Turks on the podium."
That's not what happened. Ozbek bombed out in the snatch portion, his first in eight competitions since he went zero-for-three in the clean & jerks at the Tokyo Olympics.
Genc, by contrast, looked fully locked in. He made all three of his snatches, finished with an international best at 154, and set multiple European records off the back of his final clean & jerk at 194 kilograms.
2025 European Weightlifting Championships | Men's 73KG
- Yusuf Genc (TUR): 348 (154/194)
- Gor Sahakyan (ARM): 338 (153/185)
- Roberto Gutu (GER): 335 (155/180)
Genc stunned the crowd — and us — by performing a full 16 kilograms above his previous best total, as well as going five-for-six on the day.
If you hadn't followed Genc and Ozbek up to this point, the 2025 European Championships certainly painted Genc as the better of the two Turkish middleweights. For the past few years, it was the other way around.
Genc vs. Ozbek, Explained
Weightlifting rivalries, even within the same country, are not rare. The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) only permits two athletes per country to perform in a given weight class — at the Olympics, it's only one.
In the final months of the Paris qualification cycle last spring, teammates like Li Dayin and Tian Tao (89KG) or Hou Zhihui and Jiang Huihua (49KG) of China, or famously Indonesia's Rizki Juniansyah and Rahmat Erwin Abdullah (73KG), among others, went head-to-head.
Genc and Ozbek competed against each other six times in less than two years leading up to Paris. Here's a battle map:
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2022 World Weightlifting Championships
- Genc: 322 (140/182)
- Ozbek:331 (145/186)
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2023 European Weightlifting Championships
- Genc: 332 (146/186)
- Ozbek: 327 (146/181)
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2023 World Weightlifting Championships
- Genc: 0 (148/X)
- Ozbek: 334 (147/187)
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2023 IWF Grand Prix II
- Genc: 315 (140/175)
- Ozbek: 316 (136/180)
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2024 European Weightlifting Championships
- Genc: 328 (144/184)
- Ozbek: 336 (150/186)
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2024 IWF World Cup
- Genc: 0 (146/X)
- Ozbek: 341 (152/189)
Genc was on the back foot for most of the Paris qualification cycle. He and Ozbek are diametric opposites in terms of their builds and technical habits; Genc is long-limbed and shoots from the hip, while Ozbek is stocky with short arms and strong legs.
- Zoom In: After winning a ticket to Paris, Ozbek tore his hamstring just 10 days before he was slated to compete, he told us in the training hall in Chisinau. "Competing doubled the tear from 4 to 8 centimeters," he added. "I'll make up for it in Los Angeles."
Beyond being two of Turkey's best, Genc and Ozbek have something else in common — they're both a lot of fun to watch on stage. Catch all the action at the European Weightlifting Championships live on Weightlifting House TV, or read up on our Results hub.
